“My managers are overwhelmed. But I don’t have time to coach them.”
Your middle managers are firefighting. You are firefighting. Nobody has time for a leadership programme right now.
But if you don’t support your managers now, you will burn through them, and the team with them. They are the ones keeping the chaos more or less contained. They are also the ones people quit because of.
The answer is not a three-day offsite. It is small moves that actually land. Here is how to develop managers in 20 minutes a week, even when everything is on fire.
1. Teach through real work, not generic feedback
Don’t wait for the performance review. Try: “Let’s take 15 minutes and walk through how you handled that conversation (or that decision). What worked? What would you do differently next time?”
That is coaching. It sticks because it is real, not theory.
2. Use a weekly delegation check-in
Once a week, ask: “What are you still doing that someone else could own?”
If the answer is “it’s faster if I do it myself”, that is short-term thinking. A manager who doesn’t delegate now will never get their head above water.
3. Give them one decision they fully own
Managers don’t learn by watching. They learn by deciding. Say: “This is your call. I won’t override it. Just keep me in the loop if there’s a risk I need to know about.”
4. Find where they are stuck, and why
Most overwhelmed managers are not bad at managing. They are stuck in old habits:
- saying yes to everything,
- shielding their team from pressure from above without ever pushing back,
- trying to be liked instead of respected,
- avoiding difficult conversations.
Ask: “What’s one conversation you are avoiding right now?” Then coach that, not their leadership philosophy.
5. Lead by example: visibly, not perfectly
They are watching how you lead under pressure. If you cancel all your one-to-ones, they will too. If you avoid naming problems, they will stay silent. If you burn yourself out, they will copy that as well.
They don’t need a perfect role model. They need someone who is clear, calm and consistent.
Don’t wait for things to calm down
They won’t. Develop your managers in the middle of it. That is what makes them ready for whatever comes next.
The research agrees with the practice. Gallup has found that managers account for most of the variation in how engaged teams are, and that managers themselves are among the most stressed and least supported people in organisations. Supporting them is not a nice extra. It is how you protect the whole team.
If your managers are running on empty, I work with organisations on leadership and executive coaching, Leadership Under Pressure™ programmes and Performance & Wellbeing Audits, in English and Polish. Book a free 30-minute conversation to talk about your team.
Further reading: Gallup, State of the Global Workplace (2024 and 2025 reports), on managers and team engagement. First published by Kasia Biernacka on LinkedIn as part of her “Real Leadership Dilemmas” series.
Kasia Biernacka is an organisational psychologist and leadership advisor based in Belgium, with more than 20 years in HR and leadership development. She has talked about the hidden cost of living in “I’ll manage” mode in interviews for Onet and iKobiece.pl (both in Polish).
