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Control is an illusion
Modern management has become an impossible job. A single person is expected to simultaneously be a visionary, technical expert, coach, conflict mediator, resource allocator, bureaucrat, and politician. The span of control for the average manager has expanded from seven direct reports in the 1980s to over eleven today, while the complexity of work has increased exponentially. The result of that flattening is a management bottleneck that slows organizations to a crawl, burns out managers, reduces decision quality, and disengages teams while they watch their work and careers stall.
The data tell the story. In Microsoft’s global Work Trend Index, 64% of workers say they struggle with the time and energy to do their jobs, and 68% say they lack uninterrupted focus time during the workday. A McKinsey survey of 1,200 managers found fewer than half say decisions are timely, and 61% say at least half of the time spent making decisions is ineffective; they estimate this wastes ~530,000 manager‑days/year—about $250M in wages—at a typical Fortune 500 company. Burnout is widespread: 53% of managers reported being burned out in Microsoft’s 2022 Work Trend Index pulse. The financial stakes are huge: Gallup estimates low engagement costs the global economy ~$8.9 trillion annually (≈9% of global GDP).