While the world’s workplace has been undergoing extraordinary and often radical changes, the practice of management and day-to-day business have been stuck in the tunnel of time.

New workers, especially the younger generation, want their work to be meaningful, flexible, fun, and they don’t want command and control bosses telling them what to do. They want a manager who will guide and coach them, invite them to share their talents, speak their language, and inspire them to be more.

Gallup recently published a book outlining the findings of its largest study on the future of work. In the book is the manager discuss the importance of these middle managers in managing the remote workforce, hiring a diverse workforce, combating technological change, and maintaining employee engagement, all while delivering year-over-year growth and a return on investment for the executive and shareholders. It’s not a feat.

Decades of Gallup’s global research continue to show that these middle managers are the ones that make or break an organization’s success, and my experience shows the same. When you support, nurture, train, and empower skilled managers—those who can identify the strengths and uniqueness of each team member and gain their trust and buy-in—you begin to reap growth, retention, and embed a positive, vibrant culture based on freedom.

Gallup has found that the quality of middle management is the single most important factor in a company’s long-term sustainable success, and I couldn’t agree more. When a manager is equipped to meet the challenges of the modern business world, learns to coach and train his people effectively, and brings an unwavering mindset and energy to the table, the individuals, the team, and the company achieve high performance.

Wharton’s Ethan Mollick, for example, recently conducted a large-scale analysis of the computer game industry and found that middle manager behavior accounted for 22.3% of the variance in revenue. The Boston Consulting Group came to a similar conclusion, calling middle managers an “underserved but critical group” after surveying thousands of employees about the drivers of success at their companies.

The challenge is that few middle managers receive the respect, guidance and support for this critical role that they provide. Middle management is in a precarious position – the meat in the proverbial sandwich – no longer the expert with the information, nor the decision maker. While C-suite executives create master plans, these middle managers are responsible for putting those plans into action and maintaining employee buy-in for strategies, regardless of the pressure to do more with less. Worse yet, the work they often end up doing is subpar (ie. chasing deadlines), unglamorous (performance management and lists), and the recipients are largely ungrateful (akin to parenting). These managers are constantly under pressure from both above and below them in the organization.

It is time for this to change. These managers are the primary connection between the employing organization and the frontline individual. They are the messengers of the company’s broader strategy, the contextualizers for each employee on their team, the motivators, and the carriers of culture. More than ever, your role has become central to ensuring continued success.

Here are four ways to try to lighten the load and stop squeezing and start pandering to your important middle managers:

  1. nurture them – take the time to show a manager that he is valued, include him in strategic discussions, invite him to the executive table from time to time, give him understanding and interpretation of translating strategy into action, help him reduce the tasks on his plate, and delegate more effectively.
  2. download them – Review your reporting lines, documents, delegations, and structure to identify ways to eliminate or reduce unnecessary upstream and downstream interactions. Get rid of unnecessary meetings and reports that don’t move the needle and the company forward.
  3. Support them – provide mentoring, coaching or formal training to help them onboard and transition effectively when assuming supervisory responsibilities. Help them learn skills to build trust, reframe their identity, and communicate, give feedback, and lead and develop people effectively.
  4. Fire them – Don’t micromanage your middle managers, as it can often create unnecessary role reversals for them. Allow them the freedom to implement strategies, engage your people and do the task in the way they choose, and provide regular encouragement and feedback for continuous improvement.

With workplace safety statistics for stress and anxiety rising, it is critical to understand the unique psychological pressures that middle managers face. Conduct regular check-ins with them to see how they are traveling, give them respect, encouragement, and time-out when they need it, and continue to implement strategies to ease the burdens that come with their intermediate positions. You’ll be glad you did.