A new Gallup report found that global employee engagement fell to its lowest level since 2020 in 2025, with lower engagement among managers accounting for most of the recent decline.
At the same time, many companies continue to flatten org charts and stretch managers across wider teams, creating a difficult shift in how leadership actually works.
The result is a version of management that looks efficient on paper but can be much harder to sustain in practice. As leaders are pulled away from day-to-day execution and asked to coordinate more people, more priorities, and more ambiguity, many are being pushed out of the “working manager” role and into something closer to a full-time orchestrator role.
Fineas Tatar, leadership expert and co-founder of Viva Talent, says companies often underestimate how disruptive that transition can be.
“The hardest part of moving from player-coach to pure manager is that it can feel like losing the part of the job that made you successful in the first place,” says Tatar. “A lot of leaders were promoted because they were strong operators. Then suddenly they are expected to step back, influence through others, and stay accountable for outcomes they no longer control directly.”
Tatar says this shift creates three common risks for organizations:
- Managers cling to execution instead of fully leading. Doing the work still feels more concrete and rewarding than coordinating it through others.
- Teams lose clarity when managers become bottlenecks. Wider spans can make it harder to give timely feedback, set priorities, and make decisions fast enough to keep momentum.
- Organizations treat the situation like a workload issue when it is also an identity shift. Moving from doer to orchestrator often requires a different mindset, clearer expectations, and more structural support.
Tatar says companies can make the transition more effective in three practical ways:
- Redefine what strong management looks like. If managers are still rewarded mainly for individual output, they will struggle to fully move into leadership.
- Build a more structured decision-making process into the role. Clear priorities, stronger delegation, and better operating rhythms reduce confusion and bottlenecks.
- Treat manager support as a business necessity, not a perk. If leaders are expected to coach more people and carry more ambiguity, they need the time and support to do that well.
“When companies flatten the organization, they cannot assume managers will automatically adapt,” Tatar adds. “If leaders are expected to coordinate more people with less direct control over the work, they need the structure and support to succeed. Otherwise, you do not get a stronger manager. You get a more overloaded one.”