We’ve heard it endlessly: cost cutting, AI strategy, restructure, shifting priorities, and the expectation that customer experience does not slip.
There are not more hours in the day or more resources available, so where is the pressure and workload being absorbed?
Often, the strategy is announced by the board or executive, then handed down to the next layers of management to operationalise. New strategy is a good thing when organisations need to respond to a changing market, but internally, these managers are often asking: how are we meant to keep delivering, while also pivoting to this ‘new horizon’?
One of the themes we see in our work is the heavy load carried by managers who straddle strategy and operations.
When plans hit roadblocks and tension builds, people start to pass on their stress and anxiety.
Managers are then smoothing, adapting and solving on the fly to try and keep the work flowing.
Gallup’s research shows that managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement, which means the role they play in shaping team experience is significant. At the same time, Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workplace reporting shows manager engagement declined from 31% in 2022 to 22% in 2025.
This matters because managers are often where organisational pressure becomes visible.
These managers are holding the responsibility to interpret the strategy and operationalise it, while also trying to protect their teams from becoming overwhelmed or overworked. At the same time, they may be lying awake at night wondering how to maintain high standards for customers, meet compliance obligations, build relationships, adapt to change, and keep solving problems as they emerge.
That is a lot to take in. Imagine what it is like to live it.
Does this sound like you or could this be true of managers in your environment?
You may be seeing this if managers are:
- Carrying decisions that should be shared
- Smoothing tension between teams
- Protecting their teams from the reality of change
- Struggling to maintain high standards while priorities shift
- Feeling responsible for both delivery and wellbeing
- Holding stress that has nowhere else to go
If you work in the arts, education, government, or any organisation where you are driven by purpose, the load can feel even heavier. Managers are not just delivering work, they can also be carrying the emotional responsibility to deliver something important and vital.
These managers are absorbing the responsibility for the organisation’s survival, as well as the safety and wellbeing of their teams.
It’s not sustainable.
People are still turning up and doing their jobs, but once positive and energetic managers can start to feel overwhelmed and stuck, or at risk of burnout. Over time, this pressure can show up in decision-making, communication, and trust.
So what can you do?
Bring managers together as a team to discuss the context they are working in, not just the work itself.
Under pressure, people often internalise problems. The fear that not being able to solve it means ‘I am failing’ can take hold, and finger-pointing and blame can quickly follow.
Sometimes hearing others share similar experiences reminds you that you are not imagining it. It can help recognise what is within your control, and offer different perspectives and insights. These conversations also build connection, understanding and trust across teams.
This is often where facilitated conversations about team dynamics can be useful. A structured conversation creates space to step back from delivery, understand what is happening between people and teams, and identify the patterns that may be making work harder than it needs to be.
Invest in development.
So often, great employees are promoted into management roles, but then not given the time or investment to become good leaders. The layers of self-leadership, leading others and systems leadership develop over time through a mix of learning, doing and reflecting.
Standalone management courses can be useful, but development is often more effective when it is embedded in the organisation’s context. Development initiatives need to assist managers to build greater self-awareness, understand their impact, strengthen relational intelligence, and lead more effectively through complexity, pressure and change, in the unique contextual dynamics of your organisation.
Recognise when control and protection are being used to create certainty.
While well intentioned, when one person is carrying the load for everyone, it has a constraining effect. It creates bottlenecks, reduces information flow, and limits the team’s ability to contribute.
By creating space that separates business as usual from discussions to understand and solve, teams can be empowered and capability can expand.
Support can help managers shift from holding everything themselves, to empowering teams and creating the conditions for shared ownership, clearer accountability and more effective collaboration.
Understand what is making management harder than it needs to be.
Sometimes the pressure on managers is clear. They need support to lead through complexity, manage tension, communicate expectations, build trust, or create more sustainable ways of working with their teams.
In other cases, the pressure is harder to untangle. It may require a facilitated conversation to make sense of what is happening, unravel the elements, and make intentional choices.
A structured discussion can help leaders and teams understand what is shaping the load they are carrying, where it is being absorbed, and what support or changes would be most useful. From there, it becomes clearer what the next step is.
If this sounds like your own experience as a manager, coaching can provide space to navigate what you are carrying, make sense of what is shaping and impacting your team, and identify practical ways to lead through pressure.
If you are seeing this pattern across the managers in your organisation, we can help explore what is making management harder than it needs to be, and where support would be most useful. Get in touch for a short, no-obligation conversation.