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Your Managers Don't Need More Grit. They Need Fewer Direct Reports.

Writer: Eric Jones
Eric Jones
3 days ago
2 min read

Managers are not failing because they lack grit.

Many are failing because the org chart quietly turned leadership into air-traffic control.

The “Great Flattening” removed management layers, then loaded the remaining managers with wider spans, heavier individual-contributor work, constant change and more emotional labour. Gallup reports that average direct reports rose from 10.9 in 2024 to 12.1 in 2025. Twenty-two percent of managers now supervise 10–24 people, while 13% supervise 25 or more.

That is not a character problem. It is a design problem.

Count

Span of control is not just an efficiency metric. It determines how much attention a manager can give to coaching, conflict, decisions and healthy team relationships.

Gallup’s 2026 research found that managers with substantial individual-contributor workloads can stay engaged with small teams. As team size grows, however, their engagement falls while burnout and stress rise.

  • Count direct reports.

  • Count individual-contributor responsibilities.

  • Count the meetings, approvals and escalations that consume attention.

  • Treat skipped 1:1s as workload data, not a personal failure.

3D clayart illustration of a manager surrounded by expanding direct-report icons, task folders and notifications

Redesign

More resilience training will not fix a structurally impossible role.

Gallup’s span-of-control research found that 97% of U.S. managers carry individual-contributor responsibilities on top of leading people, spending a median of 40% of their time on that work, and their engagement drops as spans of control widen. Harvard Business Review’s interviews with managers at two consulting firms also found that AI adoption is often treated as a technology project, pushing information overload and adoption pressure onto middle management.

Try this:

  • Reduce low-value approvals and reporting.

  • Clarify what the manager owns, and what the team can decide.

  • Protect coaching time before adding another initiative.

  • Set span-of-control guardrails based on complexity, not cost alone.

Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2026 report found global engagement fell to 20% in 2025, with manager engagement at 22%. The estimated productivity loss is roughly $10 trillion. Managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement.

That is a serious return-on-relationship warning.

3D clayart illustration of leaders balancing team structures into two healthier groups around separate managers

Relate

Relationship capacity is not simply a personality trait. It is a design decision.

A manager with 25 direct reports may care deeply and still lack the time to notice withdrawal, repair tension or offer meaningful feedback. No amount of “be more resilient” advice creates hours that do not exist.

Resilience-based leadership means matching responsibility with capacity. It may include workplace resilience support, team wellness coaching and practical conversations about workload, boundaries and connection.

Roxanne’s ROR: Return on Relationship reminds leaders that performance grows through authentic connection, not connection squeezed into the margins.

What would your managers do differently if their spans matched the relationships they are expected to lead?

Where has your organization mistaken endurance for sustainable leadership?

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© 2035 by Roxanne Dehodge.

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