Model Leadership
“Model Leadership” – A cartoon that illustrates that there is still a role for middle management in the age of AI despite the prevailing wisdom to cut swathes of it.
For decades, middle management was the training ground of organizations. Managers translated strategy into execution, mentored junior staff, delegated responsibility and taught people how to lead. But, this brought layers of meetings, reporting lines and management paralysis. As a result, turnaround executives like Al Dunlap built careers by cutting management layers. Silicon Valley later glorified the ‘flat organization,’ treating managers as friction instead of infrastructure. The trend accelerated after Elon Musk slashed Twitter‘s workforce while the platform largely kept functioning.
Now the trend is moving even further. Brian Armstrong recently announced plans at Coinbase to flatten the company and replace many dedicated managers with “player-coaches.” Gartner estimates 20% of organizations will reduce middle-management layers by 2026. As Jack Dorsey, CEO of Block, said, “today Block has maybe 5 layers of management between CEO and IC. The goal is to get that to 2 or 3 or ideally move to a world where there is no middle management.”
But there’s a contradiction hiding inside the efficiency narrative. Research consistently shows managers are the single biggest driver of employee engagement. Gallup found managers account for at least 70% of the variance in team engagement scores, more than pay, perks, or culture programs. Engaged teams also deliver 21% greater profitability and 17% higher productivity than disengaged teams. The danger is that companies confuse removing bad management with removing middle management itself. Strip too much of it away, and organizations may discover they have built highly efficient systems with fewer people who actually know how to lead other humans.
Successful companies shouldn’t eliminate middle management altogether, but should keep managers who can actually develop and motivate people.
Sources:
Nirit Cohen (Nov 30, 2026) -How Cutting Entry-Level Jobs And Middle Managers Reshapes Work – Forbes
Nick Lichtenberg (Apr 07, 2026) – The megamanager era: AI is doubling bosses’ workloads—and the costs are just beginning to show – Fortune
Jaqueline Munis (Apr 02, 2026) – Jack Dorsey and Roelof Botha think AI can make middle management obsolete – Fortune
