The Middle Seat: Navigating Politics, Pressure, and the People Who Count on You
There’s a particular kind of exhaustion that hits when you’re not at the top — but you're not at the bottom either.
You’re just high enough to see behind the curtain.
You know what’s really happening in the room you weren’t invited to.
You hear what’s said behind closed doors — and what’s conveniently left out when it’s time to communicate “down.”
You know more than your team.
You know less than your boss.
And most days, you’re just trying to protect the people below you from the chaos above you — without losing your mind in the process.
Welcome to the middle.
You Didn’t Create the Politics. But You Still Have to Work Around Them.
When you’re in the middle layer of leadership, politics stop being theoretical.
They start showing up in your calendar. Your bandwidth. Your budget.
You’re not making the big calls, but you’re the one delivering the fallout.
Sometimes you see missteps coming — and can’t stop them.
Sometimes you hear a new “strategy” and know immediately it won’t stick.
Sometimes you’re forced to say, “That’s a great question — I’ll follow up,” because the truth isn’t yours to share.
It’s frustrating.
It’s humbling.
It’s often wildly unfair.
But here’s the part you can control — and it matters more than you think.
Your Job Is to Buffer, Translate, and Steady the Ship
In the middle seat, you’re not just managing tasks — you’re managing impact.
And your greatest responsibility isn’t to protect the company’s decisions.
It’s to make those decisions as painless and clear as possible for the people who rely on you.
That means:
Translating confusion into clarity
Taking the heat without passing it down
Offering honesty without dragging people into drama
Holding space for frustration without losing momentum
Advocating up, while staying grounded down
And here’s one of the most underrated tools you have: transparency.
Be upfront with your team as often as humanly possible.
Not everything is a secret. And not everything should be treated like one.
Don’t create unnecessary walls out of some chain-of-command superiority complex.
When something can be shared — share it. Build trust with real information, not cryptic messaging. It doesn’t mean gossiping or giving away what you shouldn’t. It means not pretending everything is top secret when it isn’t.
Because when you do that consistently — when you’re honest with your team in the 90% of situations where it’s safe to be — you build the credibility to ask for their trust in the 10% when you can’t say everything.
And when that moment comes? They just might go with you on faith — because you’ve earned it.
That’s how culture gets shaped: not just at the top, but in the middle, in how you choose to show up.
You Can’t Control the Strings — But You Can Control the Experience
You may not have the final say.
You may not have all the answers.
You may feel like a human filter more than a leader some days.
But the people below you are watching how you handle the mess.
And if you can offer them steadiness without lying, context without bitterness, and clarity without condescension — you’re doing more than managing.
You’re leading in the hardest, most human way possible.
Action Required
If you’re in the middle — tired, frustrated, and trying to hold it all together — pause and ask yourself:
Where am I carrying more than is mine to hold?
Am I passing down confusion or clarity?
Have I given my team what they need, or just what I was told to say?
Now take one concrete step this week to lead from the middle:
Have a real conversation with your team — acknowledge what’s hard, and share what’s clear.
Push back upstream if something feels chaotic or poorly explained — even if it doesn’t change the outcome, it builds your credibility.
Give your team one layer of insulation they didn’t have last week. Even small efforts matter.
You can’t control the politics.
But you can control the experience of the people counting on you.
And some days, that’s the most important leadership there is.
