The U.S. workforce may be in a leadership crisis: Recent research has suggested that nobody wants to be a supervisor anymore.
More than half of surveyed job seekers who are or were managers said they have left their roles — or plan to do so — because of a lack of fulfillment or advancement. Likewise, the majority of Gen Zers surveyed said they would rather develop their individual expertise than manage fellow workers, according to the results from Express Employment Professionals.
This is a trend sometimes called “conscious unbossing,” which Jennifer Dulski, CEO and founder of Rising Team, a talent development platform provider, defines as a “growing reluctance — especially among Gen Z — to step into management roles as a way to protect their mental health and wellbeing.”
But conscious unbossing isn’t just a term from the HR side of social media. One chief people officer told that she’s seen this on her own teams, as well as in her career coaching work.
It’s refreshing to see talent who aren’t focused solely on moving up, but want to strengthen their expertise or try a lateral move, Jenny Shiers, CPO of Unily, an employee experience platform. That’s because on the flip side, she said she has seen high achievers promoted to leadership positions unsuccessfully.
“A strong individual contributor doesn’t always make for a strong manager or leader of people,” Shiers continued. “The skill sets are different, which is why organizations must invest development dollars on manager capability.”
Employees may be reluctant to become a supervisor because today’s workforce prioritizes mental health, flexibility, and autonomy over the traditional hierarchical management, Express Employment International’s director of talent acquisition and retention, Alisha Chappell.
That’s because they see traditional supervisory roles as high stress and low reward, she said. Supervisors deal with budget cuts, demands to increase productivity, low engagement and the imperative to bridge the generational workplace gaps, “all for a slight bump in pay,” Chappell said.
Dulski’s take on the situation echoed Chappell’s: “Many people are hesitant to step into leadership roles right now because, frankly, it’s harder than ever to be a manager. Organizations are asking managers to lead larger teams with fewer layers of support and fewer tools to help them succeed.”
And when companies do provide support, the methods are outdated, said Dulski, who is also a lecturer at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. Her view is also that most manager trainings are designed for executives — not frontline supervisors — and require lots of valuable time.
