Latest news with #middlemanagement
Forbes
09-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Managers Report More Negativity Than Their Teams — Why That Matters
Managers might be the most misunderstood role in the modern workplace. A lot rides on them. But they carry the most pressure too. Read any article about organizational success and you'll hear about visionary leaders, heroic founders, transformative strategies. But behind those headlines and high-wire acts is the quiet, steady presence of managers. Especially middle managers. They're asked to be culture carriers, performance drivers, emotional shock absorbers. All while hitting targets they didn't set, with resources they don't control. Gallup's latest research confirms what many have sensed: managers are less engaged than before and many are looking for change. They are also struggling more than the people they lead. They report more negative daily experiences. More stress, more sadness, more loneliness. Manager engagement Gallup If you're a CEO, CHRO or senior leader, this isn't just a middle management issue — it's a leadership pipeline crisis in slow motion. Today's disengaged managers are tomorrow's missing leaders. That should give us pause. Because when the manager is disengaged, it doesn't stop with them. It spreads. Culture frays. Performance drops. Innovation stalls. The manager is the message — and if they're emotionally underwater, the signal gets distorted. This isn't just a mental health issue. It's a performance crisis. Gallup's meta-analysis shows 70% of the variance in team engagement comes down to the manager. When they're depleted, it cascades. And the signs are building. Take this: 41% of employees say they don't have time to learn at work. That includes many managers. Even when the desire to grow is there, the space isn't. Add to that the emotional weight they carry — part performance monitor, part team therapist, part culture keeper — and there's barely time to breathe, let alone lead. Many managers know they're still growing. Four in 10 say they haven't mastered team engagement or performance management. Six in 10 don't feel confident developing people or shaping careers. It's not about effort—it's about support. This is where AI enters the story. There's hope that AI could ease the load. In the right hands, it might. It can reduce admin clutter — manage schedules, budgets, updates, and reports. That's not just convenience. That's capacity. It could give managers back the time they desperately need to coach, reflect, and develop their teams. But it won't fix everything. An Oracle study on AI and the future of work is telling. Workers said robots outperform managers in areas like maintaining schedules, solving problems, and delivering unbiased data. But when it comes to empathy, coaching, and shaping culture — humans still lead. That's not just a difference in skills. It's a shift in what matters. But the Oracle study also revealed something chilling – 64 percent of people would trust a robot more than their manager and half have turned to a robot instead of their manager for advice. Maybe we shouldn't be surprised. Managers have been set up to fail and then faulted for failing. But part of me still finds it heartbreaking — that we've made technology feel more trustworthy than a human who means well. As AI absorbs more operational tasks, the differentiators for human managers will evolve. It won't be about who can track more data. It will be about who can hold a better conversation. Build trust. Read the room. Have the hard dialogue. Create safety and spark courage. So here's the challenge: we can't just automate away the stress. Delegating admin to algorithms won't be enough. We need a new kind of investment. Leadership development often feels like a luxury brand. Curated. Exclusive. Reserved for those who've arrived. Manager development, in contrast, is mass-produced. Standard modules. Generic content. 'Training' that rarely connects to the realities of the job. But not all overload looks the same, and not all development should either. If you want sustainable performance, stop treating manager development like an assembly line. It needs to be tailored and individualized, not templated. Expansive, not extractive. And deeply aligned with where a manager is — emotionally, cognitively and professionally. Career stage matters. So does emotional load. A first-time manager isn't wrestling with the same challenges as a mid-career one. Pretending otherwise is a setup for disengagement. Support should feel more like a refueling station than a staircase. Personalized. Just-in-time. Built around what unlocks each manager's next leap. If 41 percent of employees say they don't have time to learn, your systems aren't just flawed — they're actively blocking development. AI can give time back by clearing inboxes, summarizing meetings and automating workflows. But reclaimed time isn't growth unless it's intentionally reallocated. Organizations must shift learning from extra to embedded. If development isn't part of the job, it won't be part of the culture. Most performance systems track deliverables. Few track depletion. You can't solve burnout with bonuses. You can't spot it with quarterly reviews. You have to ask — consistently and compassionately — 'How are you really doing?' Burnout is emotional. Engagement is relational. Make that part of your operating system, not an HR campaign. Most managers don't need another dashboard. They need the courage to enter tough conversations and the skill to come out the other side with trust intact. Start here: These aren't soft skills. They are core capabilities, and they should be measured like any other metric. A manager's ability to coach directly impacts retention, trust and innovation. Map these skills to measurable outcomes like retention, customer engagement and collaboration. If it's not being measured, it won't be taken seriously. If your most grounded, values-driven managers burn out quietly and you only notice when they resign, your definition of success is too narrow. Start expanding the lens: Rest, reflection and renewal shouldn't be post-burnout interventions. They should be built into your performance architecture. Otherwise, you're rewarding erosion and calling it excellence. Managers aren't just the middle. They are the infrastructure. The memory. The movement. If you want culture, strategy and performance to last, invest in them early, personally and deeply. Because when a manager is emotionally spent, it shows up. In meetings that fall flat. In hallway silences. In the idea that never gets voiced. In turnover that looks abrupt but was quietly unfolding for months. And if we want to protect our future, we need to listen upstream. Not just to what they do, but how they're doing. Because no AI can replace a leader who believes in you, stretches you, and sees your worth before you see it yourself. That's the kind of leadership today's managers are still capable of. But only if we see them too. And if we invest in them now — before it's too late.
