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We continue exploring how a corporate compliance function can use middle managers to make compliance more effective. This is perhaps the most dynamic era for business, with sweeping reengineering, digitization, and agile initiatives that have dramatically transformed the job of managers. Change has come in three dimensions: power, skills, and structure. Managers now have to think about making their teams successful rather than being served by them, coaching performance, not overseeing tasks, and leading in rapidly changing, more fluid environments.

No role has shifted more than that of the middle manager, who has undergone significant transformations. Today’s managers are no longer task overseers; they are increasingly expected to serve as vital conduits for compliance, embodying and advocating ethical standards across organizational layers. A recent article from Harvard Business Review, “Managers Can’t Do It All” by Diane Gherson and Lynda Gratton, lays bare the mounting pressures managers face and underscores a compelling necessity: reinventing the middle manager role to navigate contemporary workplace demands effectively.

These shifts have piled more responsibilities onto middle managers, requiring them to demonstrate new capabilities. The authors found that research shows that most middle managers struggle to keep up. More importantly, they posit a crisis is looming, if not already here, for middle managers. Some organizations, however, are heading it off by reimagining the role of middle managers. This article looks at three factors that have helped middle managers develop new skills, rewire systems and processes to support their work better, and even radically redefine the role.

Despite these pressures, the role of middle managers as compliance champions has become even more critical. Compliance officers rely on middle management to uphold standards and monitor and report potential risks. Ensuring these managers understand and embrace their evolving responsibilities is no longer optional; compliance is imperative.

Compliance professionals are uniquely positioned to leverage these insights. Middle managers, after all, play a crucial role in compliance frameworks, acting as frontline observers who detect and escalate potential ethical and compliance risks. Compliance teams must evolve their training methods and operational expectations to equip these pivotal figures better. In part 4, we explain how middle managers can work to be the eyes and ears of compliance.

Training Middle Managers to be the Eyes and Ears of Compliance

Drawing from these organizational examples, compliance leaders can consider several key lessons to empower middle managers effectively:

• Shift Mindsets from Oversight to Coaching
• The authors pointed to Standard Chartered’s initiative in developing its middle managers as “people leaders,” which underscores a vital transition: moving from traditional supervisory roles to ones of active coaching. Compliance professionals should train middle managers to adopt a coaching mindset that focuses less on direct oversight and more on empowering and guiding their teams through supportive, ongoing feedback.

When middle managers learn to coach, they naturally cultivate environments where openness and transparency thrive. Employees feel comfortable bringing compliance concerns forward and secure in knowing their managers will support rather than penalize them for raising issues.

• Invest in Managerial Accreditation and Continuous Development
• Next, the author looks at IBM’s strategic approach, which highlights the impact of investing in robust accreditation and continuous learning programs for managers. Compliance officers can replicate this model by creating certifications or licenses tied to compliance competencies. Courses in ethical decision-making, risk identification, and fostering psychological safety can empower middle managers to address compliance concerns before they escalate proactively.

A dedicated compliance accreditation signals clearly that your organization prioritizes compliance skills as essential managerial capabilities, helping ensure managers remain attuned to the shifting compliance landscape.

• Utilize Digital Tools to Streamline Compliance Activities
• The authors noted that IBM’s use of artificial intelligence to remove administrative burdens from managers serves as a powerful example of compliance functions. By automating routine compliance tasks, such as approvals or routine monitoring, compliance professionals can free managers to focus on more significant compliance issues, including fostering a culture of integrity.

Equipping managers with digital tools for real-time guidance, instant risk assessments, and compliance insights allows them to swiftly spot compliance risks and report potential red flags without getting bogged down in administrative details.

• Clarify Roles by Splitting Responsibilities
• The authors found that Telstra’s innovative management structure, clearly dividing “leaders of people” from “leaders of work,” is instructive for compliance. Clearly delineating roles within compliance can relieve managerial overload and sharpen compliance effectiveness. As “leaders of people,” middle managers can concentrate on building ethical cultures, supporting compliance education, and nurturing open communication about ethical concerns.

In contrast, “leaders of work” roles can ensure compliance measures are embedded directly into day-to-day operations and workflows. Clear role definitions help middle managers understand how they contribute to the compliance mission, enhancing accountability and effectiveness.

• Foster Community and Peer-to-Peer Learning Among Managers
• One particularly valuable strategy highlighted by Standard Chartered involves creating robust managerial communities. Compliance professionals should replicate this practice by establishing regular forums where managers can share compliance experiences, insights, and best practices. Peer-to-peer discussions can significantly enhance managers’ awareness and responsiveness to compliance issues.

Community-focused approaches to addressing common challenges, such as diversity initiatives or ethical dilemmas, help embed compliance deeply into the organizational culture. Compliance becomes a shared responsibility rather than merely an isolated regulatory function.

Strengthening Compliance through Empowered Middle Management

Once perceived merely as conduits for executive directives, middle managers must now become active facilitators of compliance culture. Compliance professionals face the critical task of equipping these managers to navigate their evolving roles adeptly. The authors’ article provides powerful insights and practical models to guide this transformation.

Organizations that invest wisely in their middle managers, explicitly developing them as proactive compliance champions, will discover they possess invaluable partners positioned perfectly to detect and address compliance risks early. In our digitized, agile, and remote workplace, it’s not enough for compliance professionals alone to manage compliance risks; effective management relies on empowering managers to recognize, respond to, and ultimately embody a culture of compliance.

