The managers between the top and the front line: team leaders, heads of department, managers of managers. They translate direction into day-to-day work, and in 2026 they are the layer with the fastest-falling engagement and the lowest psychological safety.
Whether employees use AI and experience it as an improvement depends mainly on whether their own manager visibly supports it. At the same time, half of HR directors doubt their managers can do this, and training alone does little as long as those managers are overloaded.
Publications per month for The manager's role in how employees use AI
Technical managers in the software industry are once again writing and reviewing code themselves. LeadDev sees the share of engineering managers doing more hands-on work rise from 20 to 35 per cent in a year, and engineers spend more time directing AI agents.
Publications per month for Engineering managers writing code and engineers directing AI agents
Worldwide, manager engagement is falling faster than that of their employees, while organisations cut management layers and hand more to the managers who remain. Gallup identifies this fall as the main cause of the global dip in engagement.
Publications per month for Engagement and workload of managers and their teams
Middle managers feel less free to voice mistakes and doubts than their own bosses and their own teams, and newly promoted managers least of all. Yet they are the layer expected to model psychological safety in teams. Culture work that skips this layer does not land.
Publications per month for Psychological safety of middle managers and their role in teams
In May 2026, 56 per cent of US managers were looking for another job, and worldwide 40 per cent of managers under increased stress had considered giving up leadership altogether. The layer that organisations thinned out themselves is now thinning out of its own accord.
Publications per month for Unbossing and why middle managers want to leave
Supermarkets are giving shop-floor staff AI help and want to hand store managers' admin to agents. McKinsey and Albert Heijn expect managers to oversee both people and agents. For 70 per cent of executives surveyed, the effect on results is not yet measurable.
Publications per month for AI on the shop floor and the changing role of the supermarket team leader
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