Your Managers Need Some Attention

Gallup just released their  2026 State of the Global Workplace

It’s a lot. 251 pages.

More charts than a founder’s dream deck on crack.

No CEO is going to read it.

You know what they say about how to eat an elephant.

You don’t.

Here are a few morsels relevant to CEOs.

First, overall, it’s not bad.

The workplace is holding.

Especially in the US and Canada.

Surprisingly, manager engagement is down.

From 40% engaged in 2022 to 36% in 2025.

Here’s the nugget for the enlightened CEO:

In 2025, Gallup found that within best-practice organizations, 79% of managers were engaged at work, nearly 4 times the global average.

Managers also play a critical role in meaningful AI adoption.

There’s one more thing.

Leaders have higher life evaluations but worse days than those they lead.

The interpretation is “Overall, life is pretty good, but man, today sucked.”

My take on the report is that the mentally-fit CEO who intentionally puts more focus on their leaders will see greater engagement, higher productivity, and significantly more AI adoption.

I know it seems obvious, but sometimes amidst all the noise, we can’t see what’s right in front of us.