Today’s managers find themselves in an unenviable position. Squeezed between the strategic demands of senior leadership and the day-to-day needs of their teams, these crucial middle players are feeling the heat from all sides. Our latest research report, How to Build a Better Boss: What Leaders (and Their Teams) Need Now to Thrive, sheds light on this pressure cooker environment and reveals some surprising shifts in the world of manager effectiveness and well-being.
Doing Far More with Way Less: The Challenge of Modern Management
For years, Perceptyx has tracked the mounting pressures on managers. They're constantly asked to do more with less, all while providing enhanced support for their teams' professional development, career advancement, and overall well-being. It's a tall order, made even taller by the fact that for most managers, people management is only part of their job description.
Our data paints a stark picture: 56% of managers are responsible for producing individual work alongside their people management duties. For a quarter of these individuals, their own work output takes precedence over managing others. This dual role creates a significant strain, particularly for the 61% who oversee teams of more than 10 employees.
A mid-level tech firm manager might find themselves juggling team leadership and hands-on coding duties. Picture overseeing a dozen developers while still cranking out code for key projects. It's a classic case of wearing two hats: nurturing the team's growth and hitting personal deadlines. This set-up paints a vivid picture of the tug-of-war many managers face daily, constantly shifting focus between people and projects.
A Glimmer of Hope: Pressure Easing?
While the challenges remain significant, our 2024 research offers a ray of hope. The vice grip on managers appears to be loosening ever so slightly, or at the very least, it's not tightening further. This shift is most noticeable among senior managers who primarily oversee other managers.
The numbers tell an encouraging story: about 40% of managers report that their work has become more challenging over the past year, while roughly one-third say it has remained stable. This represents a modest improvement from 2023 when nearly half of managers felt their job had become harder.
However, it's crucial to note that we haven't seen a significant uptick in managers reporting an easier workload — that figure hovers around 20%. The silver lining is that fewer managers feel their job is on a trajectory of ever-increasing difficulty.
But let's not pop the champagne just yet. For front-line leaders, those in the trenches directly managing individual contributors, more than half still perceive their challenges as mounting. This disparity between senior and front-line managers highlights the need for targeted support at different levels of the organizational hierarchy.
The Surprising Impact of Stability
Our research uncovered an intriguing correlation between workplace stability and manager effectiveness. It turns out that consistency, even in challenging conditions, can be a powerful factor in manager outcomes and performance, both professionally and personally.
Managers who report their environment is just as challenging as last year, or with about the same level of pressure, are twice as likely to stay put rather than seek new opportunities. They're also 1.6x more likely to be fully engaged, and their well-being scores outpace those of managers experiencing either increased or decreased challenges.
This finding challenges the conventional wisdom that easing pressure is always the answer. It suggests that constant disruptions and changes to the work environment can be just as detrimental to managers as they are to individual contributors. The takeaway? Managers aren't necessarily seeking radical changes or a dramatic easing of their responsibilities. Instead, they crave stability and predictability in their roles.
The Unexpected Leadership Gap
One of the most surprising aspects of our findings is the nature of the struggles managers face with people management. Contrary to what one might expect, it's not a lack of tools or training that's holding them back. Instead, many managers find themselves adrift, lacking a strong connection with their own supervisors.
This gap in support, empowerment, and cross-departmental communication is a significant pain point. It seems that in the rush to develop leadership skills, many organizations have neglected a crucial group of managers — those who manage other managers. These higher-level leaders, focused on big-picture strategy, have often lost sight of their responsibilities as direct supervisors to their managerial teams.
The result? Front-line leaders, unsupported and faced with chaotic energy from above, instinctually raise an umbrella to protect their teams from the "noise" raining down on them. While this ensures their teams are focused, productive, and engaged, it leaves managers in a difficult spot.
The High Stakes of Manager Support
The implications of neglecting manager support extend far beyond individual job satisfaction. When managers become disengaged, the ripple effects can be felt throughout the entire organization.
