Being a middle manager is akin to filling in a sandwich—pressed between the firm expectations of senior leaders above and the diverse needs of your team below. How do you build trust from both sides when you’re constantly squeezed for time and juggling a hefty workload? This dilemma is a common theme in leadership workshops and one-on-one coaching sessions. 

Middle managers occupy one of the most challenging positions within any organisation. What makes me say this? They act as the crucial link between the strategic directives from upper management and the operational execution by frontline teams. This position requires them to translate higher-level goals into actionable tasks while managing upward and downward communications. Balancing these responsibilities, along with their own tasks, and maintaining the morale and productivity of their team indeed makes their role quite demanding.

Decoding Trust

What exactly is trust? It might seem straightforward, but defining trust can be as complex as a Rubik’s cube. For example, I trust my former managing directors because they consistently deliver what they promised—essentially, they wall the talk. Others might anchor their trust in a supervisor who genuinely cares for their team’s welfare and development.

Let’s explore some well-known trust models that reflect trust’s complexity and multifaceted nature. Here are a few prominent ones:

Charles Feltman’s Trust Model: 

According to Feltman, trust is “Choosing to risk making something you value vulnerable to another person’s actions.” He identifies four key parts of trust:

• Sincerity: Believing that a person is honest.
• Reliability: Trusting that a person will keep their promises.
• Competence: Knowing that a person can do what they say they will.
• Care: Feeling that a person looks out for others, not just themselves.

David Maister’s Trust Equation: 

This well-known formula in business goes:

• Trust = (Credibility + Reliability + Intimacy) / Self-Orientation
• Credibility: Relates to how believable our words are and our expertise.
• Reliability: It is about our actions and consistent performance.
• Intimacy: Involves the emotional safety one feels when trusting someone.
• Self-orientation: This focuses on whether we’re more concerned with ourselves or with others, with a lower focus on ourselves increasing trust.

Stephen M.R. Covey’s Trust Model: 

From “The Speed of Trust”, Covey combines character and competence—similar to Maister’s and Feltman’s models but stresses that consistent behaviour and transparency are key to building lasting trust.

While different in their specifics, these frameworks all emphasise a combination of personal qualities and behaviour that establish the foundation of trust. They are applicable in various contexts, whether in personal relationships, business dealings, or leadership roles, and can be particularly useful for understanding how trust can be built, maintained, or even restored.

Building Trust: Tips for Middle Managers 

Building trust quickly might sound tough, but it really can be done with small, steady steps. It’s not always about long meetings; the little things often make the most significant difference. Regular actions can show your team you’re reliable, approachable, and genuinely invested in their success.

Having had the privilege of working under several remarkable leaders, spent two decades observing and learning from top executives as a consultant, and drawn from the trust frameworks, here are my humble three tips for building trust as a middle manager. I’d love to hear your experiences, too—your insights could help empower middle managers!

Tip 1 – Set Clear, Manageable Expectations for Both Sides

What It Means: When expectations are clear, people feel grounded and secure, which fosters trust.

How to Do It: Be upfront with your team about what senior leadership expects and communicate your team’s needs upwards. Translate goals into practical, achievable steps, letting your team know what’s essential and can wait. This way, everyone feels aligned and trusted in the process.

Scenario:

Recently, one middle manager shared with me that she was handed a new company policy that she doesn’t quite agree with. She is wrestling with whether to be upfront with her team about her reservations about the new company policy or to try to ‘sell’ it as is. It’s a tough spot that made her feel a bit caught between a rock and a hard place, questioning whether she is compromising her authenticity if she “sells it”.”

If you face a similar situation, honesty and diplomacy are key. You might say, “There are parts of this new policy that I’m still considering, but let’s work together to see how we can integrate this effectively.” This keeps you authentic and encourages open communication, turning the challenge into a trust-building opportunity.

