Management Engagement: The Canary in the Coalmine
According to Gallup’s “State of the Global Workplace 2025,” management engagement has dropped to 27%, meaning only 27% of managers are truly engaged in their jobs. Our consulting experience suggests engagement isn’t quite that low; however, it does correspond with a trend we are observing.
Leaders are Often Ill-Prepared to Engage Others
Managers and supervisors have increasingly difficult roles, with many direct reports, little training or support, and tremendous pressure to produce results. As organizations have become leaner, the burden on supervisors and managers has grown. Most of our clients report frustration at the ever-increasing workload. The administrative load has increased, as has the number of meetings they are expected to attend (undoubtedly fueled to some extent by the ease of remote meetings—no need to find a meeting room or ensure participants will all be in the office).
While they are expected to manage the performance of their direct reports, many “leaders” have little if any training in how to do so. This is particularly true at the supervisory level. Most supervisors are promoted to their role based on their skill as an individual contributor and often receive no leadership training. As one of my clients put it, “Your title change is your training.” If managers and supervisors have little or no training in how to engage and motivate employees, and they are overburdened with meetings and administrative work that takes time away from coaching direct reports, it should be no surprise that employee engagement is also down (falling to 21% according to Gallup).
Lack of Feedback and Coaching Contributes to Disengagement
Having consulted with hundreds of companies over 3 decades, it is my belief that we have reached a tipping point. People need coaching. They need feedback and reinforcement to perform their best. The scientific evidence is clear on that. Effective feedback and reinforcement improve performance and increase engagement. This makes sense. We want to do our best when our work is recognized and valued. But many leaders are so tied up in meetings or administrative reporting tasks, there is little time to coach. Some have so many direct reports (20 is not uncommon and we have seen up to 30) that even if they weren’t distracted with other work, they couldn’t possibly provide enough effective coaching for 30 people. This essentially means that most workers are left to their own devices. Some have naturally reinforcing work. Others find ways to get feedback and recognition from peers or customers. But many simply trudge along counting the hours until quitting time.
Years ago Aubrey Daniels likened the world of work without feedback and reinforcement to bowling if a curtain was hung to prevent players from seeing what pins dropped, scores were not kept, and other bowlers never celebrated good shots. When you remove the feedback and reinforcement from bowling, something that people enjoy doing and pay to do becomes drudgery. At that point, it’s just a task of throwing heavy, awkward balls while wearing uncomfortable shoes. How engaged would we expect people to be in that task?
Organizational Changes that Increase Engagement
Some organizations have understood the risk and reduced the number of meetings and administrative work required of supervisors and managers, freeing them up to coach. Successful ones provide behavioral training and cascaded accountability to ensure leaders get the support needed to continuously improve their coaching skills. The payoff for these changes? Higher productivity, improved morale, better teamwork, improved trust, and better retention—in short, better engagement. And the improved engagement is at all levels because effectively coaching direct reports is reinforcing to most leaders.
A drop in engagement is the canary in the coalmine. It’s time to make a change and ensure leaders have time to provide the feedback and reinforcement necessary to ensure engaged, productive, happy employees.
How ADI Can Help
If you are interested in learning how engaged your workforce and leaders are, our surveys will give you actionable feedback. If your leaders need help learning how to be a better coach, our training can help.
