At any given moment, individuals around the world are working in every conceivable context. For some, it’s energizing–a place where people work to make the world a better place. For others, it’s just a job, and while it pays the bills, it’s a benign experience they could take or leave.

The difference often comes down to one significant factor: The Middle Manager. 

Middle managers are the multiplier (or detractor)

It may sound obvious that direct supervisors shape employee experience. But what’s less obvious is just how much they matter. Gallup estimates that managers account for roughly 70 percent of the variance in employee engagement; McKinsey research shows that relationships with immediate managers are among the top determinants of employee satisfaction and performance; and Aon Hewitt reports that when leaders are engaged, their teams are about 40 percent more likely to be engaged.

The data does all the talking: middle management will make or break employee experience, and your organization’s bottom line.

Here’s the thing: managers are no different from your children’s teachers and coaches. A great teacher can make a subject come alive. A poor coach drains the joy out of a sport a child once loved. Maybe your child thought they loved mathematics until they met Mr. Jones, or your daughter loved softball until she was put on Coach Rachel’s team.  And you thought you loved your organization until you met your new manager, Carl.

This is why middle managers matter so much. They shape culture not in the abstract but in the day-to-day reality of working life. They are your chief engagement and retention officers.

From fostering strong working relationships to influencing through shared purpose and collective effort, a great middle manager amplifies the brilliance of their people, while a poor one stifles them.  And yet this work often lies in the invisible and unaccounted for, the ‘tangible’ functions of the role–like hitting KPI’s, and managing budgets and resources–often taking precedence instead.

Many organizations fail to notice this ‘work beneath the work’and instead treat middle managers as if they’re purely an operational role–failing to account for the very real cultural repercussions of middle management. And in our experience, this is exactly where the focus should lie: ensuring middle managers are equipped to truly lead people.

The four priority areas for middle managers

Effective leadership does not rest on a single skill. We’ve found it helpful in our work with middle managers to think of it as unfolding in a sequence. The reality is often messier and more iterative than any neat framework can capture. But as a way of thinking about what to prioritize in leadership development, this progression is a useful one:

First, managers need to know how to build authentic, trust-based relationships. Trust creates the conditions for great work because people are far more likely to commit themselves to the work when they feel safe, seen, supported, and successful. This engagement then creates momentum: the energy, confidence, and sense of collective progress that separates teams that merely function from those that truly perform. And it’s from this position that managers are best positioned to help teams tackle complex problems, navigate ambiguity, and translate strategy into execution–the real determinants of organisational success. High performance, in other words, rarely starts with systems alone. It starts with the human conditions that make those systems work. And that starts with good leadership from middle managers.

Here’s a look at these four dimensions, one by one:

1. Building authentic relationships

While seemingly intuitive–yet often overlooked in the hustle and bustle of the day-to-day work –Nathan Eva and colleagues have made it increasingly clear that your leaders need to be highly skilled at building authentic relationships. And perhaps more importantly, they need to protect the time to do so. They need to be skilled at engaging in trust-building behaviors (e.g., follow-through, honesty) and minimizing behaviors that erode trust over time (e.g., over-promising, gossip). The research converges on this key factor being critical to effective leadership. 

What we’re not saying is that managers are best buddies with their teams; instead, they need to know how to build relationships that endure. As Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic has argued, leaders needn’t bring their “whole self” to work, but rather their best selves. Vulnerability, humility, and showing a genuine interest in the individuals within a team have been shown to lead to higher trust, satisfaction, and performance in teams. Team members want to feel known as individuals. In a world that is becoming increasingly digital, a human touch is a significant differentiator.

2. Engagement through influence, not command

Your middle managers are your chief engagement officers. So what does that actually mean? Gallup defines engagement as “the involvement and enthusiasm of employees in their work and workplace,” and divides employees into three categories: engaged, not engaged, and actively disengaged. According to one study, only  22 percent of managers globally are engaged–a staggering number that has a direct impact on employee engagement. Employee disengagement costs the global economy an estimated 10 trillion dollars. Let’s connect the dots: this is a multilevel challenge. Senior management needs to ensure their middle managers feel supported – fail to do this and disengaged managers will actively damage the experience and perceptions of frontline workers.

