So, where have all the leaders gone? Recent research finds only 17 per cent of those surveyed aspire to be managers, and almost half of those in management roles reckon there’s just too much pressure in top jobs.
Even allowing for a touch of Weltschmerz generated by the cost of living, interest-rate rises and cold weather, those figures are a surprise.
Whatever happened to overweening ambition and the desire to climb the corporate ladder at any cost?
Has Covid-19 turned us into homebodies happier doing the garden at the weekend rather than worrying about how to make our direct reports more productive?
Ceridian’s 2023 Pulse of Talent research report found only 17 per cent of Australians described becoming a people manager as their highest career aspiration; 27 per cent regretted becoming a people manager; 49 per cent reported that there was too much pressure in managing; and 47 per cent said they did not have enough support from people higher up the chain.
Brian Donn, managing director (AU-NZ) of Ceridian, which provides HR software and services to companies, argues the pandemic has skewed the way people are crafting their careers.
He says “flexibility is definitely king now for most employees and is even ranked higher than pay for some”, so that many people just don’t want the responsibility of leadership.
As well, remote workers no longer have the physical connection with a manager, who once guided them towards leadership, so they can’t really see what leadership looks like.
“I think a lot of those bonds were broken through the pandemic,” he says. “And it’s going to be the way it is from now on.”
If Donn is right and this dearth of aspirational employees is permanent, business will have to think a little more laterally about ensuring enough talented people become leaders, especially if a proportion of people dig their heels in and insist on a hybrid work model.
We know already that leadership is changing as bosses work out how to lead distributed workers, many of whom they no longer see regularly. But leaders are still needed – to offer guidance, determine strategy, make decisions, but also, perhaps most importantly, to take responsibility.
The Ceridian boss links the low interest in management jobs to an increase in burnout in the workplace – a subject that continues to buzz as politicians and high-profile sports people exit top jobs, citing exhaustion. Companies need to offer options – training, for example – to employees who get stuck in their careers, he says.
Donn says while politicians have become more open about admitting to burnout, many in the corporate world are wary of the word for fear of affecting their chances of getting another job. “People need to be able to talk about it,” Donn says, noting that his company is about to launch a “burnout dashboard” as part of its technology offering.
It will collate data on employees – absenteeism, lack of engagement online, failing to take annual leave – that point to potential mental health or burnout risks. In effect, it will alert managers to employees who might need help.
It’s yet another adaptation. Once you could see a direct report who sat, immobilised at a desk – present but not engaged. It’s more difficult to spot someone in trouble if they are out of sight, working from home. As Donn says: “Tools can help plug the gap because we don’t have that physical connection as much these days.”
Covid-19 and burnout may well have taken the shine off management in recent years, but deeper cultural shifts have changed attitudes. Among them is the rise of interest in the planet and purpose and the demands from younger workers, in particular, for work that makes sense as well as money. It’s not entirely new: in the 1990s the mantra of doing good and doing well at the same time turbocharged the “Fast Company” approach to capitalism. As well, technology was disrupting business models at the same time as the world began to think seriously about issues such as sustainability.
Like all big social and cultural movements, the trend to seeing work as meaningful and meeting individual desires for purpose, waxed and waned with economic and other political developments. But there has been a steady progression, accelerated by the forced exit from the office caused by the pandemic, towards a very different approach to work.
That desire for meaning, balance, flexibility is often in tension with the desire to be constantly connected via technology.
Ceridian research finds less than 50 per cent of people say they are able to completely disconnect when they are on holidays. It’s an “always on” culture that threatens the mental health of some and arguably adds to burnout, but it also offers great opportunities for connection, learning, entertainment and, it must be said, productivity.
But it’s increasingly individual. Even team work is often now done online, with written rather than verbal exchanges of information. Companies are struggling with how to get the correct mix of in-person and remote work, but the trend away from the group, at least in some sectors, seems inevitable. Little surprise perhaps there is less enthusiasm for taking on the responsibilities of management.
All of which suggests something of a challenge ahead in a world that is growing more complex: we might need to flick the switch so leadership is seen as a positive, rather than an onerous exercise.
Here’s an (inspirational) starting point, from management guru Peter Drucker: “Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitation.”
Plenty of purpose in that job description.
Read related topics:Coronavirus