Around half of young managers are directionless at UK organisations

Young managers (under 35 years) don’t have clarity of organisational goals. Yet, 59% of organisations expect managers to take responsibility for developing their teams.

Managers’ desire to know organisational priorities lowers as they become more mature; 37% of managers over 55 years old feel directionless.

Just 53% of young managers have clarity on how they support organisational goals, according to the ‘Building Better Managers’ research by Mind Tools.

Conducted in partnership with YouGov, the research surveyed 2,001 managers across 12 industries to identify the critical foundational skills and capabilities needed to be a ‘good manager’ in a modern business context.

It highlighted that one of the top three requests from managers is to know what their organisation thinks they should be focusing on. Yet, according to Mind Tools, organisations either have too broad of expectations for managers or aren’t being transparent about what managers should be prioritising. The problem is exacerbated by context and different sectors needing different skills.

Interestingly, managers’ desire to know organisational priorities lowers as they become more mature, with only 37% of managers over 55 years old feeling directionless.

In addition, the longer managers stay in their role, the less they want to find out about their own strengths and weaknesses - 39% of managers of over five years think this compared to 51% of young managers with a tenure of less than a year.

Nahdia Khan, Chief Impact Officer at Mind Tools, said: “Managers are expected to lead others while showing vulnerability to those they answer to. They have to support decisions they didn’t make, translate organisational goals into actions, identify meaningful opportunities for people to develop, remember to acknowledge successes, regulate their emotions, and resolve team conflicts.

“Yet, lack of training for all managers remains an issue. When senior managers haven’t received adequate training on how to set priorities and align them with company goals, the younger managers working for them end up feeling lost and lacking direction. With 59% of managers relying on their line managers to solve problems at work, bad habits can quickly get passed down through the organisation, fuelling confusion and loss of productivity.”

The research further highlighted the importance of L&D for younger managers. Indeed, 80% of managers are willing to leave if they are not provided with learning opportunities. Yet, less than half of young managers (44%) ranked ‘guidance’ as one of the most important manager capabilities in 2024, showing that managers’ enthusiasm for L&D fails to translate to the people they manage.

Nahdia Khan added: “Without direction, L&D strategy within organisations also becomes impacted: 59% of organisations expect managers to take responsibility for developing the skills of their people. In addition, the younger generation cares the most about learning and development. Organisations need to take this very seriously, considering they are the ones who will define the future of workplace management.”

“With experience, managers develop a better understanding of what they’re good at. But only by a factor of 1.12 after five or more years in the role. Experience is important, but it’s not everything. It is, therefore, necessary for organisations to identify reliable ways to measure and track management capabilities across a manager’s full career,” concludes Nahdia.