Unlocking Growth: The Hidden Barriers Holding Your Middle Managers (and organization) Back
April 30, 2025
By Kevin McGovern | Organizational Consultant | Leadership Development | Liminal Partners
In a recent analysis of 24 middle managers, a revealing pattern emerged: the very mindsets and behaviors that helped these leaders succeed early in their careers are now silently stalling their effectiveness—and, in turn, your organization’s momentum.
Middle managers are your strategy carriers, culture amplifiers, and execution engines. But when they’re operating with unexamined fears and limiting beliefs:
Decisions get delayed
Change efforts stall
High-potential talent burns out or disengages
Here’s the hard truth: middle managers reflect the environment created by senior leadership. If they hesitate to challenge ideas, set boundaries, or show vulnerability, it’s often because the system rewards compliance over courageous leadership.
🧠 What We Explored
Through 30-minute one-on-one sessions, we guided participants through a series of reflective prompts designed to uncover the hidden drivers behind their leadership habits:
What’s one leadership behavior that, if done skillfully, would create the most positive impact for your team or organization? (Prepared in advance by gathering feedback from colleagues)
What do you typically do instead of this behavior?
What fear or anxiety arises when you consider not doing your default behaviors?
What’s the underlying assumption or belief that may be holding you back from trying your chosen behavior?
📊 Key Data Insights
🔹 1. One Leadership Behavior – Improvement Goals
87% of participants named goals aligned with four key shifts:
Saying “no” and setting boundaries around requests that impact their own or their team’s time
Protecting calendar time for strategically important (but not urgent) work
Speaking up—especially when disagreeing with senior leaders
Creating space for others to contribute—within their team and across peer groups
These aren’t tactical gaps—they’re indicators of deeper developmental needs.
🔹 2. What They Do Instead – Competing Commitments Driving Inaction
Instead of stepping into their desired leadership behaviors, participants defaulted to competing commitments driven by this needs:
Being liked (71%)
Appearing competent (62%)
Avoiding conflict, or their own & others’ discomfort (58%)
These patterns, while often rewarded early in careers, become liabilities in more complex leadership contexts.
🔹 3. The Fear Behind the Habit
When exploring why they hold onto default behaviors, participants shared fears such as:
Disappointing or upsetting senior leaders
Appearing unqualified or out of control
Becoming irrelevant to the team or organization
These fears are rarely spoken aloud—but powerfully shape behavior and decision-making.
🔹 4. The Assumptions Holding It All in Place
Beneath those fears are deeply held, unconscious beliefs:
“If I don’t please others, I’ll be rejected or harmed.”
“If I don’t have the answer, I’m not a real leader.”
“If I don’t do everything asked of me, I’ve failed.”
These beliefs function as an “immune system” to change—protecting identity, but blocking transformation.
⚠️ Why It Matters
When your middle managers are stuck, your organization is stuck.
Their internal immune responses create real external consequences:
Slower decision-making
Bottlenecks in execution
Quiet resistance to change
Disengagement from your most promising talent
And here's the kicker: these leadership patterns don’t emerge in isolation—they mirror the culture set by the top.
If your managers are afraid to challenge, prioritize, or be vulnerable, ask yourself: What signals are we sending about what’s truly valued here?
🧭 The Role Senior Leaders and Culture Must Play
If you want your managers to lead differently, you must create the conditions for change. This includes:
Model Imperfection and Learning Normalize not having all the answers. Growth starts at the top.
Reward Prioritization Over People-Pleasing Celebrate strategic focus—not heroic overcommitment.
Create Rituals for Healthy Debate Make disagreement and dialogue not only safe—but expected.
Coach Through the Fear Don’t just train new behaviors—help leaders work through the fears and beliefs that block change.
✅ Conclusion: Development Is Not Optional
Middle manager development isn’t a “nice to have.” It’s a leadership imperative. It’s a culture intervention. It’s a strategic unlock.
If your middle managers are caught in these patterns, you can either: Invest now in their transformation… or Pay later in stalled execution, disengagement, and lost momentum.
🔁 Next Steps
✅ Conduct targeted coaching aligned with Immunity to Change findings
✅ Train senior leaders to identify and shift competing commitments
✅ Use Polarity Mapping to explore leadership tensions (e.g., Speed vs. Inclusion, Speaking vs. Listening)
✅ Build a culture where growth is modeled, not just mandated
📌 Source: Liminal Partners “Immunity to Change” Analysis – April 2025 Framework adapted from Robert Kegan & Lisa Lahey’s Immunity to Change
💬 Want to explore what this could look like inside your organization? Let’s talk. Or leave a comment: What’s one leadership behavior your managers are struggling to practice consistently?