Organizations are demanding faster results, greater productivity and accelerated transformation. At the same time, employees need more support, more development, more connection and more purpose than ever. Caught in the middle? Managers.
We’re asking managers to drive results with smaller teams, lead people through constant change, create psychological safety in high-pressure environments, provide meaningful feedback, foster experimentation with AI tools and deliver on performance goals—often without the training, time or support to do any of it well. It’s no surprise that manager engagement sits at only 27%—a 10-year low.
If you’re an HR leader shaping your L&D plans for this year, this is the pressure point that deserves your attention.
The Expanding Manager Role
As I talk to L&D leaders and CHROs, the same themes keep emerging. In our recent webinar, I shared how important it is today for managers to create psychological safety as the business environment and definition of success continue to change. Managers must also make everyday choices to delegate more meaningfully—not just to get tasks off their plate, but to genuinely grow their people.
The convergence of these expectations complicate the role of managers, along with the push to constantly do more with less.
Research from The Josh Bersin Company frames this as the rise of the “supermanager”—a leader who is human-centered but supercharged by AI. The role of manager now includes fostering a culture of AI experimentation, empowering teams with autonomy to redesign work, leveraging technology for personalized development, democratizing opportunity and growth, and prioritizing trust and transparency.
All of this is a huge change from the traditional manager role—and many managers simply aren’t prepared. More than eight out of 10 managers enter management without formal training. These “accidental managers” were promoted based on organizational needs or excellence as individual contributors, not because they were ready to lead. Then, faced with the overwhelming demands of the role, they find themselves treading water with no time to catch up on their development.
Unsupported Managers Become a Bottleneck
When managers struggle, everything downstream suffers. Employee engagement drops. Development stalls. Retention becomes a problem. The very transformation initiatives that organizations are counting on get stuck because the people responsible for driving them through teams don’t have the capacity or capability to make them work.
According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report, by 2030, 59 out of every 100 workers will need training—29 requiring in-role upskilling, 19 needing redeployment to new roles and 11 at risk of displacement. Managers are central to making that development happen. They’re the ones who create space for learning, provide coaching conversations and help people apply new skills in real work.
But only about half of HR teams believe they have the right skills to deliver this kind of impact. If the function that’s supposed to support managers is itself under-resourced, where does that leave managers?
What Managers Actually Need
To help managers meet these expanded expectations, we need to rethink how we support them. Based on current research and what I’m seeing work with our clients, three priorities stand out:
Development that fits into their reality. Managers don’t have time for multi-day workshops or lengthy courses. They need micro-learning they can engage with in short bursts—five minutes between meetings, 30 minutes during a commute. The learning has to be immediately applicable, not theoretical. With our New LensⓇ app, we’ve seen firsthand that this approach significantly increases completion rates and accelerates behavior change.
Multiple types of support. No single intervention is enough. Effective manager development combines individual learning with peer cohorts where managers can share challenges and solutions, plus coaching—whether that’s from their own leader, a professional coach or structured peer coaching. The combination creates reinforcement loops that help new behaviors stick.
A psychologically safe space to practice. Managers are being asked to foster psychological safety for their teams, but they need it, too. In fact, research published in Harvard Business Review found that middle managers feel less psychologically safe than both senior executives and their own team members. Newly promoted managers scored even lower. Managers need spaces to test new approaches, make mistakes and build confidence before deploying new skills in high-stakes situations. This is especially true as they learn to leverage AI tools alongside their teams.
The Business Case for Manager Development
I understand the budget pressures L&D teams are facing. Every investment has to show return. So here's how I think about the business case for investing in managers:
Managers are the multiplier. When you develop an individual contributor, you improve one person's performance. When you develop a manager effectively, you improve the performance, engagement and development of everyone on their team.
The research backs this up. According to LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report, 94% of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their career development. And managers are the primary source for that development—through the feedback they give, the opportunities they create and the coaching conversations they have.
A participant in our webinar put it this way: “Younger employees are looking to their managers for purpose.” That's not something you can deliver through a learning management system alone. It has to come through equipped, confident managers who know how to have those conversations.
3 Big Questions About Your Manager Development
As you think about your organization’s development programs for managers, consider these questions:
Does your current development approach fit managers’ reality—time constraints, hybrid work, information overload—or does it ask them to carve out time they don't have?
Are you providing managers with multiple types of support (learning, peer connection, coaching), or relying on a single approach?
What percentage of your development budget is specifically focused on managers (not just executives)?
The manager squeeze is real. But it's also addressable—when we design support that meets managers where they are and helps them build the capabilities they need right now.
Ready to Strengthen Your Manager Pipeline?
For over 17 years, Newberry Solutions has helped Fortune 500 companies develop high-performing leaders through coaching, consulting and our award-winning New Lens® leadership development platform. Whether you’re looking for executive coaching for senior leaders, scalable development solutions for managers at all levels or help designing a leadership development strategy that fits your organization's reality, we can help. Contact us to learn more.
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.