It’s official. Gartner has listed leader and manager development as the top HR priority for organizations in 2025 for the third consecutive year. This tells us a couple things. First, that we still have work to do on this front. And second, that the corporate world understands just how vital managers are to the success of the business – and they’re willing to continue to heavily invest in this area until they get it right.
So, what do organizations need to do to achieve this? According to the report, “Three-quarters of 805 HR leaders Gartner surveyed in July 2024 reported their managers are overwhelmed by the expansion of their responsibilities, and nearly as many (69%) agreed leaders and managers are not equipped to lead change.”
Simply stated, managers are being asked to do too much! It’s no wonder that 63% of them report burnout. What’s more, 76% of those managers’ employees are experiencing burnout. I think it’s safe to say that if you fix the root of the problem among managers, employee burnout will naturally resolve itself. When managers are stressed, they can’t give their direct reports the attention and guidance they deserve.
Are Managers Really That Important? Show Me The Data
If you aren’t convinced of the critical role that managers play in employee job satisfaction and engagement, and how profoundly employee sentiment impacts your business, here’s some food for thought. According to Gallup, high engagement correlates with 21% higher profitability and a 20% increase in sales.
The ability to coach is a key component of effective leadership. And it’s those that tailor that coaching to an individual’s unique set of challenges and aspirations, while infusing practices to drive business KPIs, that make a real, tangible impact.
“Much of today’s coaching simply isn’t effective, and yet we know that when managers get it right, the benefits of good coaching are clear,” says Jaime Roca, Senior Vice President, Research & Advisory, Gartner HR Practice. “Our research shows that employees who report to managers who coach effectively are 40% more engaged, exhibit 38% more discretionary effort and are 20% more likely to stay at their organizations than those who report to ineffective coaches.”
Empowering Managers To Effectively Lead: Simple Strategies To Put In Place
Organizations can start to move the needle by going back to the basics and taking a less-is-more approach. For example, give managers access to tools and resources that lean on efficiency without compromising effectiveness, and of course still rely heavily on human-to-human interaction. AI is a wonderful tool for many managerial processes but it should never replace actual face time with employees.
Here are four tried and true ways to relieve burnout and inspire managers so they (and, of course, your business) can thrive.
1. Create Balance: As already mentioned, the modern manager has a ton on their plate – between direct report one on ones, cross-functional meetings, strategic planning and the latest urgent request that just came in from leadership. That doesn’t even take into account the amount of time they spend on email.
Organizations should work with managers to streamline responsibilities, prioritize tasks and implement time management best practices. What are the essentials of their job and what are the second- and third-tier responsibilities that can wait? This exercise should be done consistently to evaluate and redesign workloads.
I know this one seems obvious, but many managers let their PTO go to waste each year because they feel that taking time off would only create more stress upon their return. Companies should encourage managers to cash in their PTO. I know I do some of my best work after stepping away to clear my head for a few days.
2. Provide Adequate Resources: Say what you want about the rapid pace at which technology is evolving but managers have definitely been on the receiving end of the benefits. Take the CRM as an example. Today, managers receive incredible visibility into where their team stands in hitting their sales targets and can drill down into each individual as needed. This development provides more targeted analytics so managers could take an individualized approach to coaching and strategizing with their direct reports.
More recently, employee training performance data has offered managers yet another glimpse into their team’s knowledge and skills. Qstream has even created manager-specific dashboards that leverage microlearning program data to pinpoint gaps and call out quick-win coaching opportunities. What we’ve found is that putting these insights at busy managers’ fingertips helps them more meaningfully develop their employees. They use this data to understand where to focus their efforts – at the team and individual. It’s no longer a guessing game but based on real employee performance data.
3. Focus On Development: You offer training opportunities for employees but are you putting the same effort into opportunities for the ones leading employees? It’s all a trickle-down effect anyway, right? Here are a few key training areas to focus on that double as KPI’S when assessing performance:
- Leadership & Emotional Intelligence: The best managers lead with self-awareness, empathy and sound decision-making skills when motivating employees.
- Communication Skills: Coaching and mentoring requires excellent communication skills that rely on active listening and clarity.
- Team Building: Managers must create a sense of cohesion among their team, consistently keeping their common goal front and center.
- Delegation: Effectively assigning tasks in a diplomatic manner improves productivity and empowers employees to develop their skillsets.
- Performance Management: Teach managers to provide constructive, concise feedback and build action-oriented plans that can be easily tracked for each team member.
4. Recognize Your Rockstars: Your managers deserve recognition just as much as your frontline workers! The good news is that you can apply some of the things you likely already have in place for employees. Think along the lines of shoutouts during company meetings and across internal communication channels, formal recognition programs like “Manager of the Month,” rewards, extra development opportunities and additional PTO.
To measure success, you can consider each managers’ team’s performance as well as anecdotal feedback from their direct reports. You can also reference the list of KPIs mentioned in #3.
Qstream’s frontline manager dashboards can help on this front. The platform offers insight into coaching actions managers have taken using the training performance data in the platform. For example, the system records when they send a message of correction and encouragement to those struggling on a certain topic.
Conversely, messages of praise for those topping the leaderboards are also recorded. Even offline interventions, such as a performance or career growth discussion during a one on one, can be tracked. This helps managers keep tabs on each employees’ development activity and gives higher levels of leadership insight into the activity of managers across the organization. This data can be used to assess manager performance and help businesses understand how managers are impacting employee performance.
