Flattened, unbossed, indispensable: The new middle manager

To attend the event, please register here: https://go.esmt.berlin/ESMT-Insight-Hour-with-Nora-Grasselli-registration

Flattened, unbossed, indispensable: The new middle manager

Middle managers have long carried a difficult role: translating senior leadership priorities into work teams can act on, while supporting the people responsible for delivering it. Yet as companies flatten structures, introduce AI, and reduce entry-level hiring, more work is falling to fewer people in the middle – often with fewer colleagues to whom they can delegate.

In this edition of ESMT Insight Hour, Nora Grasselli, lecturer in leadership at ESMT Berlin, will examine how the middle manager’s role is changing and what remains indispensable. Drawing on her research and work with leaders across industries, she will discuss where middle managers create value that flatter structures and AI cannot replace: translating strategy into the context their teams actually operate in, exercising judgment, and developing people.

The session will offer a practical view of what this shift means for people in middle-management roles: which parts of the old job to leave behind, which capabilities to build, and how to reshape their day-to-day leadership practice.

The session will be moderated by Mandy Hübener, director of executive education, ESMT Berlin.