Tip 2 – Be a Consistent Voice Between Your Team and Leadership

What It Means: Being a reliable “go-between” establishes you as someone both sides can depend on.

How to Do It: Use consistent messaging in both directions. Stay positive and solution-oriented when sharing leadership’s goals with your team. Be honest and respectful when advocating for your team’s needs to senior leaders. This consistency makes you a trustworthy bridge and helps avoid misunderstandings.

Scenario:

Sometimes, your team’s interests may not perfectly align with senior leadership’s expectations, placing you in a challenging position to balance both viewpoints effectively. Consider my coaching client, who leads the strategic planning team. Her primary role involves developing optimal plans and ensuring their effective execution by engaging multiple stakeholders. She reports to the senior director and often manages high-priority projects that stretch her and her team thin, increasing stress levels for herself and her team.

She has learned to fine-tune her approach to build trust with her team and senior management swiftly. She presents her team’s perspectives, using solid data and rationale to advocate for additional resources or more time. To maintain her team’s morale and trust, she clearly distinguishes between ‘must-haves’ and ‘good-to-haves’ while actively mentoring and coaching her direct reports. She’s also open about her own struggles, often reminding her team with a laugh that she’s not superwoman. She rewards her team of food enthusiasts with special meals to celebrate major milestones—a gesture she affectionately calls her “language of love.” This balanced communication strategy has aligned her team with the organisation’s goals and helped her feel more fulfilled than overwhelmed as a manager.

Tip 3 –  Be Decisive and Prompt with Decisions

What It Means: People trust leaders who can make clear and swift decisions, even when all the details aren’t yet known. Demonstrating decisiveness, especially in high-pressure situations, reassures your team and senior management of your leadership abilities.

How to Do It: Aim to make decisions quickly to prevent bottlenecks in your team’s workflow. If you’re waiting on more information from higher-ups or need time to gather data, communicate this clearly to your team. For instance, you might say, “I expect to have the necessary details and make a decision by the end of the week.” This keeps your team informed and shows that you’re on top of the situation and managing it proactively.

Scenario

One of my coaching clients leads a team with a gender ratio of 80% female to 20% male. She faced a challenging decision when planning to promote a deputy. Both her reporting officer and HR suggested promoting a male team member, concerned that her previous hiring patterns might appear biased and could unfavourably impact her and her male colleagues. This advice leaked, sparking private discussions among her team members.

Upon learning about their concerns through the grapevine, we reviewed her promotion criteria and leadership values together. She affirmed her commitment to meritocracy, recognising that gender should not influence her decision. With renewed clarity, she confidently communicated her decision to her reporting officer, HR, and her team, emphasising that her choice was strictly based on performance. Ultimately, she promoted the most consistently high-performing member, who happened to be a female. This decision not only upheld her values but also reinforced the principle of performance over gender in her team’s culture.

Make a Difference

I’m sure many middle managers have attended numerous leadership training sessions and courses, so some of these tips might not be entirely new. “Managing people is the most difficult part of my work,” I often hear from middle managers.

Think of leadership as your chance to really grow—both in your career and as a person. Sure, managing people might be the trickiest part of the job, but believe me, it’s also where you’ll find the most rewards. Every day gives you a new opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life, and at the same time, you’ll be learning and growing too.

Anecdotally, I often learned that the younger workforce is hesitant to step into leadership roles, deterred by perceptions of difficulty in managing people coupled with workplace politics and a lack of inspiration to foster growth in others.

This presents a critical opportunity for experienced leaders to become mentors and change-makers. How can we inspire and equip these potential leaders with the confidence and skills to embrace leadership roles, not just as positions of authority, but as opportunities to make meaningful differences and develop professionally?

Your thoughts?

This article is written by Ms Catherine Chai – founder of Broc Consulting

Read other articles on personal and professional development: Ten Strategies on How To Earn A Promotion Without Self-Promotion, The Leader’s Edge: Elevate Your Impact with Coaching Skills.