"Middle managers and the emotional sponge of your organisation." - In conversation with Toluwa Hughes

At the Inpulse Engagement Summit 2026, Inpulse Head of Marketing Camilla Clarke sat down with Toluwa Hughes – Founder and Director of L&D at Zoah Consultancy – to talk about all things manager action planning. The conversation was packed with valuable insights, which we’ve captured here for anyone who couldn’t make it. 

Changing how we talk about managers in 2026

Middle managers have the biggest immediate impact on everyday employee experience. That theme keeps coming up in today’s engagement landscape – and we heard it time and again on the day of the Engagement Summit, with many of our delegates asking the question, ‘how do we make our managers more accountable?’.

But what if your managers are already doing everything they can with the resources they have? 

During her interview, Toluwa urged engagement and people leaders to change how they speak about their managers, pointing to an organisational problem rather than an issue with manager attitude or motivation.

‘Instead of saying “We want our managers to be X, Y and Z”, ask yourself these three questions:  

1. Have you given your managers clear instructions?

Do they actually understand what they need to do, and are your instructions in language that relates to their role and their team, not just the wider business?

2. Do your managers have the time and capacity to follow those instructions?

When it comes to handling change, there has to be a trade off with your managers. They’re taking on a lot emotionally, but do they actually have room for it? What can they sacrifice in the short term, mid term and long term to help them manage things?

3. How are your managers experiencing that change within the business?

They might not always tell you the whole truth, so observation is your superpower here. Observing them in person or online – their words, their body language and their attitude – can help you infer how they’re feeling and what they might need. 

‘As a leader, you can ask with curiosity and compassion, “this is what I’m sensing, can we talk about it?” Psychologically, empathy signifies support and attention, and even if you can’t do anything to immediately lighten their load, simply having that discussion can enable your managers to feel seen and considered.’

Middle managers are feeling the pressure

Toluwa also touched on the unique role of managers as the conduit between direct reports and senior leaders. ‘Middle managers are the emotional sponge of your organisation. They take on the pressure from above, and still have to hold emotion from those they manage. We’re asking managers to have courageous conversations, yet how they’re experiencing work themselves might not be that great.’

Data from our latest report supports this – showing that while managers remain motivated, they’re also reporting poorer conditions across the board than non-managers, with worsening work-life balance, levels of support and communication around organisational change. 

As Toluwa points out, a lot of middle managers don’t see thethat expected standard of leadership reflected above them. ‘Their bosses aren’t modelling that behaviour in how they speak to them’ – so what can organisations do to help managers handle the pressure? 

Separating identity from engagement scores

One way to help managers successfully lead and own engagement is creating a safe space, where they can receive employee feedback without feeling judged, and have room to process it privately before taking action. 

‘Fear has so many layers to it’ says Toluwa, ‘but all of them start with a thought process. A manager can get an engagement score which isn’t great. If they align that score with their identity – that triggers an emotional fear, which leads to controlling or defensive behaviour.’

‘So even if your manager did facilitate an action planning session with their team afterwards, they might not be listening because they’re coming in fearful, thinking about themselves. That has a very different outcome to someone coming in with curiosity, and a genuine interest in exploring that feedback or learning how to mitigate it.’ 

'We can't solve the problem if we don't first identify the problem.'

Rather than trying to “fix” the problem and immediately look for a solution, organisations should give managers the space to process that emotion. This stops feedback from leading to reactive behaviour, and helps managers to avoid building a narrative that jumps to conclusions.

‘We can’t solve the problem if we don’t first identify the problem. Lots of organisations fall into this trap. They move at speed without a direction.’ Ultimately, empowering managers to lead with empathy helps them to turn feedback into appropriate action. Or as Toluwa says, ‘what if you asked follow-up questions instead? What if you tried to find out how that person was experiencing the situation?’ 

To learn more about the pressure your managers are facing, and how you can best support them, get your copy of our latest report, The State of Employee Emotions 2026-27.