The squeezed middle: supporting frontline managers in 2026

by • Business, Comment

I’ve spent hundreds of hours listening to thousands of people across organisations, and I’ve discovered something troubling: everyone is waiting for someone else to give them direction. It’s an organisational standoff. Senior leadership wants proactive teams. Frontline staff are desperate for clarity. And in the squeezed middle? Nothing but limbo. If we’re looking to grow, recover or sustain our organisations, the answer lies in frontline management skills. Your manager makes the biggest impact on how you feel about work and how secure you feel about your future. If you have to work for money, and most of us do, this relationship has enormous consequences for your wellbeing.

So, as we head into the second half of this decade, pointing towards 2030, what’s the biggest gift we can give our teams? I’d argue it’s creating a sense of vision and clarity through your managers. And it starts with something remarkably simple: schedule and honour your one-to-one connection times.

The organisations that continue to thrive through change, disruption, setback, sickness, absence and redundancy are those that respect their one-to-one mechanisms, whether working hybrid or in the same environment. Why? Because these regular touchpoints create connection.

Like any relationship, you need dedicated time to connect. From a neurological perspective, you’re activating your dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphin responses. Eye contact, in particular, builds empathy and understanding. Think about being in your car and stuck in traffic, waiting to be let out. If you have tinted windows, you’re just a faceless car. If you wind down your window and make eye contact, you’re far more likely to be let out, because there’s connection and empathy.

The same principle applies at work. If we’re just chucking work at each other through email as things get busier and busier, it becomes tempting to cancel those one-to-ones. But here’s the irony: those one-to-ones probably save you time in the long run, because there’s less misunderstanding and confusion.

 

Building clarity without a complete strategy

Frontline managers need the confidence to protect these touchpoints with their teams. You might not have an exact strategy set by the board yet, but it’s still important to focus on what you can be confident about. “As a team, we’re waiting to hear the five-year plan. However, for the next six months, we’re focusing on X, Y and Z.” That creates certainty. Not everyone worries about where we’ll be in ten years, in fact many people are motivated by a much shorter-term perspective. They want to understand, “what am I doing today and how can I do the best job possible?”

This means investing in frontline managers, equipping them with skills to give feedback, have confidence about where to be flexible and provide certainties. I’ve seen chaos in larger organisations when there aren’t clear parameters. Take return-to-office policies for example, where organisations that didn’t give any structure and advised to, “come in for three days, any three days you want.” This approach created chaos because people couldn’t plan their diaries. There’s a sweet spot between enough space for free will, and enough clarity to work fairly when hundreds of people need to coordinate.

Yes, leadership development is great. Values, purpose, finding your true calling, creating belonging are all important. But before you get there, the basics need to be in place. This means recognising that one-to-one time creates connection with frontline managers, and that those frontline managers are equipped the required skills.

 

Five fundamentals for frontline managers 

My top five fundamental questions to ask for managers looking to create a sense of vision and clarity, include:

  1. Can I give and receive feedback about myself and my team?
  2. Can I articulate myself coherently, so people understand where I’m coming from?
  3. Can I be mindful with my language to be inclusive and fair?
  4. Can I look after my own mindset to stay optimistic and positive. Don’t forget that your mood has the biggest impact on your team’s mood. Someone once told me your manager’s facial expression is like the weather when you look out the window!
  5. And, probably most important: Do I have the duty of care to myself to keep investing in my personal wellness and what brings me energy at work, because that role models it for my team?

 

Supporting the squeezed middle

Look at any successful organisation that requires lots of people working in harmony. You need discipline, clear communication and etiquette. There needs to be enough clarity, so people aren’t caught up in resentment, feeling like certain people get special treatment. These things are determined by your frontline managers.

I recently overheard delegates at a training session describe themselves as the ‘squeezed middle’. Those people managing expectations from senior leaders above while motivating a fatigued, disenfranchised frontline team. That squeezed middle is probably one of the most challenging places in an organisation. Training sessions where these managers learn as a cohort can be morale-boosting, giving them space to talk about challenges they can’t share with their own teams.

This isn’t about going backwards to basics, that sounds old-fashioned and wouldn’t motivate anyone, it’s about moving forward focussing on the basics consistently with discipline and care. That’s how we grow, recover or sustain our organisations long-term.

As we move deeper into 2026, the organisations that will thrive won’t be the ones with the most sophisticated leadership frameworks or the most inspiring vision statements. They’ll be the ones that empowered their frontline managers to create certainty in uncertainty, connection in chaos, and momentum through the basics. That’s not going backwards, it’s the only way forward.