EP #176 Middle Managers Become The Key To Culture And Results

The most frustrating breakdowns at work often have the same root cause: the middle layer of leadership is carrying the weight of execution without the training and support to match. We sit down with Dr. Julie Armstrong from 3H Leadership Consulting to talk about the leadership challenges that swirl or stall in the middle of an organization and why “middle managers become middle leaders” is not a slogan, it is a performance strategy.

Dr. Armstrong shares how her 30 years across small business, nonprofit, and Fortune 100 roles led her to doctoral research in strategic leadership focused on middle leadership competencies, employee engagement, and performance. We dig into the common myth that executive leadership development will automatically trickle down, and why middle leadership is a different job with a different skill set. Middle leaders are leading up, down, and laterally, often all at once, and that multi-directional reality changes how you coach, train, and measure success.

We also unpack what working with 3H can look like in practice, from one-on-one leadership coaching to team workshops to a full-year leadership development cohort. Dr. Armstrong explains the meaning behind “3H” and why head, heart, and hands matter: evidence-based leadership frameworks, people-first purpose, and practical tools leaders can apply on Monday morning.

If you care about organizational culture, change management, clearer communication, and better results, this conversation will give you a sharper lens and a more usable path forward. Subscribe for more local stories and leadership insights, share this with a leader on your team, and leave a review with the biggest middle leadership challenge you are seeing right now.

Dr. Julie Armstrong

3H Leadership Consulting

3hleadership.com

julie@3hleadership.com

(919) 215-6845

Transcript

Welcome And Meet Dr. Armstrong

Speaker 1 0:01

This is the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Dori Stewart.

Speaker 0:13

Welcome back to another episode of the FXBG Neighbors Podcast, where we share the stories of our favorite local brands. I'm excited to introduce you to my guest today. We've got Dr. Julie Armstrong joining us. She is with 3H Leadership Consulting. Dr. Armstrong, welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 2 0:33

Good morning, Dori. It's so good to be with you today.

Speaker 0:36

I am so excited for this and excited to learn more about you and your business. So let's start there.

What 3H Leadership Consulting Does

Speaker 0:43

Share with us what is 3H Leadership Consulting.

Speaker 2 0:46

Absolutely. Thank you. 3H Leadership Consulting is a boutique leadership consulting firm. And we really help organizations solve their leadership problems. Especially they're in the middle of the organization where sometimes things start to swirl or maybe stall out a little bit. That's particularly where my sweet spot is, really helping middle managers become middle leaders. That's where the unrealized potential becomes impact.

Speaker 1:28

Amazing. So what does that look like in a practical sense? A business, you know, wants to work with you, you go into the company. Is it um uh, you know, obviously educational? Is it one-on-one? Talk to me a little bit about that process.

Speaker 2 1:45

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, the very first thing that we'll do is make sure that we're really clear on the problem that we're solving and the desired outcome that we're working toward together. So getting those two things right first is really important. And then from there, it might look like one-on-one leadership coaching. It might look like doing some team workshops together, either one at a time or a series of them. It might even look like engaging in a full year of a leadership development cohort where we bring a group of leaders together and do a full learning curriculum over the course of a year.

Speaker 2:34

Amazing. What a great asset you are to companies to bring you in as you know, kind of an extension of their team and really help them get to the next level. Because I imagine sometimes that's hard to do from within the company. So it's nice to have you know the outsider coming in.

Speaker 2 2:54

You know, it really can be. And I've done it both ways. I've done this kind of work from inside a company, and of course, now doing it outside as a consultant. And the outside perspective really is helpful. It's that, you know, fresh lens. Um, and then sometimes just a little bit more of an objective viewpoint in order to be able to sometimes say things that are challenging or articulate a problem that maybe folks have been sensing, perceiving, and feeling, but haven't quite been able to put the words to.

Speaker 3:39

That makes sense. So talk

From Marketing Leader To Doctorate

Speaker 3:41

to me a little bit about your background. What is uh, how did you get into this? Tell me, tell me your backstory.

Speaker 2 3:49

Yeah, absolutely. So I have 30 years of business experience across small business, nonprofit, and Fortune 100 corporate. And so just a wealth, a variety of experience to draw from. Um, and then around 2015, 2016, I was leading um a digital marketing agency and was really sensing um a shift in my own passions in terms of really guiding and shaping the work to guiding and shaping the people doing the work. And that's where my love for leadership and learning the science of leadership really came alive. And so I went back to grad school and got a master's degree in executive leadership, and then decided to go even further and pursued a doctorate in strategic leadership. And it was during that time that that um grad school that I really became interested, in particular, in this idea of middle leadership. The data and the research were really compelling about how significant the middle leaders are, that middle of the leadership hierarchy in terms of driving culture, productivity, engagement, and ultimately results. And so I decided to focus my doctoral research in that area and really spent, you know, the better part of two years researching the question: what are the leadership competencies that middle managers need to perform as middle leaders? And how does that impact employee engagement and performance? And I became so convinced by the existing research, my own research and really my own lived experience over the course of my career as both a middle manager and then also as an executive leader, that this is the missing piece in most organizations, especially when it comes to consistent communication, change, and culture, that I decided to really devote the majority of my own consultancy to this work.

Speaker 6:15

Amazing. I love how you figured out how to niche down and find who you can really help the most. So, congratulations on finding that. Um I can tell that it lights you up.

