They’re the most powerful people in your company… and the most overlooked.

In this episode, we sit down with Chelsea, Head of People at Tomorrow, whose approach to middle management has transformed team performance and culture. From scaling challenges to personal breakthroughs, Chelsea reveals what most leaders get wrong about middle managers and what to do about it.

Here’s what you’ll learn

Why middle managers shape your company culture more than your CEO

The real reason managers burn out (and how to stop it)

How Tomorrow built one of the UK’s top workplaces by focusing on its “squeezed middle”

The three powerful qualities Chelsea looks for when identifying future leaders

This isn’t theory. It’s a masterclass in the people strategy most companies ignore, until it’s too late.

👉 Subscribe for more honest, unfiltered conversations with the people rewriting the rules of work.

Chapters

00:00:00 – From Retail Floors to Head of People

00:03:16 – Learning Business From the Inside Out

00:05:13 – Why Middle Managers Hold the Power

00:07:10 – The Hidden Cost of Neglecting Managers

00:09:01 – Embedding Culture Through the Squeezed Middle

00:10:32 – From High Turnover to Top 10 Workplace

00:12:18 – The Mistakes We Made Scaling

00:13:51 – The Power of Monthly Reflection

00:15:36 – Fixing Feedback and Growth Conversations

00:16:55 – Why Radical HR Experiments Sometimes Fail

00:18:53 – Becoming a Manager is a Career Change

00:20:41 – No Training for Micro-Moments

00:22:33 – Avoiding Burnout Through Small Wins

00:24:25 – Building Great Leaders from Within

00:26:09 – The Three C’s of Great Management

00:27:44 – Creating Paths Beyond Management

00:29:35 – Essential Skills, Not Soft Skills

00:31:00 – Growth Plans That Actually Grow People

00:33:03 – Making Purpose Tangible

00:34:43 – The Manager’s Impact on Retention

00:36:33 – Advice to Her Younger Self