Feb 16 / Natalie Savery

The Jam in the Sandwich – Why Line Managers Matter

When I first became a line manager in 2008, I had been successful in my previous role, technically competent, respected by peers, and confident that I could step into leading a team. But what I didn’t realise then was how different managing people is from doing the job itself. I made mistakes — lots of them — and it took time, reflection, and experience to become better at leading others.

And I’m far from unusual.

The Management Training Gap: A Startling Reality

We’ve all heard the statistic from the research by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) stating that 82% of people entering management roles in the UK have not had formal management or leadership training — they’re what the report calls “accidental managers”

This isn’t a small gap. It’s a systemic issue with clear consequences. Managers who are untrained often go on instinct, mimic what they’ve seen before, or rely heavily on their own moral compass — which might be good, but isn’t always enough in complex people situations.
https://www.managers.org.uk/about-cmi/media-centre/press-releases/bad-managers-and-toxic-work-culture-causing-one-in-three-staff-to-walk/

What does my Manager do anyway?

Often, organisations define managers by processes — performance reviews, project planning, deliverables, targets, budgets, policies. But anyone who’s managed a team knows that the heart of the role is profoundly human-focused.

I talk about this a lot in our leadership and management workshops and programmes. People still think that a leader is all about vision and people, the manager is all about structure and process. But the truth is, a leader can’t get away without the planning and process and a manager also needs to be able to lead.

For me, a great manager is a strong communicator who brings clarity and who can translate organisational strategy into everyday work. Someone who supports the team to be at their best, who understands the strengths and stretch of their team members, and who coaches them to be better, to grow and reach their potential. A great manager is a protector of wellbeing, a developer of trust and role model for psychological safety.

In other words: being a manager is people work. You’re not just managing systems; you’re managing relationships, motivations, expectations, and emotions.

The Reality of Managing in the 2020s

If managing people has always been complex, it’s even more so now.

Line managers today are navigating hybrid teams, blurred work–life boundaries, multi-generational teams, increased awareness of mental health, and higher expectations around inclusion, flexibility and purpose. They’re expected to drive performance while creating psychological safety. To move at pace while being thoughtful. To hit targets while having meaningful development conversations.

Add to that constant organisational change, digital overwhelm, and economic uncertainty — and it’s no wonder many managers feel stretched.

The role hasn’t just grown; it has intensified.

We are asking more of line managers than ever before. More emotional intelligence. More coaching capability. More adaptability. More resilience. And yet, in many organisations, we haven’t significantly changed how we prepare or support them.

That gap — between expectation and preparation — is where problems begin.

The Modern Workplace Needs More From Managers Than Ever

Employees today are clear about what they expect: trust, clarity, autonomy, development, authenticity, and psychological safety.

Leadership expectations are different too. Senior leaders want managers who can deliver performance through their people, not just to their people — managers who translate strategy into execution while also developing their teams.
This is where line managers become the “jam in the sandwich” — the conduit between senior leadership and frontline teams. Without them, organisations aren’t layered structures of alignment — they’re two separate silos of expectations and outputs.
And managers often feel that squeeze: caught between what their leader wants and what their team needs.

Why We Need to Invest in Developing Managers

If we do not actively support, mentor, train and coach managers, they have no choice but to default to their own experiences of being managed and to their own moral and ethical standpoints.

That might sometimes work — but it’s a huge risk. It leads to inconsistency, unconscious bias, ineffective behaviour management, and lower engagement.

There’s plenty of evidence that training and development does matter. Managers who have formal training are significantly more likely to:
  • trust and empower their teams
  • lead change effectively
  • address bad behaviour proactively
  • build positive team cultures
…and teams with effective managers have higher motivation and are more likely to stay.

And if we don’t invest in line managers — and I mean properly invest, not just a one-off course — then we leave one of the most influential roles in the organisation to chance.

We end up with managers who are trying their best but are under-skilled and over-stretched. Difficult conversations get avoided. Feedback becomes inconsistent. Conflict goes unresolved. People stop feeling seen, supported or developed.

And over time, the results show up everywhere: in engagement, in wellbeing, in performance, and in retention. People don’t always leave because they dislike the work — they leave because the day-to-day experience of work becomes too hard.

Why Getting Management Right Matters

The evidence consistently points out that line managers are among the most significant predictors of people staying in or leaving their roles (Gallup, CIPD, DDI)
A team with a toxic manager doesn’t just feel it — the impact ripples into engagement, wellbeing, performance, reputation, and retention.

You can’t be perfect as a manager — nor should your goal be to please everyone — but there are tangible behaviours that we can see as markers of good management.

Core Manager Behaviours

  • 1. Listening to Understand
    Effective managers listen with the intent to genuinely understand perspectives, not simply to respond or correct. This builds trust, psychological safety, and better decision-making because people feel heard rather than managed.