Imagine a scenario where managers, feeling overwhelmed and unsupported, begin to decrease their discretionary effort. They might start speaking negatively about the company to friends and colleagues, or stop responding to after-hours calls. These behaviors send a powerful, if unintended, message to front-line employees about the state of the organization and its leadership.
Managers want to get better at their jobs. While organizations may say it’s too hard to get managers together for training in today’s distributed work environment, managers aren’t necessarily asking for that. For the most part, they say they have enough formal training and what they want is ongoing coaching. It’s clear that this ongoing support and development for managers is not just beneficial — it’s essential for organizational health and success.
Addressing the Three Key Factors in Employee Experience
Our research has identified three distinct factors that shape employee experience, and they are just as important for ensuring a great manager experience. By understanding and addressing these factors, organizations can better support their managers and, by extension, their entire workforce:
1. People Management 101: Back to Basics
This factor covers the fundamentals of good people management, including providing necessary resources, fostering a respectful environment, and promoting teamwork toward common goals. Surprisingly, this is the area where managers feel the least supported.
To improve in this area, managers of managers should:
- Ensure the managers reporting to them have clarity on company direction and initiatives so they can properly communicate to their teams.
- Provide consistent performance feedback, both positive and constructive.
- Promote cooperation between departments by clarifying expectations when two teams have competing goals.
Organizations can support this by providing managers with tools and training focused on these basic, yet important, people management skills.
2. A Shared Vision for the Future: Aligning Personal and Organizational Growth
This factor encompasses personal fit within the organization, managerial support for growth, and a clear vision of the company's direction. It significantly influences an employee's willingness to go above and beyond in their role and often outweighs compensation in decisions to join, leave, or return to an organization.
To address this factor, managers of managers should:
- Understand the interests and talents of the managers reporting to them.
- Create development paths and allocate time for growth — something that organizations can help facilitate with an AI-assisted learning and development solution like Grow from Perceptyx.
- Translate the organization’s vision into tangible actions teams can take.
- Be transparent about growth opportunities, even if they lie outside the organization.
Organizations can support this by providing clear career pathways and ensuring that managers have the resources to support their team members' growth and development while simultaneously ensuring growth and development for managers.
3. Healthy Workplace Climate: Fostering Psychological Safety and Well-being
The third factor focuses on creating a psychologically safe and healthy work atmosphere. This has become increasingly important in recent years, driven by disruptive global events and a heightened focus on mental health and equity.
To foster a healthy workplace climate, managers of managers should:
- Give managers reporting to them tools to deal with the pressure from both the organization and their direct reports.
- Provide a safe place to speak out about issues and work through management challenges.
- Encourage work-life balance, even for highly engaged managers.
Organizations can support this by implementing policies and practices that prioritize employee well-being, and by providing managers with a psychologically-safe environment.
The Role of Ongoing Workplace Conversations
Participation in ongoing workplace conversations is not just an add-on to a manager's job — it's an essential part of their role, both as a people leader and an employee. This involvement can take many forms, from designing listening events and completing surveys to creating action plans based on employee needs (an AI-assisted solution like Perceptyx’s Activate can prove helpful here) and fostering productive team discussions.
By fostering a culture of open communication and continuous feedback, organizations can create an environment where managers feel heard and supported, leading to improved performance and engagement across all levels of the organization.
Perceptyx Can Help Relieve the Pressure on Your Managers
In 2024, it's clear that supporting managers is not just a nice-to-have — it's a must-have for organizational success. By addressing the three key factors of employee experience and fostering ongoing workplace conversations, companies can create an environment where managers don't just survive, but thrive, leading to improved performance and engagement across all levels of the organization.
In the end, the success of our managers is inextricably linked to the success of our organizations. By investing in their development, providing them with the support they need, and creating stable, growth-oriented environments, we can help our managers navigate the pressures of their roles and lead their teams to new heights of success.
To learn more about how Perceptyx can help your organization, schedule a meeting with a member of our team.