For years, we’ve talked about visionary leaders at the top and empowered teams at the frontline. But in between sits a group that quietly determines whether strategy succeeds or fails: middle managers.
In his forthcoming book The Squeezed Middle, Gary Cookson describes middle managers as the organisational “value zone” – the place where strategy becomes reality, where culture is lived rather than declared, and where change either gains traction or stalls completely. And yet, paradoxically, this group is often the least defined, least supported and most misunderstood in organisations.
Gary was a guest on my podcast recently and we talked about why this is.
The Most Important Role Nobody Clearly Defines
One of the key insights from Gary’s research is that middle management is remarkably ill-defined. It is rarely seen as a destination role; more often it’s treated as a stepping stone. Job descriptions focus on functional responsibilities – HR, finance, marketing, operations – but say little about the real work middle managers do every day.
And that real work can be largely invisible:
- It’s the emotional labour of calming anxieties during uncertainty
- It’s the quiet de-escalation of team conflict before it erupts
- It’s translating high-level strategy into practical next steps
- It’s absorbing pressure from above so it doesn’t destabilise teams below
None of this appears in performance dashboards. Yet without it, organisations would quickly feel the strain. That’s why we only tend to notice the value of middle management when it’s removed – usually during a de-layering exercise or restructure – and suddenly the organisation struggles to connect vision with delivery.
The Emotional Reality of Being “In the Middle”
Gary’s research went beyond leadership theory and looked at the lived experience of being in the middle.
Middle managers often carry significant responsibility with limited control. They are expected to deliver outcomes, manage relationships, sustain performance and support wellbeing – often operating in environments characterised by uncertainty, hybrid working and technological disruption.
They sit between senior ambition and frontline reality. They must know when to align, when to translate, and when to push back. That balancing act requires judgement, emotional intelligence and courage – which are qualities rarely taught in traditional management training:
We prepare people to become managers for the first time We develop executives for senior leadership.
But there is often a developmental gap in the middle – precisely where organisational performance can be at its most fragile.
Sense-Making in an Uncertain World
Perhaps the most important skill that Gary’s research highlights is sense-making.
In a world of AI adoption, hybrid and flexible working, economic volatility and shifting employee expectations, meaning is not automatically obvious. Middle managers are uniquely positioned to interpret signals, provide context and create psychological safety.
Using AI as an example, senior leaders may define a direction of travel, but it is usually middle managers who will:
- Translate that into practical implications for their teams
- Create safe guardrails for experimentation
- Acknowledge and absorb emotional concerns
- Prevent panic while encouraging curiosity
They are holding the space between uncertainty and action, and in hybrid environments – where informal cues and corridor conversations are reduced – that relational work becomes even more deliberate. Middle managers must read emotional signals through screens, design micro-cultures for dispersed teams, and ensure connection without proximity.
As Gary says in his book, this is complex relational work – and it deserves recognition.
Why We Keep Underestimating Them
There is a persistent narrative in some organisations that middle management is a bureaucratic overhead. Gary’s research challenges this directly:
- Middle managers are not blockers. They are translators
- They are not average. They are connective tissue
- They are not surplus cost. They are organisational pressure valves
The irony is that when we fail to support them properly, we inadvertently create the very inefficiencies we then blame them for.
Organisations that want agility, resilience and healthy performance cultures cannot ignore the layer where work actually flows.
So What Needs to Change?
Gary suggests two shifts – one cultural, one practical.
First, a mindset shift. Senior leaders must stop viewing middle managers as an administrative overhead and start recognising the complexity and value of their relational role.
Secondly, a structural shift that defines the role properly:
- Writing job descriptions that reflect lived reality
- Recognising emotional and relational labour as core work
- Building development pathways focused on judgement, influence and sense-making
- Selecting people for middle management based on capability and mindset – not simply tenure or technical expertise
Not everyone should be a manager. And not everyone who wants the title should necessarily have it. We need to move beyond the outdated belief that management is the automatic next rung on a ladder.
The Cultural Multiplier Effect
One of the most compelling ideas from our conversation was that middle managers are cultural multipliers.
They design the micro-cultures of teams, creating the tempo the rhythms, the rituals and the norms that shape everyday experience. In hybrid contexts, this becomes even more important because culture is no longer absorbed passively, so must be deliberately created.
Middle managers determine whether change programmes embed or evaporate, whether strategy inspires or confuses, and whether AI becomes a threat or an opportunity.
If transformation efforts fail, the root cause is often not flawed strategy – but insufficient support for the middle layer responsible for implementation.
A Moment for Reassessment
In a time of accelerating change, organisations cannot afford to overlook the middle.
We are often talking about the need to re-humanise work, about psychological safety, and about employee experience and sustainable performance. Much of that ambition rests squarely on the shoulders of middle managers.
If we want organisations to function better – to translate ambition into action, and culture into lived reality – we must start by redefining and reinvesting in the squeezed middle.
Because when the middle works, the whole organisation works.
And when it doesn’t, no amount of vision at the top can compensate.
You can listen to my full conversation with Gary Cookson here: https://www.hrhappyhour.net/episodes/the-hidden-power-of-middle-management/ – or through the image below – and let me know the role middle management plays in your organisation.
Talent Trends & Insights 