The Squeezed Middle – Manager Resilience
Why Manager Resilience Must Be on Your 2026 Agenda
Many of the people supporting your teams are quietly carrying their own load, too.
In every organisation, there’s a group of people who are both holding up teams and holding things together at home. We’re talking about first- and second-line managers — the “squeezed middle.”
They’re the ones translating company strategy into daily action. Keeping plates spinning. Catching the emotional load. And increasingly, they’re expected to be the anchor for others — all while managing their own work-life balance challenges as parents, carers, or both.
We often talk about the importance of supporting working parents and carers. But in the rush to improve policies and design better parental transitions, we sometimes forget that many managers are also navigating these same experiences. They’re not just leading the conversation around wellbeing and flexibility — they’re living it.
And that means one thing: resilience isn’t just nice to have. It’s essential.
Beyond policy: why managers matter more than ever
When it comes to improving the experience of working parents and carers, policy plays a role — of course it does. But policy alone doesn’t shape someone’s day-to-day experience at work. People do.
And one group has more influence than any other: line managers.
In fact, research from Working Families and Bright Horizons found that 61% of parents believe their line manager has the greatest impact on how well they manage work and family responsibilities. Managers are the ones who model flexibility, approve leave, adjust deadlines, hold space for honest conversations, and offer a sense of psychological safety when someone is returning from leave or facing family pressures.
So what happens when the managers themselves are under strain?
The invisible load of leadership
The role of a manager today is broader than ever. It’s no longer just about performance and targets — it’s about creating inclusive cultures, modelling empathy, leading through uncertainty, and being a champion for wellbeing.
Add to that the reality that many managers are also:
- Juggling hybrid teams across time zones
- Caring for young children or ageing parents
- Supporting partners or colleagues returning from parental leave
- Dealing with their own health or midlife transitions
- Managing burnout — theirs and their team’s
It’s a heavy, often invisible, load.
In our coaching work, we’ve heard countless stories of managers stepping in to cover absences, staying online late to check in with team members, or putting their own needs last in order to be available for others. The pressure is real. And the permission to acknowledge it? Often missing.
We need to reframe the conversation. Not as “managers must support others better,” but: how can we better support managers?
From “supporting others” to “supporting each other”
As we look ahead to 2026, we believe it’s time to reset expectations around manager development. Leadership training has traditionally focused on behaviours, toolkits, and strategy — all of which are useful. But what’s often left out is the inner work of being a sustainable leader.
We’re talking about resilience. Emotional bandwidth. Energy. The ability to hold space for others without running on empty yourself.
This isn’t just about adding resilience workshops into the calendar. It’s about a cultural shift.
A shift that:
- Recognises managers as whole people — with lives, pressures and needs beyond their roles
- Normalises conversations about their wellbeing, not just their teams’
- Builds coaching and reflective spaces into manager development programmes
- Offers support at key personal and professional transitions — from parental leave to menopause to eldercare
- Fosters peer-to-peer spaces where managers can share, reflect, and learn from one another
It’s not about burdening managers with more to do — it’s about equipping them to do what they already do with greater strength, clarity and support.
Coaching for the moments that matter
At P&P, we’ve seen first-hand how powerful it is when managers are given space to pause, reflect, and reconnect with their own sense of purpose.
Our Moments That Matter coaching isn’t just about helping managers support others better — it’s about helping them navigate their own overlapping responsibilities, understand their boundaries, and build the resilience they need to lead with authenticity.
When managers feel supported as individuals, they become better at supporting others. They become more confident, more intentional — and more sustainable in their roles.
Make manager resilience part of your 2026 strategy
Investing in manager resilience isn’t a wellbeing “add-on.” It’s a business-critical move.
Organisations that prioritise this are already seeing the benefits: stronger engagement, better retention, improved inclusion, and more adaptive leadership. But above all, they’re creating cultures where people — at every level — feel seen, supported, and able to bring their whole selves to work.
As you set priorities for 2026, ask yourself:
- How are we supporting managers as people, not just as line managers?
- What moments in the manager journey deserve more care and attention?
- Are we equipping our managers to cope — or to thrive?
Because the best investment you can make in your people strategy next year is to support the ones everyone else turns to for support.
If you’d like to explore how our coaching for managers, parents and carers can support your teams in 2026, we’d love to talk.
Book a discovery call: https://parentandprofessional.co.uk/contact or drop us a note at info@pandpcoaching.co.uk.