anager at somepoint in their career.” When I look at those stats, I’m not surprised. I have quit a job because of a lackluster boss,and I suspect you have, too. But should we accept that over half of our workforce have quit ajob due to a poor manager? What if the job they are going to quit is in your business, today? Would you let it persist? This is costing companies money — and lots of it Gallup goes on to tell us that managers hold the key for up to 70 per cent of employee engagement.And that 70 per cent of engagement, equates to a difference of 20 per cent in productivity and in profit.Stop for a moment and do the maths for your business. How much is that 20 per cent worth to you? Most business owners might invest in engagement activities — large businesses certainly do, alot. But they rarely — if ever — focus 70 per cent of that investment on their managers. And theyshould — managers have a key role in deciding workload, fixing (or ignoring) ongoing issues,have power over career progress and are — let’s face it — the ‘face’ of company leadership (allmajor drivers of the Great Resignation by the way). That means that you can’t afford to ignore them, bypass them or override them. You need toinvest in them — because if managers are engaged, then so is your workforce — Gallup tells usthat employees who work for an engaged manager are 59 per cent more likely to be engaged. It’s easy to neglect your managers We often neglect our experienced leaders in the chaos of running a business. They are theones who know what they are doing, maybe were hired because they’ve done it before, andtherefore are apparently the least ‘needy’ — for which you may be grateful. But don’t be fooled into thinking that their professional, capable demeanour means they arehighly engaged — they are often struggling more than their teams, with DDI reportingburnout in 60 per cent of managers. Managers — especially mid-level leaders, who I call the B-Suite — are typically the leastinvested-in cohort in both large and small organisations. According to Gallup: Only four in 10 managers “strongly agree” with the statement, “This last year, I have hadopportunities at work to learn and grow.” And just one in three managers strongly agree with the statement, “There is someone atwork who encourages my development.” Our mission is to reverse this state of affairs — in order to increase employee engagement anddeliver better corporate performance. The good news? It’s easy to re-engage them. Here’show: Start at the top. If you, the business owner, is burned out, stressed or disengaged,then your leaders will be too. You’re not immune to the pressures of a volatile market,post-pandemic personal recovery — Deloitte’s research shows that executives arestruggling too. But you’re the start of the culture cascade effect — the shadow youcast over your organisation is by far the longest. So if you’re showing up disengaged,then your leaders have no chance of being engaged, or of engaging your workforce. Take a long good look at your leaders: Are they disinterested, exhausted, exhibitingcontrolling tendencies or rarely present? Could you be ignoring that at the detrimentof your performance and your culture? Invest intelligently: Your leaders want development, but they value a blend of self-paced learning, peer-to-peer experiences and external perspectives. They are tooexperienced for ‘management training’, too busy for traditional models that take toomuch time on top of their already busy working week, and find internal mentorsdifficult to fully open up to. Lead with clarity: We often hear about “Start with Why”, a phrase coined by SimonSinek in his world-famous Ted Talk, and it’s a great tip for business leaders to adopt. Some real examples of a clear ‘why’ include: Why are we focused on revenue-only right now, and how long for? Why am I asking you to do this? Why is it beneficial to me personally to get on board with this?