Leadership
The manager effect: why line managers shape employee wellbeing
Ask employees what made a job good or bad for their wellbeing and most will describe a manager. Gallup's research suggests managers account for around 70 per cent of the variance in team engagement. If wellbeing is infrastructure, managers are the people who operate it every day.
By Jacqueline Klemke · · 6 min read
Why managers matter more than programmes
Managers decide who gets which work, how deadlines are set, whether mistakes are discussed openly and whether someone can leave on time. Each of these decisions affects stress, recovery and belonging far more directly than an optional webinar.
Many managers were promoted for technical skill and never trained for this part of the role. Expecting them to support wellbeing without support of their own sets them up to fail, and often harms their own wellbeing too.
Behaviours that make the biggest difference
Across the research, a small set of behaviours appears again and again.
- Regular one-to-ones that include workload and wellbeing, not only tasks
- Clear priorities, including explicit decisions about what will not be done
- Responding to mistakes with curiosity rather than blame
- Modelling healthy boundaries, such as not sending messages late at night
- Recognising effort specifically and promptly
- Knowing when and how to signpost to professional support
Building manager capability
One-off training rarely changes behaviour. Combine short practical sessions with peer groups where managers discuss real situations, simple conversation guides, and team-level data they can act on.
Make wellbeing part of how managers are evaluated and supported. If performance reviews reward only output, managers will rationally prioritise output.
Look after managers too
Middle managers often carry pressure from both directions. Give them realistic spans of control, their own space to raise concerns and permission to push back on unrealistic demands.
Frequently asked questions
- Should managers be mental health experts?
- No. Managers need to notice changes, hold supportive conversations and signpost to professional help. Diagnosis and treatment belong with qualified professionals.
- How do you measure a manager's impact on wellbeing?
- Team-level pulse surveys on workload, psychological safety and recognition, alongside absence and turnover data, show patterns over time when reported above an anonymity threshold.
- What is the quickest win?
- Structured one-to-ones that include a short question about workload and wellbeing. They are low cost and surface problems early.