Leading from the Middle: How to be a Sandwich and Not Get Eaten Alive

Many of you are leaders, you are over people, but you also have a boss. You are over and you are under; you are in the middle. You are a sandwich leader. When people think of leadership the image that often comes to mind is the CEO, President of the Organization, Senior Pastor, etc. But the reality is that most leadership happens away from the top. Mid-level leaders are the ones who get things done. Leading from the middle means influencing teams, departments, or even entire organizations when you are not the ultimate decision-maker. It is about creating impact, fostering collaboration, and championing change—even when you do not have formal authority.

Understanding Leadership from the Middle

Middle leaders occupy a unique space. They are sandwiched between upper management and frontline employees and sometimes you may feel like you are being eaten alive by one or the other, or both.

Mid-level leaders are translating strategy into action and navigating the complexities of competing priorities. Their position offers both challenges and opportunities: they must support the vision of those above while advocating for those below. This balancing act requires agility, empathy, and a keen sense of organizational dynamics.

The Challenges of Leading from the Middle

Leading without direct authority presents several hurdles. You may not have the power to make sweeping decisions or set strategic directions, but you are expected to deliver results. Often mid-level leaders take heat from both ends…above and below. You often get conflicting messages:

“We want you to keep costs down but give us more results.” 

“We have to lay off 10% of our staff but we expect the same results and we want you to keep morale high at the same time.”

Additionally, you might encounter resistance from peers or subordinates who do not see you as “the boss.” Navigating these waters calls for emotional intelligence, resilience, and a willingness to influence through persuasion rather than command.

Three Things Mid-level Leaders Need to do Well.

To successfully lead from the middle, you have three roles you have to do well. You need to think of yourself as a translator, a coach, and a scorekeeper.

Be a Translator

If you are a mid-level leader you translate the organizational vision into achievable steps and systems that accomplish the desired goals. Whether you have input or not into the mission/vision (hopefully you do) it falls to you to take those goals and break them down into doable tasks. Inevitably the Boss gives you a goal and when you take it to your team they think, “Well, that’s unreasonable.”  Your task is to close the gap between the two sides.

Here is what you do. Your organization has a what. It is the mission, it is the goal, the objectives. We also know that your team very, very quickly can forget the why, why we do what we do, and the what over time might start losing appeal, so as a great mid-level leader, you close the gap. What you do is translate the objective into doable steps. You keep the why front and center. Here is why what we are doing matters. You are the translator bringing context to the organizational goals and objectives.

As a leader you are translating down but you are also translating up. You are also leading up to those who are above you. Here is what your boss will often do. Your boss does not understand a lot of times what it takes to accomplish the vision downstream.

I find myself suggesting things to our Leadership Team thinking, “This can’t be too hard to accomplish.”  Then they translate it into the real world. “Ron, you have no idea how many steps we have to do to get that done. It’s more complicated than you imagine and here is why….”  Your job as a mid-level leader is to provide context for those above you that they often are missing.

You are translating both up and down.

Be a Coach

Second, you need to be the coach. Odds are you came up the ladder to mid-level leadership. You have been in the game. You have been on the front lines and now you are the one who is helping others succeed. A coach is one who wants to help the players succeed, and when the players succeed, the whole team wins.

What do great coaches do? They recruit talent, they build the team and develop the people around them. Coaches make the people around them better. You are recruiting, you are training, you are empowering people and you are releasing a dream team to do what you have translated from senior management into the organization.

But you are not just coaching down. You are also, and this is incredibly important, you are coaching the leaders that are above you. You are coaching your boss. Now the reality is they probably don’t know you are coaching them.

There is an art to coaching up. Learn to influence those above you. Present solutions, not just problems; align your efforts with organizational goals; and show how your team’s work supports the bigger picture. Speak frankly and honestly, giving them real feedback because too often no one else will. You are not just coaching down but gently coaching up.

Leading from the middle often means inspiring change from within. To do this, focus on building relationships and finding common ground. Use storytelling and data to make your case and demonstrate how proposed changes benefit both the team and the organization. Be persistent but patient—change rarely happens overnight, especially when initiated by those without formal power.

Be the Scorekeeper

The third thing great mid-level leaders need to do is be the Scorekeeper. You are creating the systems, you are creating the structure, you are creating the accountability to maximize everyone’s gifts toward the mission and you keep score.

Now what does that mean? Very simply it means you are constantly measuring effective execution against the defined objectives. Are we putting points on the board? Are we moving the ball down the field?

You are building helpful accountability into the daily workflow. You are helping your team to know the score at all times. Here is how we are doing, here is where we stand.

Peter Drucker said this. He said, “What gets measured gets improved.”

You are the scorekeeper, you are measuring. Here is where we are, here is what is important, here is what we have done, here is what we have got to do, here are the systems, here is the accountability.

If you are not keeping score how does anyone know if you are winning?

Conclusion

You are simultaneously the translator, the coach and the scorekeeper, and you are focused on creating the culture, building morale, and getting results. As you reflect on these three roles which do you think you are best at? Which is the one you need to work on? Great leaders are constantly growing. What can you do to improve in one or more of these critical roles?

Leadership is not confined to titles or positions. Leading from the middle is about using influence, relationships, and expertise to move teams and organizations forward. Whether you are a project manager, supervisor, or team leader, your impact can be profound. By embracing the challenges and opportunities of middle leadership, you can become a catalyst for progress—one conversation, collaboration, and initiative at a time.