In an ongoing global study of 1,160 managers across industries including services, finance, manufacturing, and utilities, most from companies with more than 50,000 employees, we found that middle managers scored 68.0 out of 100 on psychological safety, compared with 72.7 for C-suite executives—a 4.7-point gap. And when we compared middle managers with their own direct reports, the difference persisted: Their followers scored 4.2 points higher on psychological safety.