Fewer Are Choosing Management. But Some Still Should.
By Ethan Nash
You may have seen the headlines: fewer and fewer professionals are interested in becoming managers.
I’ve been reading the reports and thinking about this trend. Some people are saying it’s a bad sign. And I get that. But I think it’s more nuanced than that.
At one level, this shift might actually be a good thing.
Being an effective people-manager requires a very specific set of skills and emotional capacities. For too long, organizations have fallen into the Peter Principle trap: promoting top individual contributors into management roles simply because they were good at their jobs. But managing people is a completely different job.
The result? Lots of managers who don’t actually want to manage, aren’t good at it, and are burnt out by the demands of a role that doesn’t suit them. Thankfully, many organizations have caught on. They’re creating alternate career paths that don’t involve people management, and helping individuals assess their own strengths and preferences to better align their career choices.
That means fewer bad managers. Fewer mismatches. And more people in roles that actually fit them. That’s a win.
There’s another shift happening, too. Over the past few decades, we’ve seen a slow but steady move away from the old "command and control" style of management. (Although, clearly, not a total shift away.) Today, there's much more emphasis on empowerment, respect, service, and humility. And that’s filtered out some of the folks who used to pursue management as a path to power or authority. (Although, clearly, not all of them.) Another win.
But here’s where I start to worry.
While fewer people are opting into management for the wrong reasons, I think some people are opting out for the right reasons—but maybe prematurely.
Management is hard. It requires emotional resilience, emotional intelligence, and a tolerance for human complexity. Not everyone wants that strain in their lives. That’s fair.
But here’s the disconnect: research shows that younger workers, especially those under 35, care deeply about meaningful work, about making a difference. And yet, they’re the least likely to want to become managers.
That tells me we’re not doing a good enough job casting a compelling vision for what people-leadership is. For the kind of impact it can have. For the meaning it can hold.
Here’s what the research says:
Gallup and McKinsey have both found that an employee’s direct manager is the single biggest factor in their engagement and well-being.
Engagement is strongly tied to performance, retention, and customer satisfaction.
McKinsey found that relationships with managers are the top driver of job satisfaction, which in turn is the second biggest determinant of overall life satisfaction.
When people feel cared for by their manager, 94% report being engaged at work and 94% report a sense of well-being.
That’s not just about organizational performance. That’s about human impact.
If you want to make a difference in people’s lives, being a great manager is one of the most direct, tangible, high-leverage ways to do it.
It will be hard. You will get bruised. You will have to grow. Everyone won't like you. And you will make mistakes.
I didn’t get into management for noble reasons. When I was 19 and in college, I became a manager at a dining hall because it paid an extra dollar an hour. That meant six more beers a week! Sign me up.
But the beer money didn’t keep me in. The relational moments did. The very human, very real, very meaningful moments that I wouldn’t trade for anything. Moments like these:
Sitting with an employee while they processed difficult performance feedback...and watching them move from shame to acceptance, and eventually to real growth and confidence.
Letting someone go because it was best for the team, but being able to look them in the eye with honesty and respect, letting them know they still mattered to me, and then spending time outside of work helping them find a role that better fit their strengths.
Seeing someone I mentored get promoted...and hearing them reach out months later just to say thank you.
Receiving hard feedback myself (like being told I can come across as condescending when I mean to be direct), fighting the urge to defend myself, and instead choosing to listen and grow. And watching the person who gave that feedback gain confidence and trust in the process.
Crying with an employee whose father had just passed away...and then rearranging my job and life to make sure they had the time and space to grieve.
Celebrating a team success and feeling that rare, powerful sense of "we did this together."
It's these hard and meaningful moments that have kept me in management for the last decade and a half.
So if you’re someone who cares about people, who wants to do meaningful work, and who’s up for the challenge, don’t count yourself out too quickly.
And if you’re in a position of senior leadership, here’s my ask: Cast a better vision for what it means to lead people. Help your team see that management isn’t just a rung on the ladder—it’s a role with real human impact.
Because people don’t quit jobs. They quit managers. And often, people don’t stay for the job. They stay for the manager.
Let’s make sure the right people are stepping into this role. And let’s make sure they know why it matters.
