A promotion to department manager or team leader in a company is often a career goal of junior staff members. It offers prestige, responsibility and – ideally – a higher salary. But as nice as the job titles sound, middle management presents many challenges. “Being in the middle, you’re pulled between different demands,” says business psychologist Andreas Hemsing: namely day-to-day operations on the one hand, and the strategic guidelines of top management on the other. “You’re sandwiched right in between,” concurs career coach Claudia Zeimes. As a team leader, she explains, you’ve got to go al…