Read Time: 4 minutes.
Last week, a CEO came up to me as soon as I stepped off stage.
Two of his strongest ICs, in two different parts of the business, had been offered the manager job. Both said no. Not "not yet." No.
“Is this a Gen Z thing?”
Of course not I thought, but it turns out it might be. Robert Walters asked 3,600 Gen Z workers about it. 72% would rather advance as an individual contributor than manage. Ask them why and 7 in 10 say the same thing: too much stress, too little reward.
And Gallup's newest numbers point the same direction. Manager engagement fell from 31% to 22% in three years. Five of those points disappeared last year alone.
Several factors are conspiring to keep good people out of management. But the more people those factors dissuade, the more valuable that role becomes.
The good news? Each of those problems has a fix.
A fix well within our own control.
Nobody trained you. So train yourself.
The reason you got the job is the reason you're unprepared for it. You were the best IC. Companies promote output and hope you’ll just figure it out.
You might. But why not buy down that risk? The vast majority of managers who come through our programs got zero training before the first day. Same as I did.
Fix it. Stop waiting for L&D to find you. Give yourself a system before your team decides your in over your head. MGMT Fundamentals is 9 live sessions over 3 weeks. Six skills backed by six templates. It’s affordable for most managers, but 81% of students get their company to pay for it anyway.
You have no time to manage. So change the story your calendar tells.
A question I ask myself often: Do my actions support my goals?
McKinsey found middle managers spend less than 25% of their time actually managing people. Those tasks are crowded out by IC work they never handed off. And meetings. Meetings with low ROI they don’t feel empowered to say No to.
The player-coach model is increasingly common. But you can’t accept the coach role unless you create the time do actually do it.
Block it. One recurring hour per direct report, per week, before anything else lands on the calendar. Then skip the meetings where you can’t answer the question "what decision gets made here?" We wrote the whole playbook on the only three meetings you need.
You're accountable for everything and in charge of nothing. So manage in both directions.
The squeeze. Your boss wants certainty. Your team wants candor. You own results you can't personally produce.
44% of managers say bureaucracy is the biggest drag on the job. Only 20% say their company’s policies help them succeed.
Own it. Your boss doesn't want to manage either. They want you to manage them. So take them up on their unspoken offer. Bring the dashboard, the recommendation, and the decision before they ask. Here's how to run a 1:1 with your boss that gets you cover instead of chaos.
Bonus: Run this in reverse with your team.
They’ll feel empowered. And you’ll get more leverage.
You'll burn out. So decide what you're not doing.
43% of middle managers report burnout. Not tired. Burned out. And it's rarely the hours. It's the open loops: the conversation you're avoiding, the underperformer you're carrying, the project with no owner.
Close it. Every Friday, honestly review open items on your list to identify what you’re avoiding. Pick one. Schedule that conversation for Monday. Burnout is mostly the anxiety that accompanies deferred decisions.
The fastest way to close those loops is to stop guessing what good management looks like and run a system that already works. That's what we teach, live, starting Tuesday, September 15 at 11 AM ET.
Rated 9/10 by 500+ alumni. Enroll by midnight September14.
The reward is low. Until you look at the right horizon.
The fifth reason is the one everybody feels. The raise is small, the hours are long, and the title mostly buys you problems.
True at the start. Wrong over a career.
Every one of us hits a ceiling on what we can do alone. Sooner than we'd like. The only way past it is through other people, and that's the job nobody wants.
Which is exactly the opportunity.
Less competition. When strong people turn the job down, the ones who take it get asked to lead more people, sooner.
Judgment got scarce. AI is making everything cheap. Except making the right call. The person who decides, allocates, and coaches is the one the business can't replace.
You're grading the wrong manager. Most people evaluate the job based on the worst boss they ever had. Try the other question: what would it be like to be the best one your team ever had?
Will it be hard? Definitely. The things that build strength, that we're proudest of, that end up defining us, are almost always the hard ones.
The Close
If I were the CEO from the conference, I'd make those two offers again. Different pitch this time. Not "we need someone to run the team." More like "this is the hardest job in the company, and here's how we'll help you win."
And if you're the one being challenged to lead, don’t ask, "Is it worth it if I fail?"
Ask: "Who will I become when I succeed?"
Then go do the hard thing.
Lead on,
Dave & Mar
PS. MGMT Fundamentals starts Monday, September 15 at 11 AM ET. 9 live sessions over 3 weeks, taught by both of us, with 30 minutes of live coaching after every class. You leave with a simple system backed by six templates (Personal User Manual, Employee Heatmap, Expectations Grid, 7-Question Cascade, 10-Minute Diagnostic, 1:1 Dashboard) and three AI specialists that cut your effort in half.
Alumni say it's worth 25x what they paid. 81% got reimbursed. Come see why.
Ways To Work With Us
MGMT Accelerator: A live cohort-based leadership development program.
MGMT Fundamentals: A two-week training program for new managers.
Custom Programs: Workshops built and delivered for your company.
1:1 Executive Coaching: C-suite leaders looking to scale.
Keynote speaking: Leadership lessons for your event or offsite.\
Learn about them all at: davekline.com
