On April 7, 2026, Gallup published its annual State of the Global Workplace report: in 2025, only 22% of managers worldwide were engaged at work, down from 31% in 2022. This drop in manager engagement accounts for most of the decline in global engagement. For the owner of a small or mid-sized business, the answer is not one more motivation seminar: it is to clarify your managers' role, give them back time, and offer them a place to talk about what is getting in the way.
Key takeaways
- According to Gallup, 22% of managers were engaged in 2025, down from 27% in 2024 and 31% in 2022: the steepest yearly drop happened last year.
- Managers used to be clearly more engaged than the people they lead. That gap has almost disappeared: 22% versus 19% in 2025.
- It is not inevitable: in the organizations Gallup holds up as best practice, 79% of managers are engaged.
- The levers within reach of a small business are concrete: written expectations, less administrative load, a regular conversation with leadership and, when needed, outside support.
What is happening
The State of the Global Workplace 2026 report is based mainly on the Gallup World Poll: for 2025, 263,810 people surveyed from January to December, 141,444 of them employed, in more than 140 countries and territories. Gallup measures engagement, meaning being involved in and enthusiastic about one's work, through twelve statements. The first one is simple: "I know what is expected of me at work."
The global figure fell for the second year in a row: 20% of employees were engaged in 2025, down from 23% in 2022, its lowest level since 2020. But the decline is not evenly spread. Among managers, engagement went from 31% in 2022 to 30% in 2023, 27% in 2024 and then 22% in 2025, nine points lost in three years, five of them in the last year alone. Among other employees, it went from 20% to 19% over the same period, with a slight rebound last year. Gallup concludes that lower manager engagement accounts for most of the recent downturn.
Gallup sums it up this way: managers used to enjoy an "engagement premium" at work, but they are increasingly only as engaged as those they lead. The report suggests one explanation: where companies cut management roles, the remaining teams grow, and a Gallup study of U.S. managers shows that their engagement declines as their span of control widens. Manager talent and training can offset this effect.
The report also stresses one point: this decline is not inevitable. In the organizations Gallup identifies as best practice, found in every region and industry, 79% of managers were engaged in 2025, nearly four times the global average.
What falling manager engagement means for you
In a small business, the manager rarely carries that title. It is the workshop foreman, the site supervisor, the office manager, the team lead in customer service. Often they keep doing the work while leading others, and they are the link between leadership and the team. Gallup makes the point in the article that accompanies the report: for many employees, the manager is the main way they experience their employer.
When that person disengages, it rarely shows right away. The signs are quieter: every decision ends up on your desk, meetings shrink to status updates, the manager catches up in the evening on work they could not do during the day, or they stop suggesting anything. These are not matters of character. Most often they are matters of organization: a vague role, a workload that grew without anything being taken away, and no one to talk to about difficulties without it looking like an admission of weakness.
The good news is that a small business has an advantage here over a large group: the owner knows the managers, can talk to them directly and can change a rule without going through five levels of approval.
What I have learned
I have been on both sides. In the family joinery business, I started as a laborer: sweeping the workshop, loading the trucks, preparing job sites. I then learned site management, customer relations and logistics, until I ran the company. Being the one who receives instructions, then the one who has to give them, teaches one thing: you can only lead a team well if you know clearly what is expected of you, and what is not.
I applied it later when I set up a business from scratch, Alquimista Café. Beyond the construction work, I defined the role of each position, wrote a manual for each one and coached the manager in running the team, making decisions, handling the finances and dealing with customers, handing over responsibilities one at a time. In 2021, she bought the business. Motivation was not what made the difference; a clear framework and a gradual handover were.
Since then, I have become an ICI-certified Master Coach (Institut de Coaching International, 2023) and I support business leaders in their decisions. Monika, Head of Finance, whom I mentored in a mentoring program, sums up what such a space can bring: "I was able to clarify my exact goals and start achieving them one by one." That is often where everything starts: before trying to re-motivate someone, help them see clearly what they want and what is expected of them.
What to do in practice
1. Write down what you expect from each manager
One page is enough: their responsibilities, the decisions they can make alone, the ones that stay with you, and how you will judge that their work is successful. Go over it with them. Many managers discover on this occasion that they were carrying tasks no one had given them, and you may discover decisions they did not dare to make.
2. Take some of the admin off their plate
Ask them to note for one week what takes up their time without serving their team: double data entry, reports nobody reads, needless approvals, hunting for information. Remove what can be removed, simplify the rest, automate what repeats. Look at the size of their team too: if it has grown without their role being reviewed, that is an issue in its own right.
3. Hold a regular conversation that is not a status report
A fixed meeting between you and each manager, short, devoted to three questions: what is blocking you, what do you need, what can I take out of your way? The numbers have their own meeting. Here you talk about obstacles, and you are the one who leaves with action items.
4. Create a space where managers can talk to each other
In a small organization, a manager is often alone at their level. Bringing together those who lead others on a regular basis, without leadership or with it in the background, lets them share difficulties and solutions. Set one simple rule: what is said about people stays in the room.
5. Train them and get support yourself
Nobody is born a manager. Management training, mentoring or one-to-one coaching provide tools that experience alone takes years to deliver. Gallup also notes that talent and training offset the effect of larger teams. And the owner benefits from support too: it is often the owner's own organization that creates the managers' workload.
Frequently asked questions
Does the 22% figure apply to my company?
No, it is a global average from a survey of employees in more than 140 countries. It shows a trend, not the situation of your team. To know that, the surest way is to ask your managers, one to one, and listen to the answer.
Wouldn't a pay raise be enough?
Pay matters, but none of the twelve statements Gallup uses to measure engagement is about compensation. They are about clear expectations, the means to do the job, recognition, development and the feeling that one's opinion counts. These are organizational levers.
Do I need an outside coach?
Not necessarily. The first three steps above require no one but you. An outside view becomes useful when the same difficulties keep coming back, when the owner is part of the problem, or when a manager needs a space where they can speak freely.
Going further
If your managers are disengaging and you do not know where to start, I help you clarify roles, lighten the organization and support those who lead others: see Strategy & advisory. The simplest way to talk about it: a 20-minute call.
Sources
- State of the Global Workplace 2026, Gallup, report page, April 2026 (accessed November 10, 2026).
- State of the Global Workplace: 2026 Report, Gallup, full report (PDF), April 2026.
- Global Employee Engagement Continues Decline, Jim Harter and Ryan Pendell, Gallup, April 7, 2026.
Photo: Vitaly Gariev / Pexels (pexels.com).
Tags: manager engagement, management, small business, organization, executive coaching