Middle Managers: The Silent Risk to Psychological Safety
Description
In this episode of the Manager Lab, host Greg Gillum explores a Harvard Business Review finding that middle managers report the lowest levels of psychological safety—hindering learning, innovation, and communication across organizations.
We define psychological safety, explain why middle managers are uniquely squeezed between senior leadership and their teams, and share four quick takeaways about how safety differs from comfort, the bridge-or-bottleneck role of middle managers, the impact of leader behavior, and the value of small consistent actions.
The episode offers practical steps for senior leaders (model vulnerability, create direct channels, reward candor) and middle managers (ask open questions, admit uncertainty, build peer networks, treat mistakes as learning), plus HR tips to measure and support psychological safety.
Try one simple step this week: ask your team, "What’s one thing we’re not talking about that we should be?" and listen without judgment to spark openness.
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