Managers are responsible for turning strategy into action while creating an environment where employees can do their best work. That makes manager engagement a strategic concern, not just a workplace issue. Managers shape the daily experience of work, directly affecting how clearly company priorities and individual job expectations are communicated. When managers are engaged, they are better positioned to connect organizational goals to the work employees do every day and help their teams succeed.
Yet managers are often expected to support the engagement of others while navigating the demands of their own responsibilities. Competing priorities, limited resources, and the pressure to deliver results can erode a manager’s sense of purpose and connection to the organization. Unfortunately, manager engagement is falling and the consequences to organizational performance are becoming hard to ignore.
Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace Report estimates that low global engagement cost the world economy about $10 trillion in lost productivity last year. Declining manager engagement accounts for much of the recent downturn.
Why Are Managers Struggling?
The challenges facing managers are not simply a matter of individual resilience or leadership capability. In many organizations, the role itself has become more demanding.
Several factors are contributing to the growing strain:
Managers are being asked to do more with less. Many organizations have flattened structures. The result for managers is often broader responsibilities and less time to provide the coaching, communication, and support that effective leadership requires.
Managers are caught between leadership and employees. They are responsible for translating executive priorities into action - including new initiatives such as AI adoption - while also responding to the needs of their teams.
Burnout and stress remain elevated. Increased workloads, competing demands, and managing through periods of intense change are leaving managers feeling overwhelmed. These stressors limit their ability to create an engaging and productive environment.
Many managers have not been adequately prepared for the role. Gallup has repeatedly found that a large percentage of managers receive little or no management training, even though their effectiveness has a major impact on team performance.
Why does this matter?
Gallup's research consistently shows that managers are one of the biggest influences on employee engagement. When managers become disengaged, their teams often follow, and that should make manager engagement an executive-level concern.
Is the organization creating the conditions that make employee engagement possible? If managers are expected to inspire passion and retain talented employees, they must have the support they need to lead with purpose. Addressing the manager crisis begins with recognizing that investing in managers is an investment in the organization’s ability to execute its strategy and sustain long-term performance.
State of the Global Workplace 2026 Report: Manager Engagement Metrics
According to Gallup'sState of the Global Workplace: 2026 Report:
Managers historically had an "engagement premium" compared to other employees, but that advantage has largely disappeared.
Since 2022, manager engagement has dropped by nine points, reaching 22% globally in 2025. Meanwhile, engagement among individual contributors only slipped slightly, from 20% to 19%.
The largest single-year drop occurred between 2024 and 2025, when manager engagement fell from 27% to 22%.
Gallup states that lower engagement among managers accounts for most of the recent downturn in global employee engagement, which dropped to 20% worldwide in 2025.
Why Employee Passion Matters More than Engagement
Gallup’s findings highlight the current challenges around manager engagement, but they also raise a broader question about whether engagement alone is enough. Lori explained, “Having read Keith Ayers' book Engagement Is Not Enough and using the Employee Passion Survey with our clients, we have seen that it is better to measure and create passion rather than employee engagement. Many of our clients have spent tens of thousands on engagement only to see a marginal improvement that is not sustainable.”
Research conducted by Conscious Leadership Alliance (formerly Intégro Leadership Institute) discovered that a large majority of employees fit into the typical “engaged” category. However, of these engaged employees, only half are passionate about the organization. This gap - the passion deficit - underlines the hidden emotional disconnect among otherwise engaged employees that explains the performance difference.
The Intégro Employee Passion Survey ranks employees using five levels:
Level 5 Employees that rate themselves as passionate about the work AND the organization are level five; these are your truly passionate employees and your future!
Level 4 Employees that are only passionate about the work sit at level four. They are at risk of leaving when someone offers them a similar job with another firm.
Level 3 Employees who are passionate about the organization but not the work are level three. They may be loyal to your company, but they are not necessarily excited about what they do every day.
Level 2 An engaged employee can rate themselves at level 2. They are likely to meet expectations, but may lack the deeper connection required to drive innovation and growth.
Level 1 Employees who are neither passionate about the work nor the organization are level one. They are simply doing their job, with little enthusiasm for either the work or the company.
Create Passionate Managers with Group Coaching by Heffelfinger
Experience has taught us that passionate employees are the foundation of a thriving organization, and managers play a critical role in creating the conditions where that passion can grow. From entry level employees to managers, employee passion affects performance. After all, managers are employees too!
Gallup’s research on employee engagement and manager effectiveness finds that organizations that perform well in engagement tend to:
Invest in manager training and coaching.
Keep manager workloads manageable.
Give managers greater autonomy and support.
Equip managers to have meaningful, ongoing conversations with employees.
Treat engagement as a long-term business strategy rather than a short-term initiative.
Our leadership coaches help managers move beyond simply attempting to maintain engagement to building the conditions where passion can grow. When organizations hire our coaches to improve performance, we start with the Employee Passion Survey because the survey provides valuable insights into how employees view their work and the organization. If the results reveal opportunities for improvement, we often recommend our group coaching program, which offers an affordable way to develop leadership skills and learn alongside peers with the guidance of an experienced coach.
This approach has allowed us to create more confident and capable management teams equipped to inspire passion and strengthen performance.
Let’s collaborate to create passionate managers who are excited to invest in your culture and teams. Contact us today to schedule a free 20-minute work audit.
Warmly,
Lori & James
Lori Heffelfinger & James Jackman
Sources:
Gallup. State of the Global Workplace 2026. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace.aspx? Accessed 9/4/2026.
Intégro Leadership Institute. Employee Passion Survey. https://disclearningsolutions.com/content/integro-employee-passion-survey-company_DP.pdf Accessed 9/4/2026.