To do this well, consider Gallup’s four primary categories underpinning engagement. The first is role clarity–without it, no one is clear on what is expected and what “success” looks like. Second is individual recognition and development. People want to feel seen as individuals who have goals, aspirations, and a runway for growth. Third, employees want to know they matter. In other words, their manager is interested in knowing them, and cares for them, as an individual–a person wants to feel that they’re more than just what they produce at work. They also want to feel connected to their team members. Finally, employees want to feel as though the work has meaning–that what they do contributes to something bigger. This is realised when employees can see how their contributions actually map to the organization’s mission and vision, which drives a collective sense of achievement and meaningfulness. When managers are skilled at fulfilling these priorities, employees are more likely to feel engaged. Of course, this impacts retention, productivity, and so on.

3. Building collective momentum

Our colleague Dr. Jonathan Reams says, “Leaders create the weather,” and managers set the emotional tone and influence dynamics through their energy and enthusiasm. We know from research on emotional contagion that a manager’s emotional state can permeate a team, for better or worse. In essence, middle managers are your chief culture officer on the front lines. If culture is “the way we do things around here,” they’re the bridge between vision and impact. As a result, they’re chiefly responsible for shaping the day-to-day experience of team members, and if they’re not consciously focused on designing culture, then the culture will shape itself.

In our experience, this is one of the most challenging elements for middle managers. When bogged down in admin-like reports, updates, tasks, and follow-up, they miss the opportunity to actually be with the team and build momentum. For instance, building a system of recognition into weekly touchpoints, regularly acknowledging the wins of individuals and the team at large, ensures people see immediate reward for effort. Research shows that celebrating even small wins releases dopamine in the brains of team members, maintains motivation, and fosters a sense of achievement.

We’ve all worked for the leader who forgot to name the wins or say “thank you” for months at a time–no one likes to feel unvalued. This does more active damage than you think.

4. Creating shared purpose: advanced problem solving

Translating strategy into execution is a core function of middle managers that often goes unaddressed. This involves taking the top-line, board-approved strategic direction and turning it into systems and processes that are replicable, scalable, and utilize resources effectively. At face value, this seems obvious, but leaders need to balance process with presence. The complexity is in balancing divisiveness with input from your team. It’s less about having all the answers and more about knowing when and how to elevate the right questions to the right team members. This taps the wisdom of the group, and an elevated sense of shared purpose is realized.

This work is two-fold: middle managers must be skilled at clearly outlining the process for shared decision-making and creating a psychologically safe environment for people to speak up. In our work with organizations, we have witnessed several unique and innovative approaches to decision-making. For example, one organization we work with has a mantra – “say it in the room,” which is their way of combating the “meeting after the meeting.” Another has a norm that they are committed to “rumble with respect,” a nod to Brene Brown.

Remove ambiguity by setting clear parameters around the process that maintains respect and honours individual divergent thinking and problem-solving

When middle managers need to lead

If organizations are serious about people and performance, they need to get serious about preparing the people who shape it most directly. Middle managers do not simply implement strategy; they determine how strategy is experienced on the ground. They shape whether work feels clear or confusing, energizing or exhausting, purposeful or hollow. The best middle managers are leaders. That is why investing in these roles is not a peripheral HR initiative or a one-off training session, but a strategic imperative. Developing your middle managers needs to be sustained over time. Look for development opportunities that don’t just build domain expertise, but that prioritise relationship skills, foster adaptability and critical thinking, and include coaching and feedback so individuals can develop their own leadership style based on their strengths and areas for work. And most importantly, grant permission from the top down to prioritize people leadership alongside operational results.

Organizations that will thrive in the years to come won’t be those that expect task masters of their middle managers, but those who prepare them to lead people into continued complexity and ambiguity with a genuine care for their people. 

Interested in more leadership insights from Big Think+? Check out the How to Make a Leader podcast.