The Hidden Crisis of Disengaged Managers Hurting Team Success
Observations from Consultants
Across agile organizations, consultants are picking up on a worrying pattern: mid-level leaders – especially managers – are becoming increasingly disengaged. Where they once energized teams, they now often appear overextended, undervalued, and disconnected from purpose.
The latest Gallup 2025 report echoes what we’re hearing on the ground: global employee engagement has dropped from 23% to 21%, matching declines seen during the COVID lockdowns. The steepest fall? Manager engagement, which slipped from 30% to 27%. Young (under 35) and female managers have been hit hardest.
And it’s not stopping with them. Since 70% of team engagement is tied to the manager, when they disengage, their teams follow – dragging down productivity, morale, and ultimately business outcomes.
Scientific Background
From organizational psychology to behavioral science, the evidence is consistent: managers are force multipliers. Their mindset, clarity, and engagement shape the psychological climate of entire teams. When they burn out, disengage, or check out emotionally, the ripple effects are profound.
Moreover, Gallup’s data reveals that manager disengagement is closely tied to declining employee life satisfaction, which has dropped to just 33% globally. Again, the sharpest declines are among older and female managers – suggesting the toll of complexity and emotional labor is disproportionately high in these groups.
This isn’t just a “performance” issue — it’s a systemic wellbeing challenge.
Relevance to Product Leaders
So why does this matter for product leaders?
Because managers are your connective tissue. They translate product vision into daily reality. They coach, unblock, motivate, and hold the cultural line. When they disengage, product velocity stalls, innovation dries up, and alignment fragments.
In a time when AI is redefining roles and workflows, we need more human leadership, not less. But too often, our managers are left to figure it out alone. Gallup found that only 44% of managers globally have received formal training. And while training helps, it doesn’t guarantee follow-through.
Engagement isn’t something you can roll out in a toolkit. It has to be built into the way managers think, feel, and lead – every day.
Support Offered
The issue isn’t that product leaders don’t know what to do. It’s that implementing what we know – especially when it comes to people, behavior, and culture – is hard.
Insights are not the problem. Behavioral change is.
That’s why we don’t just offer advice. We provide high-level professional coaching (ICF-PCC, EMCC SP) to help product leaders close the knowing-doing gap. Because “you have to do XYZ” simply isn’t enough anymore.
Coaching creates the space leaders need to:
- Clarify focus amid complexity
- Anchor new behaviors through real practice
- Challenge limiting beliefs
- Build emotional resilience
- Make sense of organizational dynamics
It’s not about more tools. It’s about transforming the person who uses them. And that’s where real impact begins.
Source: https://www.gallup.com/home.aspx