Speaker 2 6:32

It does, it really does. Um, and part of the reason it lights me up is because it's missing in the marketplace. It's so impactful. There are so many resources, leadership development resources for executives, and that's good and it's right, and that's necessary. But middle leadership is different. It's a different set of responsibilities, it's a different set of results that they are responsible for, and it's a different set of skills. And there are very few rigorous resources available for truly developing middle leadership.

Speaker 7:14

Interesting.

Myths About Middle Leadership Training

Speaker 7:15

Do you find that there are any myths or misconceptions about what you do?

Speaker 2 7:21

Yeah, there are. There really are quite a number. And one of them is what uh kind of I started to mention just a minute ago. And that's that executive leadership, if we just train our executives, it that'll trickle down to your to your middle managers. And it just doesn't happen that way. Um, usually for a couple of reasons. One is just simply the constraint of time. Our executives are incredibly busy, incredibly time constrained. And the the the amount of time and um focused investment that is needed to really develop a middle manager into a middle leader just extends beyond what most executives have available to them. But again, the second myth really is that it's you know the same set of skills. And so if you train an executive, you can train a middle leader. And um, it really is a unique set of again, responsibilities and skills that are present there in the middle of the leadership hierarchy. And um, and the other piece of it is not only the skills are unique, but part of just positionally where middle leaders sit in that hierarchy, every skill is multi-directional. So they are leading up, down, and laterally in the organization, often simultaneously. And that is just a different approach that we take when we're training middle leaders than when we are developing executives.

Speaker 8:52

It does seem like a very challenging position to be in. Um, so what is something that maybe a message that you want middle leaders to know?

Speaker 2 9:03

You are not imagining how hard your job is. It is truly a um an incredibly challenging role. It is often misunderstood, and it is incredibly impactful. Um, most organizations, the middle leader is 50 to 60 percent of their leadership hierarchy is there in the middle. And so collectively, this is actually your largest collective influence in your entire organization. So the message to middle leaders is you're not making it up. It's hard, it's complex, um, and it's incredibly impactful. But the message to executives is don't overlook developing your middle leaders. This truly is your opportunity to unlock that untapped potential in your organization, especially again if communication change and culture are inconsistent or stalling out or getting stuck, it's most likely happening in the middle of your organization. And we can unlock that by really developing those middle leaders.

Speaker 10:20

Amazing. Amazing. Such a strong message. And I see where your services can be incredibly valuable to an organization.

Speaker 2 10:29

Thank you. Yes, and there is no organization too small or too large that won't benefit from it. Every organization has middle leaders.

Speaker 10:39

That's good to know. That's good to know.

Life In Fredericksburg Outside Work

Speaker 10:42

So clearly, you work very hard. When you are not working in your business, what are you doing for fun?

Speaker 2 10:48

Ah, especially this time of year where it's warming up. Um, I am absolutely just a summer girl, love the warm weather. So we are sitting on our front porch or sitting on our patio with family and friends, or coming to downtown Fredericksburg. We come almost every week and you know, walk Caroline Street, go through the shops, go to restaurants. Um, yeah, that is what we really enjoy doing for fun.

Speaker 11:17

Amazing. Yeah, downtown Fredericksburg just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?

Speaker 2 11:22

You know, I went to Mary Washington College 30 years ago.

Speaker 1 11:26

Oh, wow.

Speaker 2 11:27

And downtown Fredericksburg is today is very different than it was 30 years ago. And it has been an absolute delight to come back in the last four years since we have been back in Fredericksburg to see how it has just come alive and is such a vibrant place to be.

Speaker 11:47

Yes, that says a lot coming from you. You've seen it all. Yeah, yeah.

Head Heart Hands And How To Connect

Speaker 11:53

So, what is something that you wish the listeners knew about 3H leadership consulting?

Speaker 2 12:00

You know, one of the questions that I get most frequently is what does the 3H stand for? And it stands for head, heart, and hands. And so what you will get when you engage 3H leadership is just that. You will get leadership and leadership development that is rigorously researched. It is grounded in data, best practices, and evidence-based research and frameworks. Um, and so we want it to be incredibly thoughtful and strategic, but it's going to be passionately purposed. Um, people are the heart of your organization. And there is no leadership that does not involve people. And so we are people first and truly believe that when everyone is driving at work, your organization will succeed. But it's got to be practical. That's where the hands come in. So often, leadership development is smart, but there's a lot of knowledge that's transferred and it might be incredibly inspiring, but it falls short of really teaching how to do what it is that is being taught. And so one of my commitments is to always make leadership development practical. I want you to know that when you go back to your office on Monday, you can begin practicing what it is that we are teaching. And so it will, again, hit all three of those areas, head, heart, and hands.

Speaker 13:44

I love that so much. I love that you have put the entire philosophy around everything that you do in the name of your business. That's so smart. I love it.

Speaker 2 13:54

Thank you. Thank you. And I truly believe it.

Speaker 13:58

I feel that. I feel that from you. So if the listeners want to connect with you, learn more from you, work with you, where can they find you?

Speaker 2 14:07

3hleadership.com is a website where you can find us, or you can reach out to me directly at Julie at 3hleadership.com.

Speaker 14:17

Amazing. Dr. Julie Armstrong, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today. Congratulations on all your success.

Speaker 1 14:25

Thank you, Dori. Thank you for listening to the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast.

Nominate A Local Business

Speaker 1 14:31

To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to FXBG Neighbors Podcast.com.