The Manager Squeeze: Why Your Leaders Are Running Out of Drive — and What Brings It Back

Think about the person in the middle of your organisation. Every Monday they receive new priorities from above. Every afternoon they hear the frustrations of their team. They translate strategy into tasks, change into reassurance, and pressure into something people can actually work with.

Now ask yourself: who is doing that for them?

For many managers, the honest answer is nobody. And the data is starting to show it.

The numbers behind the feeling

Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2026 report found that global employee engagement fell to 20% in 2025, its lowest level since 2020. The most striking part is where the drop came from. Manager engagement fell from 31% in 2022 to 22% in 2025, while engagement among non-managers barely moved, from 20% to 19%. Gallup estimates that low engagement costs the world economy around $10 trillion in lost productivity.

In other words, managers used to be noticeably more engaged than the people they lead. Today, that advantage has almost disappeared.

But the same report carries a hopeful signal. In organisations Gallup identifies as best-practice, 79% of managers are engaged, nearly four times the global average. The squeeze is real, but it is not inevitable. It is something organisations, and managers themselves, can change.

Why managers run out of fuel

If you are a manager, you probably recognise at least one of these:

You were promoted for being good at the work, not for leading people. Many managers step into the role because they were excellent specialists. Then, overnight, success means something else entirely: having difficult conversations, giving feedback, holding a team together through change. Gallup notes that many managers lack the training to coach their teams toward high performance. That is not a personal failure. It is a gap nobody filled.

You absorb pressure from both directions. Leadership expects results. Your team expects protection and clarity. You often have neither the full information nor the authority to provide both. Living in that tension day after day is exhausting, even when nothing is visibly "wrong".

Your own needs come last. Managers are trained, explicitly or not, to put the team first. That is generous, but it quietly removes recovery from the calendar. From a psychological point of view, the brain cannot keep regulating others' stress indefinitely without regulating its own.

Why it matters for everyone, not just managers

Here is the part organisations often miss: a manager's energy is not a private matter. It is the climate their whole team works in.

When a manager is depleted, the effects are subtle at first. One-to-ones get cancelled "just this week". Feedback becomes rare or rushed. Decisions slow down because there is no mental space left to think them through. People stop bringing ideas, because the person who should welcome them looks like they cannot take one more thing.

None of this comes from bad intentions. It comes from an empty tank. And over time, a team learns to work around a tired leader instead of with them.

Three ways to bring the drive back

You do not need a large transformation programme to start. These are three practical shifts, rooted in what we see every day in coaching and leadership development.

1. Clarity before capacity. Much of a manager's exhaustion comes from ambiguity, not from volume. Unclear priorities force you to make the same decisions again and again. Sit down once a month with your own leader and agree on three things: what matters most this quarter, what can wait, and what you are allowed to decide on your own. Clarity is one of the most underrated forms of energy.

2. Support that is real, not symbolic. Managers need a space where they can think out loud without having to perform. That might be a peer group of managers, a coach, or a regular conversation with a mentor who has been in the role. The goal is simple: one place where you are not the person holding everything together.

3. Room to decide. Autonomy is a strong driver of motivation. When managers can make meaningful decisions about how their team works, they feel ownership instead of being a messenger. If you lead managers, ask yourself: which decisions could you hand down this month?

Leading from the inside out

At Ask4Edu, we believe strong leadership starts with three things: authenticity, being honest about what you can and cannot carry; strategy, choosing where your energy goes instead of spreading it everywhere; and clarity, for yourself first, so you can offer it to others.

A manager who is cared for leads differently. They listen more, decide better and create teams where people want to stay.

What you can do this week

• If you are a manager: block 30 minutes in your calendar for yourself, not your team. Write down the three things draining you most, and choose one to discuss with your own leader.

• If you lead managers: ask each of them one question in your next one-to-one: "What would make your role lighter right now?" Then listen, without fixing it on the spot.

• If you are in HR or L&D: look at how many of your managers have had real leadership development since their promotion. That number may tell you more than any engagement survey.

The middle of your organisation holds everything together. It deserves to be held, too.

Source: Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026