Last week, Newberry Solutions hosted the webinar “How to Know Your Managers Are in Crisis and What to Do About It,” and I'm still energized by the incredible insights and engagement we experienced. Huge thanks to my guests: Amy Happ, Director of Leadership Development at Grant Thornton Advisors LLC, and Renda Mathew, Senior Vice President and Dallas Market President at Truist Financial Corporation, as well as everyone who joined us for this important conversation.
For those who couldn't attend, I wanted to share some of the key takeaways that can help you support your managers before burnout takes hold. Manager well-being directly impacts team performance, engagement, and retention—making this a critical business priority.
Managers Feel Stress, Unprepared
The statistics we discussed during the webinar are sobering: One in five managers would prefer not to be people managers if given a choice. That's 20% of your management team potentially feeling mismatched with their roles. Additionally, 71% of leaders told DDI their stress has gone up significantly, and only 30% report having enough time to do their jobs properly.
There’s also been an evolution in what we expect from leaders. Leadership has become a specialized profession requiring comprehensive development, with the complexity amplifying to a whole new level. Today's managers are often caught in the middle—Amy points out that they’re managing up, across and down simultaneously—frequently without adequate preparation for these multifaceted responsibilities.
Three Critical Signs Your Managers Are Struggling
1. Behavioral Changes Signal Distress
Watch for increasing absenteeism, decreased engagement, and difficulty making decisions. These warning signs often appear before performance issues become apparent. For many managers, there's precious little bandwidth left for development, relationship-building, or recovery from stress.
2. Team Dynamics Reflect Leadership Challenges
When managers are in crisis, their teams show it, too. Rising team turnover, declining engagement scores, and increased escalations to higher leadership all indicate potential manager burnout. Our panelists emphasized that managers create a ripple effect through organizations. With 70% of managers not trained on how to lead a hybrid team, both managers and their teams struggle with the new realities of distributed work. This preparation gap shows up in team performance and may accelerate manager burnout.
3. Communication Patterns Shift
Notice when typically responsive managers become slower to reply, less thorough in their communication, or absent from important discussions. This could be a sign they’re not recovering from high-stress moments, As Amy pointed out, “We're often not doing our best work when we're at that high-stress level.”
The recovery stage—bringing stress levels down so managers can return to peak performance—is essential but frequently overlooked. Without this recovery time, managers enter a cycle of diminishing returns where they work harder but accomplish less, further feeding their stress.
Practical Support Strategies That Work
We explored several interventions that have proven effective across industries:
Clarify priorities and establish boundaries
Your managers have different needs based on their life stage and circumstances. Understanding this is critical to preventing burnout. Renda shared how her executive team is sensitive to how much time they're requesting from managers, a common issue recognised by most organizations.
I also talked about the importance of the “Big 3” framework—the three areas where managers should focus to drive the biggest business impact, given their role and strengths. This clarity helps them reserve bandwidth for strategic work by getting other tasks off their plates.
Create peer communities
Both of our guest speakers emphasized the power of cohort models and peer-to-peer relationships. Amy described how pairing managers in groups of four to six creates a sweet spot for meaningful engagement. These peer networks provide support, accountability and a safe space to discuss challenges.
Renda noted that Truist often pairs employees across geographical regions to foster cross-market perspectives and learning. This helps managers understand different approaches and builds a broader support network.
Provide micro-learning opportunities
With employees having an average of only 24 minutes per week for learning—typically interrupted every three minutes—traditional development approaches won't work. Learning must happen in the flow of work with bite-sized content that fits into busy schedules, and that’s been a huge part of us developing our New Lens® microlearning leadership development platform.
Amy introduced the concept of “microchillers”—brief recovery techniques (like a few simple stretches) managers can use when feeling overwhelmed. These short interventions help bring stress levels down so managers can return to peak performance.
Focus on well-being as a foundation
One of the most powerful insights from our discussion was that manager effectiveness is intrinsically linked to well-being. As Renda put it, “The well-being and effectiveness of a manager or leader or of a teammate—they're intertwined. The effectiveness is really reliant on how their well-being is going.”
Organizations must recognize that investing in development programs won't yield results if managers are too burnt out to implement what they're learning. Start by checking burnout levels before implementing new tools or training.
Taking Action in Your Organization
Our speakers highlighted the value of having intentional one-on-ones. Renda shared, “I have weekly one-on-ones with each of my teammates. I spend time asking them about their life first, and then we get into the numbers and talk about what's happening in their work.”
This approach creates space for understanding what's really happening with your managers so you can offer appropriate support. Regular check-ins also provide opportunities to connect managers with others who can help with specific challenges.
Begin by checking in with your managers using open-ended questions about their challenges and needs. Then look for patterns that might indicate where organizational changes could make the biggest difference.
Ready to Prevent Manager Burnout Before It Starts?
Don’t wait for performance to dip before taking action. Discover how the New Lens® platform helps organizations support managers with bite-sized, actionable learning—built for today’s fast-paced, high-stress environments.
👉 Join our live demo on May 23 at 9 a.m. CT to see how you can empower your managers to thrive, not just survive. [Register now]
Don’t wait for performance to drop before taking action. Discover how the New Lens® platform helps organizations support managers with bite-sized, actionable learning—built for today’s fast-paced, high-stress environments.