Executives Are Drowning — Here’s How Predictive Success Can Throw Them a Lifeline

The middle management layer is vanishing and it’s leaving chaos in its wake.

If you’ve been anywhere near a leadership role in the last few years, this probably won’t surprise you: executive teams are overwhelmed. The latest Fortune article outlines how eliminating middle managers to “flatten” organizations might sound lean and agile but it’s actually leaving senior leaders exhausted, disengaged employees unsupported, and company culture strained.

Sound familiar?

As companies trim budgets, compress org charts, and strive for faster decision-making, one thing keeps getting lost in translation: people still need direction, development, and connection. Middle managers used to be the glue holding it all together.

Now? Many of them are gone and executives are drowning in the fallout.

But here’s the good news: there’s a way forward that doesn’t involve hiring back a full layer or burning out your leadership team. It starts with getting scientific about how your people work and that’s exactly where solving middle management gaps with The Predictive Index®, delivered by Predictive Success Corporation, comes in.

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Why Middle Managers Mattered More Than We Realized

Let’s be honest—middle management has always had a PR problem.

They’re often seen as bureaucratic, slow, or caught in the crossfire between leadership and frontline teams. But when you really break it down, their value is undeniable:

• They translate strategy into action.

• They coach and develop rising talent.

• They hold the culture together.

• They spot problems before they become crises.

So when companies start cutting this layer to “go lean,” something important breaks. The Fortune piece notes that executives are now managing way too many direct reports, spending more time in the weeds, and struggling to focus on the bigger picture. Meanwhile, employees are feeling directionless, unsupported, and unsure of their growth path.

And guess what that means? Turnover goes up. Productivity goes down. Culture suffers.

Solving middle management gaps with The Predictive Index helps avoid these common pitfalls by putting people back at the center of strategy.

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So, What’s the Solution?

Hiring back every middle manager isn’t necessarily the answer. For many businesses, that ship has sailed—or isn’t financially feasible. What’s needed is a  way to ensure leadership, alignment, and development don’t disappear just because a few layers of the org chart did.

Enter: The Predictive Index®, delivered by Predictive Success Corporation a game-changing solution for solving middle management gaps in today’s evolving workplace.

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The Predictive Index: A Science-Backed Way to Structure Teams That Actually Work

If you haven’t heard of The Predictive Index (PI), here’s the quick version:

It’s a platform that helps companies design roles, hire smart, inspire teams, and diagnose performance challenges all based on behavioral science and people data. It’s not guesswork or gut feeling; it’s measurable insight into how people are wired to work.

Predictive Success Corporation, the leading Canadian provider of The Predictive Index, helps companies implement this powerful toolset with strategy, coaching, and integration expertise.

This approach to solving middle management gaps with The Predictive Index allows organizations to restructure without losing direction, clarity, or culture.

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How PI Solves the Middle Management Gap

Let’s break down how this works in practice.

1. Design Roles with Real Clarity

When middle managers vanish, roles expand. People get promoted into new positions, teams merge, and responsibilities shift. But without clarity, confusion sets in fast.

PI’s Job Assessment ensures that every role whether it’s a restructured team lead or a stretched executive—has a defined behavioral and cognitive benchmark. No fuzzy expectations. No mismatched skills.

Solving middle management gaps with The Predictive Index starts here: with role clarity, accountability, and strategic alignment from day one.

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2. Hire and Promote the Right People for the Right Reasons

It’s tempting to promote your best performer into a leadership role—but that doesn’t always mean they’re suited for it.

With PI, you can assess behavioral drives and learning agility to ensure that promotions or new hires are actually  in the roles they’re stepping into.

Especially when middle managers are no longer there to buffer and coach, this science-backed insight becomes crucial. Solving middle management gaps with The Predictive Index ensures your new leaders have the natural drives to lead with confidence.

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3. Coach and Develop Without Micromanaging

Without middle managers, executives are expected to coach and motivate on top of everything else. That’s not sustainable.

PI helps leaders understand their people’s natural drives, communication styles, and needs so they can coach more effectively in less time. Personalized strategies replace guesswork.

This makes solving middle management gaps with The Predictive Index a scalable and sustainable approach not a short-term fix.

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4. Keep a Pulse on Team Health and Culture

Flattening an organization can reduce visibility and increase disengagement. Teams lose their advocates. Executives lose their insight.

With PI’s Diagnose tool, leaders get actionable data on engagement, alignment, and culture. And because it’s linked to behavioral data, the insights are meaningful, not just surface-level. Solving middle management gaps with The Predictive Index means no more surprises just proactive strategy and people-first leadership.

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Predictive Success Corporation: The Partner That Makes It Work

Having access to PI is one thing. Knowing how to use it to solve real business challenges is another.

That’s where Predictive Success Corporation shines. As a top-performing PI Certified Partner, they don’t just deliver software they deliver strategy, implementation, and ongoing coaching.

They work with your team to:

• Build role and team benchmarks

• Train managers to lead with behavioral awareness

• Coach leaders to grow without micromanaging

• Implement people analytics that support structure, performance, and retention

In other words, they help you succeed at solving middle management gaps with The Predictive Index—and they do it at scale.

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Real Talk: This Is a Survival Tool for Modern Organizations

If your company has lost middle managers, you’re probably already feeling the pressure:

• Leadership is overextended.

• Communication is breaking down.

• Growth and engagement are stalling.

But solving middle management gaps with The Predictive Index doesn’t require you to go backward. It allows you to move forward with more clarity, more alignment, and more trust across the organization.

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Final Thoughts: Lead Smarter, Not Harder

The world of work is changing. Middle management as we knew it may never fully return. But that doesn’t mean your teams have to suffer or that your executives have to burn out trying to do it all.

With The Predictive Index, supported by Predictive Success Corporation, you can rebuild a smarter, more agile organization. One where people are aligned to roles, leaders are empowered by data, and culture doesn’t collapse under the weight of a lean structure.

Because solving middle management gaps with The Predictive Index isn’t just possible it’s essential.

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Ready to Lead Smarter?

Connect with Predictive Success Corporation and explore how your team can move from chaos to clarity with The Predictive Index.

Visit: www.predictivesuccess.com