Manager Engagement- an Urgent Imperative

The organizations with the most engaged managers share some traits — they are change agile and they intentionally invest in management talent. Data backs this up compellingly.

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

In best practice organizations, the manager engagement score stands at a robust 79% State of the Global Workplace 2026 report by Gallup. Focusing on manager engagement yields multi-fold dividends due to the multiplier effect it has on whole teams.

AI adoption is one of the clearest markers of a change-agile culture — and the data reflects it. Managers in best practice organizations actively encourage AI usage while their organizations provide clear guidelines and integration — resulting in employees feeling that AI expands what they do best, rather than threatening it.

The pattern is clear- change agile organizations lead with opportunities during change, instead of the threats. They manage the risks while embracing change. This attitude cascades across all levels and leaders feel empowered and positive in the face of change- a critical factor in leadership engagement.

The same study shows that across all organizations, engagement among managers has fallen 9% points between 2022 and 2026 and is now at a dismal 22%.

Manager disengagement has an outsized effect because the impact shows up not only in their individual contribution and as a drag on their peers, but it reverberates through their full team, down multiple layers. The imperative is clear — manager engagement deserves urgent attention.

Culture is only part of the answer to increasing manager engagement. Span of control and deliberate investment in manager capability are equally powerful levers — and more within your direct control.

Another Gallup study on US-based managers shows that if spans of control are increased or the more remote team members are added without reducing a player-coach manager’s individual contributor workload, it can lead to lower manager engagement. However, managers who are highly talented as leaders, tend to feel the negative impact of increased span of control, much less.

So, the answer lies in ensuring spans of control of player-coach managers are reasonable and more importantly, investing in upskilling managers.

Selecting and investing in our managerial talent are not just talent bench-building tactics, they are organization design decisions.

Management is a learned skill and investing in it is critical.

And the culture that surrounds managers — change-agile, empowering, and deliberate — is what determines whether that investment compounds or quietly erodes.

What is your organization doing to improve manager engagement?