I’ve been coaching leaders in Sweden and Denmark for over a decade. In that time I’ve sat in hundreds of rooms where executives described what was broken in their organization. And then I’ve sat with the middle managers who were expected to fix it.
What I can tell you is that these two groups almost never see the same problem.
The executive looks at the organization and sees the six-pack. The visible stuff. The strategy is clear. The structure makes sense. The numbers look right, or close enough. The talent is there. From that vantage point, the core looks fine.
The middle manager lives inside the actual core. They feel the instability that the surface doesn’t show. They know which priorities are unclear, which teams are pulling in different directions, which commitments are hollow, which conversations aren’t happening. They experience weakness every day, in ways that never make it onto a slide deck.
Both groups are seeing something real. They just occupy different positions in the same system, and the view from those positions creates a gap that nobody talks about openly. (Even in Nordic companies, where we pride ourselves on openness and flat hierarchies. Sometimes especially there.)
The gap is structural. Not personal. And it shows up in six specific places.
I call them the six muscles of the organizational core. The metaphor holds: weaken any one of these and the others compensate, strain, and eventually fail. You don’t get to pick which ones matter. They all do.
Here’s what they are, and what they look like when they’re weak.
The Clarity Gap. When “figure it out” becomes the operating model. The executive says: “They’re not strategic enough.” The middle manager says: “I was never told what the actual priority is.” Strategy was communicated once, in a town hall, in language designed for the board. Nobody checked whether it arrived at the level where it needs to become action.
The Alignment Gap. When effort doesn’t turn into outcomes. The executive says: “They’re not aligned.” The middle manager says: “Every department is pulling in a different direction and nobody will name it.” Teams are capable and committed. But priorities collide and the trade-offs stay invisible.
The Accountability Gap. When responsibility outpaces authority. The executive says: “They need to step up.” The middle manager says: “I own the result but I don’t own any of the decisions that determine it.” Accountability without agency isn’t accountability. It’s a setup.
The Trust Gap. When the culture sounds open but feels closed. The executive says: “We have an open-door policy. People just don’t engage.” The middle manager says: “I watched what happened to the last person who was honest in that room.” The door is open. Nobody walks through it. They’ve done the math.
The Feedback Gap. When problems persist even though they’re discussed. The executive says: “They can’t handle conflict.” The middle manager says: “The real conversation happens in the hallway after the meeting. Never in the room.” Feedback happens. Just not where leaders can hear it. And not in a way that changes anything.
The Influence Gap. When leadership no longer follows the org chart. The executive says: “They’re too tactical. They need to step up.” The middle manager says: “I need cooperation from four teams who don’t report to me, and nobody gave me a playbook for that.” Most results in modern organizations depend on cooperation that cannot be mandated. And most middle managers were never trained for that reality.
* * *
Six gaps. Six muscles. One organizational core.
And in most organizations, that core is flabby. The people didn’t fail. Nobody strengthened what sits in the middle. The investment went to the top: executive coaching, leadership offsites, strategy retreats. The people on the front lines got the technical training, the certifications, the tools. And the middle (the layer that holds everything together between the boardroom and the floor) got a title, a set of expectations, and a “figure it out.”
That’s the flabby middle. And over the next editions, I’m going deep into each one of these muscles. What breaks when it’s weak. What the executive sees versus what the middle manager lives. And what it actually takes to build core strength in an organization.
More to come.
Florin
P.S. Next edition: The Clarity Gap. When “figure it out” is the strategy.