The Manager Crisis Is Getting Worse

We have a management crisis on our hands and it's getting worse.

Gallup’s latest data on employee engagement shows a drop back to COVID-era levels. Gallup writes:

“What caused the decline in engagement? Managers. Manager engagement fell from 30% to 27%. Individual contributor engagement remained flat at 18%.”

This is a flashing red light for CEOs.

Managers are the transmission system of your organization. They convert executive direction into frontline results. When they're disengaged, productivity, innovation, customer service, and ultimately profits all take a hit.

I saw this play out dramatically when I sold a company we had spent many years building to a much larger corporation. We had carefully grown a consistent management system that kept our teams highly engaged and performing. People knew what our goals were, and they had managers who helped them keep aligned with the bigger picture, who coached them regularly, who offered personalized support.

But after the acquisition, that syst…