As the authors suggest, transformative managerial roles are not merely advantageous but essential for thriving in today’s new world of work. Compliance professionals who internalize these lessons and train middle managers to become proactive stewards of compliance will enhance organizational integrity, reduce risks, and strengthen their company’s ethical foundation.

I hope you join me tomorrow when I consider empowering middle managers to drive compliance transformation.

For more on this topic, check out The Compliance Handbook, a Guide to Operationalizing Your Compliance Program, 6th edition, which LexisNexis recently released. It is available here.

We continue our exploration of the role of middle managers in compliance. In compliance, we often focus heavily on top executives’ tone at the top and frontline employees’ behaviors at the bottom, but what about the critical layer in between? Middle managers, often unjustly maligned as mere bureaucratic obstacles or ineffective supervisors, play a crucial compliance role, acting as connectors, communicators, and cultural ambassadors. I was therefore intrigued by an article in the Harvard Business Review by Zahira Jaser entitled The Real Value of Middle Managers, which focused on four key types of connecting leaders and their associated practices. Each has rewards and challenges, but successfully addressing them can help make your business more successful after the pandemic.

Middle managers serve a dual function: leading their teams and effectively communicating with senior executives. Jaser refers to these pivotal roles as “connecting leaders,” vital for maintaining organizational coherence, especially as remote and hybrid work arrangements proliferate. Effective middle managers possess sophisticated communication skills and can adeptly mediate between varying organizational layers, skills invaluable to compliance professionals. In Part 3, we look at how compliance professionals can tap into these connected leaders to help elevate compliance and the strategy of doing business ethically.

Four Key Roles of Middle Managers in Compliance

1. The Janus Leader: Empathizing Across Levels

Named after the Roman god who faced two directions simultaneously, Janus-type leaders maintain continuous empathy with their subordinates and senior executives. In compliance, this duality is essential. Middle managers must understand their teams’ operational pressures and communicate these challenges to ensure realistic compliance expectations and adequate resource allocation. Organizations can support Janus leaders by providing coaching and psychological resources, mitigating the risk of burnout from this continuous emotional labor.

2. The Broker: Negotiating Ethical Solutions

Middle managers often find themselves negotiating between conflicting organizational objectives. They function as brokers, facilitating dialogues that reconcile differing needs and goals. This role is especially critical in ethical compliance scenarios, where business objectives and compliance principles might seem to clash. Effective brokers foster a culture of transparency and humility, creating environments where ethical considerations are openly discussed and valued.

One practical example highlighted by Jaser involved a middle manager named Sumiya, who effectively mediated a disagreement about employee performance ratings, demonstrating transparency and fostering increased loyalty and motivation through direct executive engagement.

3. The Conduit: Advocating Upward

Middle managers in the conduit role courageously amplify their team’s voices, often at personal risk. They are crucial in compliance environments, particularly when ethical issues or potential violations must be escalated to higher management. For compliance teams, conduits are allies who ensure critical frontline insights reach senior leadership. Promoting a culture of psychological safety empowers middle managers to speak up without fear of negative repercussions, enhancing organizational transparency and integrity.

For instance, Simon, a risk manager featured by Jaser, exemplified this role by courageously voicing team concerns to senior executives, significantly improving the implementation of new compliance processes.

4. The Tightrope Walker: Balancing Strategic Compliance Decisions

Compliance professionals understand that organizational decisions often involve complex ethical dilemmas. Middle managers, described as tightrope walkers, navigate these challenging decisions daily, balancing competing demands such as operational efficiency, employee morale, and compliance obligations. Organizations can support these managers by fostering safe environments for critical-thinking discussions, thus preventing cognitive overload and paralysis.

Andrea’s case in Jasper’s research illustrates the Tightrope Walker’s role vividly. As a sales team leader during a transition requiring intensive client communication tracking, Andrea strategically managed her team’s workload and maintained compliance with corporate requirements while safeguarding employee autonomy and morale.

Strengthening Compliance through Middle Managers

To maximize the compliance potential of middle managers, organizations must provide targeted support, recognizing these roles’ intrinsic challenges. This support should include comprehensive development programs, not just in leadership but also in active and engaged followership—empowering managers to effectively influence upwards and downwards.

Organizations should integrate these roles explicitly into their compliance strategies, ensuring that middle managers’ efforts are recognized and appropriately incentivized through performance management systems, training, and corporate communications. This recognition validates middle managers’ crucial compliance roles, enhancing their motivation and effectiveness.

Additionally, investing in emotional and psychological support systems for middle managers is essential, particularly during periods of significant organizational change. Such investments underscore a commitment to a robust compliance culture, recognizing that compliance effectiveness is deeply tied to organizational health and employee well-being.

Middle Managers—Compliance Champions in the Shadows

Jaser’s research underscores a powerful truth: middle managers are not just connectors in an operational sense; they are essential compliance allies who uphold and reinforce ethical standards throughout an organization. For compliance professionals, the implication is clear—by supporting, empowering, and leveraging these vital figures, organizations can build stronger, more responsive, and resilient compliance cultures.

Ultimately, compliance is not solely dictated from the top or performed at the bottom, and it thrives most robustly in organizations where middle managers actively embody and champion ethical values and compliance standards every day. Embracing and amplifying their roles will undoubtedly position organizations for compliance success and sustainable, ethical leadership.

I hope you will join me tomorrow as I explore why middle managers should be seen as compliance’s eyes and ears and how compliance can use this skill to create and maintain a more effective compliance program.

For more on this topic, check out The Compliance Handbook, a Guide to Operationalizing Your Compliance Program, 6th edition, which was recently released by LexisNexis and is available here.