Team Leaders Express Higher Levels of Negativity Than Subordinates - Understanding the Implications
Titled "Undervalued and Overloaded: A Definitive Guide to Improving Manager Engagement"
Managers are often the unsung heroes of the modern workplace, yet they bear the brunt of the pressure. This article explores the challenges faced by managers and offers solutions to increase their engagement and emotional well-being.
Research reveals that managers are less engaged and struggling more than the people they lead. They report higher levels of stress, sadness, and loneliness, making it a management pipeline crisis in the making. For CEOs, CHROs, and senior leaders, this isn't just a middle management issue; it's a call to action.
When managers are disengaged, the consequences are far-reaching. Culture frays, performance drops, innovation stalls, and the signal gets distorted. It's essential to address this issue before it becomes detrimental to any organization.
Building a Supportive Environment for Managers
To improve manager engagement, it's crucial to offer tailored and individualized support, not a one-size-fits-all approach.
1. Support by Career Stage
Recognizing the unique challenges each manager faces is essential. First-time managers may require mentorship to navigate doubt and conflict, while mid-career managers might need career re-contracting to renegotiate goals and redefine their meaning. Senior managers often need peer renewal, honest reflection, and non-performative spaces to think aloud.
2. Embed Learning in Everyday Work
If 41% of employees say they don't have time to learn at work, the learning system must change. AI can help manage schedules, solve problems, and deliver unbiased data, but it still lags behind humans when it comes to empathy, coaching, and shaping culture. Organizations should shift learning from extra to embedded, making it short simulations, scenario debates, or coaching pods that help managers grow in context.
3. Embrace Emotional Check-Ins
Most performance systems overlook emotions, focusing on deliverables. Managers must be trained to notice signs of overload, and create rituals for regular, compassionate check-ins to build a culture of emotional openness.
4. Upskill Managers in Essential Skills
Sensemaking in the fog, feedback with friction, and conflict as a design tool are core capabilities for managers. These skills can be measured like any other metric, linking them to tangible outcomes like retention, customer engagement, and collaboration.
5. Redefine Success
Success isn't just productivity; it's also emotional well-being, trust, and readiness for future roles. Tracking vitality, team trust, and psychological safety ensures managers are energized, open, and prepared for future challenges.
In today's fast-paced world, managers need support more than ever. By investing in their professional and personal growth, organizations can cultivate engaged, high-performing leaders who drive culture, strategy, and performance.
- To cultivate engaged managers, it's necessary to address the unique challenges faced by managers at different career stages, offering tailored support from mentorship for first-timers to peer renewal for senior managers.
- Embedding learning in everyday work through short simulations, scenario debates, and coaching pods can help managers grow while ensuring the learning system caters to their needs, particularly when they mention lack of time.
- Managers should be trained to notice signs of overload and create compassionate check-in rituals, emphasizing emotional well-being alongside deliverables in the performance system.
- Essential skills such as sensemaking, providing effective feedback, and managing conflict can be taught and measured, linking them to tangible outcomes like retention, customer engagement, and collaboration.
- Redefining success to include emotional well-being, trust, and preparedness for future roles ensures managers stay energized, open, and ready for future challenges, fostering a health-and-wellness culture within the workplace.
- With a focus on workplace-wellness, business leaders can drive organizational performance by investing in the professional and personal growth of managers, recognizing the scientific link between leadership and financial success.
