Companies Cut Middle Managers. Now They Are Quietly Rebuilding the Layer
After several years of celebrated flattening, organizations are rediscovering what middle management was for, and rebuilding it under new names.
Leadership
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The Chief of Staff Stops Being a Favor and Becomes a Role
An improvised job created for trusted individuals is acquiring job descriptions, levels and career paths. What it is becoming depends heavily on what problem it was created to solve.
The Rise of the Operator: Why Founders Are Hiring COOs Earlier
Companies that once waited for a crisis to bring in operational leadership are now hiring chief operating officers years earlier, and the founders pushing hardest for it are the experienced ones.
Small Company Boards Are Getting Younger, and More Demanding
Board seats at small and mid-sized companies were long treated as honors. Rising liability, activist attention and operational complexity are turning them back into jobs.
Pay Transparency Changes What Managers Are Allowed to Say
Disclosure laws were written to affect job postings. Their most significant effect has been inside the building, on conversations managers were never trained to have.
The CEO Sabbatical Stops Being a Confession
A planned executive absence used to read as weakness or exit. Boards are learning to treat it as a stress test the organization is supposed to pass.