From Oversight to Coaching

This isn't a coincidence, and it isn't a morale problem you can fix with a survey and a pizza party. It's structural. 2026 has brought a wave of flattening — fewer layers between the front line and the executive suite, AI absorbing the reporting, scheduling, and status-tracking work that used to justify a manager's calendar, and headcount targets that treat "span of control" as a lever to pull rather than a design choice to make carefully. Middle managers are being asked to cover more people, more complexity, and more ambiguity, with a job description that hasn't caught up to any of it.