 Gallup just released its 2024 State of the Global Workplace report, and its findings are both humbling and hopeful. Humbling in the fact that we’ve got a long way to go. Rates of engagement are still low (only a third of the global workforce is engaged), but hopeful in the fact that organizations can move the needle. Here’s how they can: Create cultures of care. When organizations do, employees experience higher levels of wellbeing — and achieve higher levels of performance. And, big surprise — who plays the biggest role in creating these cultures of care? You guessed it! Managers! Just as I’ve been sharing for a long time: Managers really do hold the key in creating a positive experience at work. Let’s dive into three critical insights for managers: #1 Key Insight for Managers: Highly engaged organizations prioritize manager hiring and development. Gallup describes the manager-employee relationship as “the locus of employee engagement” and a “central factor” to a thriving life. Wow, let that sink in. The only other roles I can think of as having an equivalent impact might be a significant other or a parent. So, if managers are so important, then why do so many feel so unsupported or that they are not in the right position in the first place? In a recent conversation with Gallup insider Cristina Man, she shared with me: Becoming a manager is framed as a reward when, in fact, it is a responsibility. We’ve gotten it all wrong, she explained. With few exceptions, high-performing employees are “rewarded” with a promotion to a managerial role. Suddenly, they’re expected to deliver on a whole new set of skills, namely, managing people. The very thing that got them there in the first place — usually a technical skill — becomes secondary to the task of running a team. More often than not, they’ve been shortchanged on resources and ill-equipped with too little training. It’s a recipe for disaster. The individual who’s promoted is unsatisfied, the team suffers and the organization now risks losing a high-performing individual. The reality is that only a few people are “born with” the leadership skills needed to lead well, and only a few more can do it with help. In fact, according to a study by Jim Harter and Randal J. Beck, only 1 out of 10 people are innately equipped to be a great manager, and only 2 out of 10 can become one (through training). The main takeaway is this: As a manager, it’s okay to feel like a fish out of water. This is not a job that comes easy to most. All of this adds up to a call to act. Now’s the time for organizations to step up to fill the gap, so that their managers are equipped to lead their people in creating high-thriving and high-performing teams. One way they can is by training them with my LinkedIn Learning course, Managers as Multipliers of Wellbeing, here. #2 Key Insight for Managers: When managers are engaged, employees are too. Over the last decade, employee experience has been top of mind for most. It turns out that a surprising shortcut to optimizing the employee’s experience is to double down on the manager’s experience. Focusing on the manager elevates engagement for both the manager AND the employee. In best-practice organizations surveyed by Gallup, three-fourths of managers are engaged, and seven out of 10 employees are engaged. In other words, there is a clear correlation between manager satisfaction and employee satisfaction. Now it’s up to the organization’s top leadership in ensuring that their managers are given the training and support they need to be highly engaged in their work. Having now trained over 40,000 managers through my Managers on the Move series, I have witnessed firsthand what happens when managers are better equipped to engage with both their work and their wellbeing. As measured by a third party, our original published research demonstrates that after going through our Managers on the Move training, not only do participating managers experience higher levels of wellbeing, become more productive, and become more engaged with their work — so do their team members! In other words, by starting with themselves, managers create a positive trickle-down effect for the team. Through modeling, guidance, and influence, managers positively “shape the water” that their team members are “swimming in.” At Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota, for example, after all of the leaders and managers went through the Managers on the Move training, 89% reported that they felt cared for by the company (up from 79% prior to the training). Even more exciting, 81% of employees also reported that they felt cared for by the company (representing an even greater jump from only 64%). Empower your Managers through MANAGERS ON THE MOVE. (a leadership-meets-wellness training series) #3 Key Insight for Managers: Half of managers in the US and Canada are stressed, and 41% are stressed globally. Believe it or not, humans like to work. The problem is that workplaces have created daily frustrations and stressors that get in the way of employees doing their work. They don’t have enough support, time, autonomy, psychological safety, and breathing room to do the work they want to do. As a result — many are miserable. As Gallup CEO John Clifton surmised, “It is not the work that is causing misery…it’s the workplace.” Meanwhile, employees are told — largely through wellness programs — here's what YOU should be doing differently: more yoga, more mindfulness, more gym memberships. But the truth is: none of us can “yoga” our way out of organizational problems. Organizations need to do a better job of solving for the right problem (tackle root causes, which are systemic in nature) instead of solving for the wrong problem (providing resources for the individual that only address the symptoms). So, how do we move forward? First, organizations need to recognize that it’s not the fish (the individual); it’s the water (the culture)! Organizations and their leaders need to start thinking big picture about the systemic factors that are fueling the fires of stress and burnout. Things like work overload, lack of role clarity, toxicity tolerated, unreasonable time pressures, shifting priorities, perceptions of unfairness. It’s becoming increasingly evident: it’s less about individual resilience and more about the organization itself. For example, a recent McKinsey Health Institute survey revealed that the biggest driver of employee burnout is toxic workplace behavior. One in four employees surveyed reported experiencing high levels of toxic behavior at work. Christina Maslach, PhD, a leading expert on workplace burnout, says it perfectly: “It is not enough to simply focus on the worker who is having a problem—there must be recognition of the surrounding job conditions that are the sources of the problem... Is there a good match between the worker and the workplace environment, which enables the worker to thrive and do well?” Organizations need to ask the hard questions, such as:
And the best way to begin addressing these hard questions — our second step — is to focus on the manager. The manager is the key shaper of the daily experience. Now, this will likely feel like a heavy lift to the average manager. And, frankly, without training and support, it IS a heavy lift. But a lot of this comes down to managers simply doing the same (leading their team), in a slightly different way. As Tracey Farahmand, manager at Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota and participant in the Managers on the Move series , explains: “To be honest, before Managers on the Move, I had never really thought about incorporating wellbeing into my leadership style. Now, I can’t imagine NOT doing so.” Leadership and wellbeing can and should work in tandem. Learn more about what can happen here. The key takeaway: every manager is uniquely positioned to make or break their team members’ wellbeing and, therefore, needs to incorporate wellbeing into their leadership style. I’ll leave you with this story… I was on my way up the stairs when I encountered one of the partners of an accounting firm where I taught a weekly Pilates class. As we passed on the stairway, we exchanged polite “Hellos.” Then he abruptly announced: “I’m the one who writes your checks!” “Well, that’s great,” I responded. “Thank you!” Then, I paused and asked, “Why don’t you join us?” He looked back at me, and with a smirk, he scoffed: “I don’t wear spandex.” This attitude is all too common. In this case, he went out of his way to make fun of wellness, but in most cases, managers just haven’t realized how important it is that they show up for wellbeing. But, when managers do show up, they signal to their team that wellbeing is important. Case in point: when my “I don’t wear spandex” manager DID show up for the on-site Pilates classes, the class would double in size — EVERY TIME. The point is that your team members really do want to see you in spandex — and I mean that in a figurative sense. DOWNLOAD THE FREE MANAGER’S GUIDE TO CREATING AN OASIS OF WELLBEING. 
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