How do burnt-out managers impact team success? Explore the surprising history of management, why ... [+]
Until recently, resilience wasn't a topic typically associated with leadership. Yet today, with high-stress work environments and historically low employee engagement, the future of management education might benefit from starting with one question: How resilient are your managers?
The History of Management
The word "manager" comes from the Latin manus, meaning "hand," and later evolved into the Italian maneggio, which meant "handling" or "control"—originally used in the context of training horses. By the 16th century, it started to refer to handling people, systems, and tasks, always emphasizing control and influence.
If you graduated from Harvard Business School in 1910, you'd have been steeped in Frederick Taylor's Scientific Management, a theory obsessed with efficiency and productivity—treating employees like interchangeable parts in a machine. During that era, management was all about clarity in goals and competency in execution.
As companies took on more complex functions, Taylor's theory was supplemented with a far more human centric understanding of the workplace. Competency and clarity surely mattered, but so did connection. By the 1930s, Elton Mayo's Hawthorne Studies revealed what might be obvious to those of us in the 21st century: motivated and engaged people produced better outcomes.
Fast forward to the 1980s, when companies like General Motors, IBM, and Ford began incorporating these insights into their management training. Human Resource departments went beyond administrative compliance and into workplace benefits, safety, and well-being. Nearly all operate on a simple premise: motivated people build better businesses.
In 2016, Google made headlines by publishing findings that their highest-performing teams were ones that had psychological safety (connection), clear structure (clarity), and dependability (competence).
Today, much of management training revolves around that consensus: connection, clarity, and competence. We have a sense of what the world needs from our managers. But this raises an important question: what do managers need from us to thrive in their roles?
The Modern Manager
The first thing to know about managers is that the majority of them are burnt out. They lack community and feel isolated in their roles. They weren't raised with, nor given, the tools to mitigate their stress. And only recently are they beginning to feel comfortable in openly naming it.
A burnt-out leader contributes — through a phenomenon known as emotional contagion — to a stressed, underproductive, inefficient team. Their stress leads them to think less clearly, and as a result, have fewer difficult conversations, and make short-sighted decisions which actually hinder the team's success.
A resilient leader has the opposite effect, through the exact phenomenon of contagion. A resilient leader that has learned how to manage their stress actually offers their team an example that they can aspire to, have more difficult conversations, and make better decisions that lead to their team's success.
Building Resilience
So how does a leader build resilience? Over the coming weeks and months, I'll share evidence-based tools that I've used with corporate executives and college students alike. I'll share stories from leaders on the frontline of management who've leveraged their personal experiences to build professional resilience.
And most importantly, I'll invite you to go inwards. Because the best advice likely comes from your own story. Here are three simple actions to get started on building your resilience as a leader, along with a few real-world examples from business leaders who are practicing it in their own way:
1. Study your most energizing days. What do your most energizing days look like? Reflect on themes, and look for patterns that sustain periods of high engagement and trust. Maybe it's time spent outdoors before coming into work; maybe it's focused, deep work that's creative; or maybe it's meaningful one-on-ones. Dan and Chip Heath published a book entitled "Switch," in which they argue that studying bright spots can actually be one of the most effective ways of driving change within an organization and oneself.
Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, starts her day in the morning with a blend of meditation, exercise, and family time. Those activities generally set her up to find pockets of energy through the rest of the day.
2. Create a ritual of "pause" that feels real to you. Build a small habit that lets you press pause on your otherwise stressed nervous system during your workday —whether it's a quick walk after a tough meeting, listening to your favorite song with your eyes closed, or a few minutes of comedy between calls.
Arjit Sengupta, CEO and founder of Aible, took dance classes during his time at Stanford. He later found that dancing was an activity he grew to love and that was central to his capacity to be creative. He got dance floors installed in his office, and ringtones that triggered dance moves for him.
3. Find one friend you can share the realities of your day with. Research has shown that just a few minutes of genuine connection with someone you trust can reduce stress and make work feel less isolating. Sharing what's on your mind, confidentially, with someone else can actually help reduce the burden that you might feel you're carrying alone.
A group of Japanese CEOs across industries regularly met during the pandemic to discuss challenges and share personal stories. These gatherings not only provided emotional support but also helped the leaders adopt more flexible strategies in their companies, moving from rigid planning models to dynamic, adaptable approaches.
A New Frontier for Management Education
The more you study your own life, the clearer the path to resilient leadership becomes. Management training has long overlooked this inner work. But if we begin the conversation by going inwards, we might be able to skillfully move outwards and build the future of work.
