New skills for new roles: how Middle Management is evolving today
5 September 2025Traditionally, middle management has been seen as a bridge between top management and operational teams. Today, this role is undergoing a radical transformation: no longer just a connector for transmitting strategies, but a key player in driving change, fostering innovation, and managing organizational complexity.
In fact, the middle manager must embrace a role that goes beyond operational supervision: technological revolutions, hybrid work, new customer expectations, and market acceleration are all pushing for a deep redefinition of managerial skills in a new, challenging, and opportunity-rich scenario.
The New Middle Manager: What It Is and What Has Changed
In the past, middle management was mainly responsible for process control. Today, its role has expanded. Beyond managing goals and resources, the middle manager becomes a facilitator, a connector across functions and corporate cultures: moving from task manager to leader capable of motivating, guiding, and enhancing talent.
This evolution is especially visible in the management of cross-functional teams and hybrid work, where balancing strategic objectives with relational dynamics becomes crucial.
So what does a middle manager do?
The new middle manager takes on a hybrid role: sharing some of top management’s strategic responsibilities while maintaining direct contact with collaborators, staying focused on the human dimension of work.
Strategic and Operational Skills to Develop
What are the winning managerial skills today?
The answer starts with a key concept: hard skills are no longer enough. Companies need managers capable of creating value in contexts of continuous transformation; environments that now demand indispensable soft skills. Which ones? A few examples:
- Effective communication: the middle manager must manage complex conversations, facilitate dialogue within teams, and reduce conflict.
- Critical thinking: the ability to interpret data, read uncertain scenarios, and make quick yet informed decisions.
- Digital literacy: in today’s workplace, a middle manager must understand tools, platforms, and technological processes—not to delegate but to lead innovation.
- Emotional intelligence: the capacity to motivate, listen, and manage people empathetically, especially in stressful and changing contexts.
Training Skills in Structured Contexts
How does one become a middle manager? It takes experience, practice, and continuous training, constantly keeping up to date with current social dynamics.
At Bologna Business School, courses dedicated to the middle management profile go beyond teaching management techniques: they focus on developing agile mindsets, inclusive leadership skills, and digital competences.
What training should you pursue to become a middle manager?
The Professional Master in HR & Organization, full-time, 12 months in English, aims to train human resources professionals capable of increasing corporate competitiveness and improving employee well-being.
The first inter-university Italian Master in HRO, in collaboration with the Universities of Bologna, Ferrara, Modena, and Reggio Emilia, this program—one of the few worldwide accredited by EFMD and recognized by the Society for Human Resource Management—is a true launchpad for those who want to become change leaders through the most important asset of a company: its human capital.
The Executive Master in Business Administration, a part-time weekend program in Italian lasting 16 months, is EFMD and ASFOR MBA accredited.
It is designed for professionals who want to strengthen strategic skills and improve leadership abilities.
Balancing study and work is a core feature of this Executive Master, which covers all areas of management—strategy, finance, marketing, people management—always with a focus on sustainability, digital transformation, and entrepreneurship.
Included in the program is a unique opportunity: International Week, an intensive training experience abroad at one of the EMBA Consortium Business Schools—a moment for deep learning and building new international networks.
The Open Program in Digital Leadership, delivered over nine hybrid sessions concentrated on weekends, provides the tools and mindset necessary to lead digital transformation in companies and organizations.
Improving operational effectiveness and the ability to adapt to new scenarios imposed by the digital revolution, while steering corporate change, are the two pillars of this practical and impactful course, which sets a clear strategic direction to achieve the desired growth.
The role of the middle manager has undergone a profound transformation in recent years: from process supervision to proximity leadership, this profile must now be able to read today’s challenges and turn them into opportunities.
The tailored training offered by Bologna Business School through its Masters and Open Programs represents both a path for personal growth for young managers aiming to make an impact in today’s world of work, and an opportunity for companies to develop a capable and effective middle management class—one that can truly make a difference.
