It’s not easy being a manager.
The stats are in. According to Gallup’s 2026 “State of the Global Workplace” report, only 22% of managers are engaged in their work. That’s a nine percent drop since 2025.
Why are managers increasingly checking out? Most likely, it’s the “getting squeezed in the middle” scenario that’s playing out in workplace after workplace. No surprise. Our world is volatile, as are our markets. Mergers and acquisitions. Expansions and contractions. Re-orgs and re-sets. All of these changes put managers in the bullseye.
Let’s be real. Being a manager is not easy, especially now. Managers are the sherpas of our corporate economy. They’re expected to be outstanding performers, while at the same time being responsible for their team members’ performance. They’re expected to have technical skills and human finesse. They’re expected to be emotionally intelligent and emotionally resilient. They’re expected to meet the demands of the overall strategic plan, while meeting the demands of their individual employees who are suffering from burnout and mounting stress.
At the same time, managers have never been so under-trained nor under-supported. Incredibly, less than half of managers receive any training whatsoever. They’re simply expected to magically gain the skills in delegating, giving feedback, resolving conflict, allocating resources, and creating budgets. Managers are tossed a mixed bag of training courses they can “opt” to attend, but often they’re so stressed in the day-to-day grind, they simply don’t have the time to fit the training into their schedules.
The bottom line? Training and supporting managers has to be a top-down commitment.
In other words, executive teams must look themselves in the mirror and decide that giving managers the knowledge and tools they need to succeed is actually a priority.
Forbes wrote a recent articleon the engagement crisis — particularly for managers — that is being ignored. They cite research from Gallup that estimates low engagement costs the global economy $10 trillion annually in lost productivity. Unfortunately, most executive teams treat engagement issues as an individual or frontline issue, rather than a systemic one.
As the article points out, managers are the axis of corporate operations. They are the biggest influencers of healthy communications and productivity. And yet they’re being expected to do more — with a whole lot less. Budgets are shrinking and team sizes are growing.
The focus of the article is the fact that managers lack the skills to do their jobs well. This issue can become a cancer that erodes organizations from the inside out. The best cure? Making manager training and development a core focus of the company. As the article states, “Untrained managers are twice as likely to be actively disengaged compared to their trained counterparts.” (Interesting note here. Being “actively disengaged” means that these managers are actively undermining the culture and are engaging in other destructive behaviors.)
Manager disengagement leads to breakdowns across the organization.
When managers are disengaged, the workplace culture starts to crumble. Communication channels fray and toxicity rises. Once this happens, employees start looking elsewhere for other career opportunities, bleeding key talent and creating an uncertain environment.
Here’s an interesting twist. Many top performers are simply saying “no thank you” to manager positions. According to another Forbes article, 41% of job seekers don’t want to be managers. The upshot? Many employees no longer feel that becoming a manager is a reward. Rather, they feel the costs outweigh the benefits in terms of overall career growth and quality of life.
So every executive of every organization across the country should sit down and ask themselves the following questions:
Do I genuinely care about my managers?
Am I doing everything humanly possible to support my managers?
Am I looking at manager issues as a “one-off” problem, or as a company-wide problem?
Am I making manager training a key initiative in our strategic planning?
Am I clarifying where managers do have decision-making power — and am I giving them the resources to act on these decisions?
Executives who recognize that managers are the stars of their organization — and are willing to truly go to bat for them — are the ones who win.
Want to bring out the best in your managers? Reach out today to schedule a free consultation.