The Middle Is the Multiplier: How Guardian amplified the intelligence of its mid-level leaders

By Julie Wolpers | October 28, 2026

Customer story · Leadership development

The Middle Is the Multiplier

How Guardian used a 6-month leadership experience to develop individual capability while activating the judgment, relationships, and ideas already present in its middle.

Download the full white paper

By Kristina DiStasio and Rob Cordova

mid-level leaders from across Guardian

months of practice, coaching, and real work

in-person experiences

Multiplier disciplines as recurring lenses

The challenge

Why the middle matters now

Mid-level leaders translate strategy, absorb operational friction, support employees, and keep change moving. That makes the middle one of the most consequential—and least fully used—sources of intelligence inside an organization.

22%

of managers globally are engaged at work, down nine percentage points since 2022.

Gallup, 2026

70%

of the variance in team engagement is attributed to the manager.

Gallup, 2026

80%

of initiatives started by middle managers succeeded in one major transformation—producing $300 million in annual profits.

Quy Huy, INSEAD

The intelligence is already there

Mid-level leaders sit at the organizational mixing board. They hear strategy coming down, reality coming up, and friction moving sideways.

Leadership development can build individual capability and help an organization hear what its middle already knows.

Guardian began RISE with that broader view: strengthen each leader’s practice, and give the organization access to their cross-functional judgment.

STRATEGY

MIDDLE MANAGERS

Detect clarity lossSense credibility gapsSee traction issues early

FRONTLINE

Designed in partnership

From experience to contribution

Information and experience do not automatically become learning. RISE repeatedly moved leaders between formal learning and the work itself.

Simulationsurfaced instincts
Coachingdeepened reflection
Experimentssupported behavior change
Real questionscreated a place to practice collective judgment

The approach

Six design choices behind RISE

If leaders are expected to draw out the intelligence and contribution of others, the development experience should do the same.

Treat leaders as contributors

RISE added an organizational question: What do these leaders already know that Guardian needs?

Build practice into the work

Small personal and team experiments. One behavior in a real situation—not a broad promise to become a different leader.

Make the cohort necessary

Leaders from across Guardian worked on questions no single function could answer.

Design the space between sessions

Peer huddles and virtual coaching gave workplace experiments a return path.

Use real organizational questions to build judgment

No predetermined answer. Leaders practiced thinking with other people, not just presenting their own answers.

Create a response path for contribution

Participants understand how their thinking will be considered—and that contribution does not always mean adoption.

In their words

Let leaders experience the culture you want

For 6 months, participants didn’t just learn about Multiplier leadership. They experienced what it felt like to work in an environment designed to draw out more intelligence from everyone in it.

I brought all the key stakeholders into the decision and the brainstorming, including those closest to the customer. The result was greater alignment and buy-in around the solution.RISE participant

I realized that silence is okay. It allows people to think and feel empowered to voice their opinions without being told the answerRISE participant

I made sure not to be a ‘rescuer’ and stood back and let him take center stage. I was amazed at how strong his contributions were.RISE participant

Real organizational questions as a practice field

One experience. Two forms of value: development for leaders and intelligence for the organization.

Real organizational questions move through five steps: explore, challenge, make sense, decide, contribute. Leaders build capability while the organization gains intelligence.

The results

What changes when leaders go back to work?

One leader resisted the instinct to answer on an analyst’s behalf—creating room for the analyst to lead a conversation with senior stakeholders. Participant feedback showed a recurring pattern.

Moving away from

Answering
Directing
Rescuing

Moving toward

Asking
Listening
Delegating
Creating space for others

Source: Guardian RISE Leadership Academy final program survey (2026), 35 responses.

The next question for leadership development is not only what leaders should learn. It is what the organization could learn from them.

Cover of The Middle Is the Multiplier white paper

Free in the white paper

8 practical design ideas for cohort learning journeys

The full white paper closes with 8 takeaways for L&D leaders. Here’s a preview:

Start with an enterprise question as well as a capability question.
Design the experience to model the leadership you want leaders to practice.
+ 6 more, from building cohorts across boundaries to measuring changed behavior

Download the white paper

About the authors

Kristina DiStasio

A partner with Advantage Performance Group and a leadership and talent advisor, Kristina's work focuses on connecting leadership development to the realities of the business and helping leaders change what they do, not simply what they know.

Rob Cordova

A global leadership educator, learning designer, and facilitator, Rob served as the lead guide and integrator for the 6-month RISE experience.

Practice Area: Helping Leaders Lead

Tagged with: Guardian • mid-level leaders • Multipliers

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