  • 2. Knowing the Strengths of Your Team
    Strong managers understand the capabilities, motivations, development areas and working preferences of each team member. This allows them to delegate effectively, align work to strengths, and stretch people in ways that build confidence rather than overwhelm.

  • 3. Providing Clarity
    Good managers reduce ambiguity. They translate organisational strategy into clear priorities, define expectations, and ensure people understand what “good” looks like. Clarity reduces anxiety and improves performance.

  • 4. Developing People
    Great managers actively invest in the growth of their team. They provide stretch opportunities, constructive feedback, and coaching — and they do not gatekeep development for fear of losing talent.

  • 5. Showing Trust
    Trust is demonstrated through meaningful delegation, avoiding micromanagement, and giving autonomy within agreed parameters. When managers trust their team, performance and engagement typically increase.

  • 6. Role-Modelling Positive Behaviours
    Managers set the behavioural tone. Whether it’s accountability, inclusivity, resilience, or work ethic, teams mirror what they consistently observe.

  • 7. Managing Performance & Accountability
    This includes setting standards, addressing underperformance early, having honest conversations, and following through. Avoidance erodes team morale; fair and timely intervention protects it.

  • 8. Handling Conflict Effectively
    Conflict is inevitable in teams. Good managers address tensions early, facilitate respectful dialogue, and focus on resolution rather than blame.

  • 9. Communicating with Compassion
    Compassionate managers balance performance expectations with empathy. They recognise that people are human, not just outputs, and respond to challenges with fairness and care.

  • 10. Being Authentic
    Authenticity means showing up consistently, admitting when you don’t know something, and aligning actions with values. It strengthens credibility and psychological safety.

  • 11. Emotional Regulation
    Managers influence emotional climate. Being able to manage their own reactions under pressure helps maintain stability and prevents escalation.

  • 12. Decision-Making with Integrity
    Managers often make decisions that impact others. Ethical judgement, transparency, and fairness are central to maintaining trust and credibility.

Decades of organisational psychology and leadership research affirm that these relational skills drive engagement, commitment, and discretionary effort — the real differentiators between average and high‑performing teams.

So, What Can Organisations Do?

If line managers are one of the most powerful determinants of engagement, performance and retention, then supporting them cannot be left to chance.

Too often, management capability is treated as an individual responsibility — something people are expected to “pick up” once promoted. But if we accept that managers shape culture, influence wellbeing, drive performance and directly impact whether people stay or leave, then developing them becomes a strategic priority, not a discretionary expense.

Organisations cannot demand better management behaviours without equipping managers to deliver them. Nor can they expect consistency if development is ad hoc or reactive. Intentional investment, clear expectations, and ongoing support are essential if we want line managers to thrive in what is one of the most complex roles in any organisation.

Here is what organisations can do:
  • 1. Treat management development as strategic
    Invest in training programmes and development pipelines — before and after promotion.

  • 2. Mentor and coach, don’t just educate
    Providing space for practice, reflection, and feedback accelerates learning.

  • 3. Set clear expectations around managerial excellence
    Leadership frameworks need to define not just what managers do, but how they should behave.

  • 4. Support managers to role‑model continuous growth
    Development doesn’t stop at promotion — it should accelerate. Think of your line managers as your MVPs (Most Valuable Players)– they need to be developed if you want the rest of the team to be at their best.

  • 5. Build psychological safety and trust
    Teams thrive when managers lead with humanity and clarity. You can’t expect line managers to create this on their own – it needs to be threaded through the organisation.

Final Thoughts: What Kind of Jam Are You Making?

Line managers are the jam in the sandwich. They hold everything together. They’re the layer that connects strategy with reality, vision with delivery, culture with lived experience.
But not all jam is created equal.

You can have the thin, budget kind — stretched too far, low on substance, doing the bare minimum to hold things together and made up of more filler than fruit.

Or you can have something richer. A conserve. Made with care. Proper fruit. Depth. Texture. Something that actually adds value rather than just filling the gap.

When organisations treat management development as an afterthought — a single course, a tick-box exercise, a “you’ll pick it up as you go” — we shouldn’t be surprised when managers feel stretched too thinly, and teams feel unsupported.

But when organisations invest properly — in coaching, mentoring, clarity, and ongoing development — managers grow in confidence and capability. Teams feel steadier. Conversations improve. Trust deepens. Performance becomes sustainable.

So, if you’re a senior leader, this is the question to ask: are we spreading our managers thin and hoping for the best, or are we building the capability we need for the culture we want?

And if you’re a line manager reading this: don’t wait until you feel “ready”. Ask for support.
Keep learning. Keep reflecting. Because management isn’t something you master overnight — it’s something you grow into, conversation by conversation.

Because the jam in the sandwich matters.