Forbes
07-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How These 5 Self Care Strategies Are Reshaping The Future Of Work
Self care in the age of AI: start here. getty Amidst rising concerns of AI reducing the need for white collar jobs, especially in middle management, self care has become more important than ever. With layoffs looming inside companies, workforce displacements are creating added stress for millions of workers. As managers are increasingly seen as unnecessary, or disposable, or both, self-directed work teams are becoming the norm for many organizations. Bayer, for example, recently removed 5,000 middle managers from its ranks - and shifted to self-led teams where everyone is involved in strategy, sourcing and decision-making. Inside the rising trend of disappearing managers, and increased reliance on self-direction, the greatest way for employees to prepare for the future of work emphasizes self-care in order to adapt to these changes. Perhaps the most considerate thing that forward-thinking employees can do for themselves is to gain a deeper understanding of self-leadership - the key to career advancement in the era of self-directed work teams. Here are five key self-care principles that can help you to understand what leadership looks like in the age of AI. Discovering Your Purpose: awareness is key to self-leadership. Recognizing your own strengths is a great place to start, but as author Marcus Buckingham suggests in the title of his best-selling book, Go Put Your Strengths to Work . Knowing your purpose, and articulating your values, can help you navigate team dynamics where managers are becoming scarce. In order to better prepare for the future of work, a careful assessment of your purpose and values can help you to identify what really matters to you. Goal Setting: where do goals really come from? If you said, 'My manager', perhaps it's time to consider reframing your answer. Think about the goals that have given you the greatest sense of accomplishment. Were they external, or internal? Self-leadership asks you to look inside at what you want to accomplish. And then, reinforcing those goals via self discipline - which is as simple as just remembering what it is that you want. Accountability: when managers disappear, who's there to follow up on your progress? Taking ownership of your role, as well as your professional development, isn't something you can outsource. Beyond your KPIs, what are your personal goals and responsibilities? If everything you're working on comes from outside of you, how does that allow time for self-care? Self leadership asks for your ownership - of your tasks, as well as your personal and professional development. Self-directed work teams require leadership from the inside out. Are you keeping your promises - to yourself? By the way, what's the biggest promise you can keep? Ownership: the philosophy of stoicism focuses on what you can and can't control, with powerful lessons in self-leadership. What we always control, inside even the most difficult situation, is how we show up. In other words, we can't control our circumstances but we can control how we respond to those circumstances. Taking ownership requires that we stop blamestorming. Finding excuses in our circumstances is giving ownership where it is not deserved. Take back your power, and your ownership, when you see that your actions (and reactions) are within your power. Self care asks you to reflect on a situation, and before you react instantly, consider: What else could this be? What else could this mean? And ultimately, what could I do or say that I haven't considered here? If you are vexed by this line of questioning, open up a window with your favorite AI and chat it out. Take ownership of your circumstances and your outcomes via a dialogue. That conversation might show you what's missing. Continuous Learning: how curious are you? Self care emphasizes self development. And in the age of self directed work teams, developing your own leadership skills is key. Learning and development is an inside job for the future of work. If you're not learning new skills (upskilling) you're missing an opportunity for growth, expansion and career development. Coaching can be a valuable asset, to help you to find new possibilities - especially around vital skills such as communication, listening and relationships. While AI can provide vast insight and a fresh perspective, learning how to interact with team members is something that everyone needs - especially executive leaders who might reject that last statement. Leadership begins with listening. As we find new perspectives to inform our own, new possibilities emerge. Those possibilities can lead to new opportunities, new promotions, even new careers. From a self-care standpoint, listening to what you really need is where the conversation begins. Exploring your values and your purpose can help you to cut through the noise and distractions that bombard us every day. The future of work features a new team member (AI) and a new team structure (the shifting role of the manager). As greater responsibility is placed on that new team, self leadership is key to moving past burnout - and focusing on what really matters - as team members must become manager-proof. Inside a self care mindset, taking a pause to find your own inner compass is the key to navigating the future of work.
