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Management & Leadership

The messy middle

Hannah Keal 3 min

How to support team members who are neither ‘high’ nor ‘low’ performers, but somewhere in between.

With a quick google (or better still, a quick search of tyllr!), you’ll find plenty of advice on how to challenge your high performers and support your lower ones to level up.

This begs the question - what about everyone else? Even within a relatively small team, there will always be a messy middle - the people who show up and, well, do their job.

It may seem a bit unfair that I’ve dubbed these people ‘the messy middle’. Team members that fall into this category rarely seem to take up too much managerial time or energy.

However, it can be hard to figure out exactly how best to support your middle performers - or tease out what you should be aiming for. In this cheat sheet, we’ll cover ways to do just that.

3 questions to transform performance reviews

Do: find out what motivates your middle

People pursue varied career paths and seek out particular working cultures for many different reasons, a lot of them highly personal.

As a manager, it’s useful to dig deep and uncover what motivates your team members. The polished answer given during the interview process is unlikely to be the full story.

To unlock more insight, try the following prompts:

When you reflect on why you joined this company - what stands out as the deciding factor or factors? [it may help to ask what other options they considered and why they chose not to pursue them]
What keeps you here?
What has been your best day or week here so far? Tell me more about why?

Once you’re clear on what really matters to your team member - whether it’s a flexible culture, the nature of the work itself, their relationships within the team or something else entirely, stay attuned.

Having awareness of key motivators can help you identify ways to personalise rewards, frame feedback or simply check in within 1:1’s.

Do: recognise strengths

Sometimes the difference between a mid performer and a high one is purely levels of confidence.

Whilst high performers are likely to be more intrinsically motivated, middle performers might hang back and be less likely to put themselves forward for new projects where they could actually excel.

Giving specific feedback and calling out opportunities you think might align with your team members strengths can encourage them to try new things and stretch their skillset.

It’s also important to recognise the value of consistency. Team members who can manage their energy, prioritse effectively and maintain the quality of their work deserve to be appreciated for these qualities.

Do: appreciate the organisational context middle performers can bring

If your core performers are happy with the role they have and the lifestyle it affords them, they are more likely to stick around for the long haul - as opposed to high performers who will go elsewhere if they don’t see progression at the pace they want.

This means that your middle performers build deep organisational knowledge over time. Tapping into this context is not only helpful for you as a leader, but also ensures that your team members know that their expertise is valued.

This insight can come in handy if you need to understand the background to a particular historical decision or unpick a problem that’s plagued the team for a while.

Do: appreciate the organisational context middle performers can bring

Do: watch out for burnout

We often associate burnout with high performers overexerting themselves - but it can impact anyone.

Middle performers who demonstrate reliability may be delegated more and more work over time and struggle to flag when they’re over capacity.

As managers, we have a duty of care to all of our team members - so don’t forget to check in proactively with your middle performers about workload levels or additional stressors.

Don’t: assume growth means the same thing to everyone

There are many different ways to progress in your career - so it’s important not to assume that everyone wants to climb the ladder.

Instead, work with your team member to make the impact of their work crystal clear and collaborate with them on setting personal goals and milestones that are genuinely motivating.

Don’t: assume growth means the same thing to everyone

Bringing it all together

In lean teams chasing high performance, it’s easy to overlook steady team members who don’t seek traditional progression. Whether you want to develop them or simply value their reliability, it pays to understand and keep this group engaged and well.

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