“When the roots are deep, there is no reason to fear the wind.” – Shona proverb, Zimbabwe
Every organization loves to talk about visionary leaders and proactive frontline teams. Yet, between the two sits the most under-appreciated layer in African enterprise – the middle manager. They are the roots that connect strategy to reality, culture to execution, and policy to performance. As the Shona proverb teaches, there is no reason to fear the wind when the roots are deep.
As we look towards 2026, African companies face headwinds: inflation, currency instability, digital disruption and constant change. The question is not whether these winds will blow, but how deep the organizational roots go – and how equipped our middle managers are to keep the structure stable.
Africa's productivity paradox
Africa's workforce is young, energetic and ambitious. Yet productivity remains low. According to the African Development Bank (AfDB), labor productivity in sub-Saharan Africa still lags the global average, growing at less than 1.5 percent annually. While macroeconomic factors matter, management capability also matters.
Research from McKinsey & Company and the World Bank shows that companies with strong management practices, especially at the middle level, are 30 percent more productive than peers with similar resources. Middle managers are not mere intermediaries; They are multipliers. They translate vision into measurable outputs, maintain morale when change fatigue sets in, and quietly prevent errors that never make headlines.
Across Nigeria and much of Africa, this layer is often overstretched, undertrained and excluded from strategic conversations.
Why middle managers matter
They translate vision into implementation: senior leaders formulate strategy; Middle managers implement it. Without them, even the best strategies remain PowerPoint slides.
They stabilize the culture: Employees experience “leadership” through their immediate supervisors. If middle managers model fairness and discipline, the culture thrives; If they are inconsistent, trust is broken.
They mentor the next generation: In many African organisations, formal coaching systems are weak. Middle managers act as informal universities where young professionals learn accountability and flexibility.
In short, they are the roots of organizational life, invisible yet indispensable.
2026 leadership gap
As digital transformation accelerates, new competencies are being demanded from middle managers. The traditional supervisor who simply monitors attendance and reports numbers is becoming obsolete. The middle manager of 2026 must combine technical fluency, people empathy and business judgment.
Research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) Nigeria and Deloitte Africa indicates that companies that invest in structured mid-level leadership development record measurable gains in employee engagement, project delivery and retention.
Some Nigerian and African companies are already investing deliberately. UBA Group, through its UBA Academy, operates one of Africa's strongest in-house learning institutes, training staff in 20 countries and running the Graduate Management Accelerated Program (GMAP), a structured leadership pipeline that has recently engaged over 700 young professionals.
Similarly, Access Bank's Project LEAD (Leadership, Enterprise and Academic Development), although originally designed for youth and early-career empowerment, is now part of a broader leadership culture that encourages internal mentoring and continuous learning at staff levels. These programs exemplify how deliberate investment in people deepens organizational roots.
From control to coaching
Many African workplaces still operate on a command-and-control hierarchy. In that model, middle managers act as enablers rather than enablers. But the post-pandemic workplace values agility and emotional intelligence.
Forward-looking organizations, from UBA Academy's internal leadership model to Safaricom's Leadership Labs in Kenya, are retraining supervisors as trainers able to listen, guide, and adapt. The training that a manager can provide builds trust; A manager who simply gives orders promotes compliance without commitment.
barriers to effectiveness
Middle managers often face a perfect storm: unclear goals from the top, unrealistic expectations from the bottom, and limited authority to influence anyone. They spend their days putting out fires instead of innovating.
Boards must realize that empowerment is not about titles but about autonomy. Give mid-level leaders clarity, resources, and freedom of decision. Measure them not by activity but by outcomes – team productivity, retention and innovation.
develop deep roots
To unlock the 2026 benefits, organizations must:
Invest intentionally in middle-management academies that build strategic thinking, data literacy, and emotional intelligence.
Redesign performance systems to value guidance and collaboration, not just metrics.
Bridge communication gaps so that insights from the middle reach decision makers at the top.
When mid-level leaders are trained, trusted, and included, the foundation of the organization becomes deeper. Resistance to change reduces. Productivity becomes stagnant.
As we look into 2026
Africa's competitiveness will not depend solely on visionary CEOs or tech-savvy founders. It will depend on the depth of its managerial roots – the steady hands that keep teams together when the winds of change blow.
A Shona proverb captures this well: “When the roots are deep, there is no reason to fear the wind.” In 2026, our collective task is to deepen those roots – to equip, trust, and celebrate the middle managers who quietly put the system together. In their strength lies the real productivity engine of the continent.
Dr. Olufemi Ogunlowo is the CEO of Strategic Outsourcing Limited, a leading provider of personnel and business process outsourcing services in Nigeria. He is also a regular columnist on employment and workforce strategy.
