Management Perspectives

We are in the middle of a global productivity crisis. Last year’s ‘quiet quitting’ trend—where employees psychologically disengage from work, doing the bare minimum required to hold onto their jobs— shows no sign of abating. Indeed, Gallup’s research suggests that the majority of the world’s employees are quietly quitting, with nearly six in 10 employees falling into this category. Perhaps it is no surprise when global employee engagement levels are just 23 per cent—meaning that the remaining c. 2.5 billion people are unhappy at work. Inevitably, this low engagement has a high price tag, costing the global economy a staggering $8.9 trillion, or 9 per cent of global GDP, according to Gallup’s research1 . From an employer’s perspective, the knock-on effect on their own productivity and profitability is extremely bad news. So what’s going on? Why are employees so disengaged?

The cost of poor management

One of the key findings of Gallup’s most recent State of the Global Workplace 2024 report2 is that employee stress levels are at a record high, with 41 percent of employees worldwide stating that they experienced a lot of stress the previous day. One of the key reasons for this? Poor management. “Those who work in companies with bad management practices are nearly 60 per cent more likely to be stressed than people working in environments with good management practices”, their research states. It’s a fact that good managers engage their people and bad managers don’t. As the saying goes, “You don’t quit a job, you quit your boss.” There’s a wealth of research to support this, including a 2022 study by Inpulse which found that employees who feel wellsupported by their manager are 3.4 times more likely to feel engaged at work.

Anecdotally, it’s something we all also know to be true; we all remember that one manager who nurtured us and encouraged us to find our own voice, and conversely, we never forget the micromanagers who made our working lives miserable. But, while in the past employees were more likely to ‘put up and shut up’ if they experienced a bad manager, Gen Z and young Millennial employees are more inclined to vote with their feet if the workplace doesn’t live up to their expectations—and research suggests that this demographic is currently the least engaged at work.

A 2024 CNBC survey3 found that almost half of Gen Z workers say they’re just ‘coasting’ at work, with 42 per cent claiming they’re just working for the paycheck. This is particularly worrying, as by 2025, Gen Z workers will make up 27 per cent of the workplace.

Employers simply can’t afford to ignore them. What’s clear is that Gen Z individuals want to work for organisations that align with their own values around inclusivity and equal opportunities for all. Research by Deloitte Digital4 found that Gen Z employees place a high value on empathy from their bosses—indeed, they consider it a prerequisite in the workplace. This means that the traditional ‘commandand-control’ approach to management simply has no place in the modern workplace. A new, more human-focused approach is needed— one that actively inspires and encourages employees of all demographics, not just Gen Z, to operate at their highest level of potential. Management should be about empowering, not instructing.

Operationalising coaching…

So, what does this look like in practice? The idea of ‘manager as coach’ has been popular in recent years, but for time-starved managers, the prospect of individually coaching employees can seem like just another box to tick on an already overcrowded to-do list. In reality, the ‘manager as coach’ model has had limited success. Managers just cannot find the time to conduct formal coaching sessions, and when they do manage to, they encounter a conflict when trying to coach team members who report directly to them and for whom they hold their own agendas.

Consequently, coaching in its current form, even when supported by an organisation’s own internal coaches, typically reaches fewer than 1 per cent of employees. Shifting the focus away from teaching managers how to conduct structured, planned (and time-consuming) individual coaching sessions to focus instead on the behavioural aspects related to coaching, is a pathway to helping managers integrate coaching into their daily practices.

Bringing coaching into the flow of work without having to make any adjustments to their schedules is achieved by learning to utilise more of an enquiryled approach. Helping managers to develop a new management practice and adopt an Operational Coaching® style of management enables managers to have ‘in the moment’ daily coaching conversations with their employees. And there’s a simple but effective model all managers can learn to apply, that helps them to achieve this: the STAR® model.

STOP: When an employee comes to you with a problem, as their manager, you must learn to stop, take a step back, and overcome your natural inclination to step in and solve the problem for them.

THINK: This gives you the space to think about whether the situation an employee has presented offers a coachable moment.

ASK: Mastering the art of asking powerful, thought-provoking questions and then actively listening to your employees allows you to ditch the ‘fix and solve’ response, and instead presents the other person with a learning opportunity to become independent, solution-driven problem solvers.

RESULT: Work with the employee to secure a commitment to a result from this coachable moment, so they act on their ideas. You may need to ask a few more questions to agree on the appropriate follow-up, increasing the likelihood that action will be taken and providing a future opportunity to give appropriate appreciative feedback.

The STAR® model shows managers how to change their own behaviour, which is much easier than trying to change everyone else’s. This is then less about ‘control’ and more about ‘enablement’, as managers encourage employees to problem-solve and look for solutions themselves, giving them the tools to find answers rather than simply telling them what to do. Not only does this help employees develop and progress, providing them with the skills to succeed in future, but it also gives managers valuable time back—as much as 20 per cent in some instances. The impact of Operational Coaching® as a management discipline has already been assessed by a large-scale randomised control trial, funded by the UK Government and conducted by the London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE).

The results proved (statistically significantly) that across 62 organisations in 14 sectors, managers were spending 70 per cent more time coaching team members in the flow of work than they were before adopting an Operational Coaching® style of management. They also improved their capabilities across all nine competencies measured, contributing to a sixfold improvement in employee retention, and 48 per cent of reported successes related to increased engagement and productivity. By reframing the purpose and intention of management to be about helping others to develop and empowering them to act, and embedding coaching into the organisational structure in a way that does that, organisations can rehumanise their workplaces, ensuring they are places where employees feel valued, supported, and able to grow.

And happy employees are engaged employees, resulting in increased productivity as well as lower absenteeism from work. As Gallup CEO, John Clifton, says: “So, what can leaders do today to potentially save the world? Gallup has found one clear answer; Change the way your people are managed.”