Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace: 2025 report reveals an alarming decline in global employee engagement, down to 21% in 2024 and costing $438bn (£323bn) in lost productivity. But this time, the root cause isn’t external turmoil, as it has been historically. It’s something deeper and more systemic: manager disengagement.
According to the report, manager engagement dropped from 30% in 2023 to 27% last year, with the steepest declines among young managers (aged 35 and under) down by 5%; engagement of female managers was down 7%.
Why does this matter? Because disengaged managers lead disengaged teams, impacting culture, performance and retention.
Gallup estimates that a fully engaged global workforce could unlock $9.6tr in productivity: 9% of global GDP. However, reversing the trend requires more than surface-level fixes. People and culture teams must address the systemic factors driving manager disengagement to reset for success.
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What’s driving the decline?
Managers today are caught in the middle. They are responsible for delivering results while navigating hybrid working, shifting priorities, and siloed environments. As such, leadership development can fail to address the complex, real-world challenges that managers navigate daily.
Core issues include:
- Misalignment between departments, creating friction and confusion
- Conflicting priorities and lack of strategic clarity
- Unclear accountability and shifting ownership
- One-off training that lacks practical application or follow-through, and
- Limited coaching and mentoring to build capability and motivation.
Young and female managers are disproportionately affected by these issues. Many manage teams without having had effective managers themselves. Research from insights provider Motivational Maps suggests that women report lower average motivation (70.6%) compared to men (72.4%).
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Understand what truly engages managers
One of the most powerful ways to improve engagement is to understand intrinsic motivators.
Motivational Maps' research shows that people aged 26 and under are highly motivated by money, material satisfaction and securing their future. They have an additional strong focus on social connections. Influence and control are also more significant in this age cohort.
People aged 26 to 49 and 50-plus are driven more by developing expertise, autonomy and the search for meaning, while the need for security, recognition and tangible success decreases.
These subtle differences matter, helping leaders understand what different individuals need to feel fulfilled, included and energised at work. Motivation isn’t one-size-fits-all; engagement strategies shouldn’t be either.
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Strategies to design leadership ecosystems that shift culture
To truly re-engage managers, we need to think bigger than isolated interventions. It’s time to redesign the leadership ecosystem. Three transformational strategies stand out:
1. Revive the forgotten art of coaching
Coaching builds resilience, motivation and capability. When implemented at Tesco, it helped managers process pressure and adapt to complexity.
Equip leaders with coaching and motivation skills so they can provide coaching in the moment to frontline and middle managers.
2. Build value-creating teams
The new high-performing team isn’t just efficient, it’s commercially savvy, purpose-driven, and collaborates across complex matrix structures. Imperial College has found success in empowering teams to connect their outputs to business value, span boundaries and break down silos that hinder cross-functional effectiveness.
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3. Transform leadership mindsets
Engagement starts with why and how leaders think. Leadership analysis tools can help to shift mindsets rooted in growth and systemic awareness. Leaders who navigate ambiguity, inspire trust, and align people with purpose are the key to cultural transformation.
A moment of opportunity
The decline in manager engagement is real – but so is the opportunity. If HR teams can seize the moment, build coaching cultures, and personalise development through understanding motivation, they can reverse the disengagement trend and spark a productivity boom.
When managers are truly motivated, connected and aligned, they elevate everyone around them.
By Carole Gaskell, founder and CEO of Full Potential Group
