Why Being a “Good Manager” Looks Different in 2026
Remember your first promotion to people manager? You may have felt excited, proud, rapidly moving to apprehension, fear or worse still, panic. Let’s face it, leadership isn’t easy. If it was, we’d see more great leaders. It’s especially tricky when you’re thrown in at the deep end with no supporting development.
Frequently, there’s a silent pressure to ‘prove’ you deserve the role- it may stem from your inner voice or from external judgment relating to the question of ‘why you’ being promoted. Trying to find your new rhythm is hard. The organisation’s ‘rules’ and ‘beliefs’ may well feel outdated.
In the absence of any formal development, a common trap for first-time managers is to do more of what made them successful in their previous role and hope for the best.
What Leads to Overwhelmed Managers?
New managers may well be getting unhelpful messages and expectations:
- Make yourself available and accessible at all times
- You need to have all the answers
- Role model to your team by working harder and longer hours
- Don’t let your team see any weakness
- Leave your human side outside work
The Reality of Leading in 2026
Navigating the modern workplace is nuanced and complex. If you’re finding it tough, it’s no surprise when you consider the rapidly evolving realities:
- Hybrid teams
- Navigating a world where AI is evolving at a rapid pace
- Mismatch between employer vs. employee expectations
- Rapid change and unclear priorities
- Economic uncertainty
- Changing expectations with flexible working
- Legislative changes creating complexity
- Teams expecting more autonomy
- Workload pressures
Cutting Through the Noise
As a first-time manager, there’s a few things you can do from outset:
- Create clarity: agree priorities and direction with your team even if you don’t have absolute clarity on goals. Communicate expectations.
- Build trust: start by getting to know your team, understand what makes them tick as individuals. Demonstrate emotional intelligence-self-awareness and empathy go a long way. Include all your team.
- Accountability: be clear about individual roles and accountabilities. Focus on impact and don’t micromanage.
- Be human: admit you don’t know everything and tap into the expertise within your team. Prioritise wellbeing (you and your team). Be kind and compassionate.
- Coach your team: enable your team rather than leaping in to problem solve. Start by asking questions.
- Recognition: a thank-you goes a long way, particularly when you take time to highlight the specifics and impact.
Is The Employment Relationship Balance Right?
The challenge is how to strike the balance between employer and employee expectations. We’ve seen a dramatic shift in employee expectations, with demands for greater flexibility and autonomy; accelerated by the enforced hybrid arrangements during the pandemic. Not to mention that the biggest changes to employment legislation in decades are going to hit the workplace. With tighter budgets, people may also find they’re expected to take on more with less resource.
Some questions come to mind:
- Where’s the compromise in relation to employer vs. employee expectations?
- How clear was the employer about expectations from the outset?
- Is the manager being transparent and honest with the employee about what’s possible?
- Is the employer setting the employee up with an unmanageable workload?
- Is the employee being reasonable in their request?
- Is what the employee is requesting supported by specific legislation?
When the scales tip and one side’s expectations outweigh the other’s (in a way that causes issues), it’s about exploring what’s realistic and feasible from both perspectives in the employment relationship before things go too far.
We can’t lose sight of the fact that organisations employ people to do a job with tangible outputs, but the reality is that employing people comes with additional expectations. Gone are the days of turning up to work, leaving your outside work issues at home, doing your job, going home, getting paid and not expecting your employer to offer more over and above.
With my mediator’s hat on, I would say that it starts with clear expectations, listening on both sides-open and honest conversations and a willingness to flex. That means that there needs to be transparency that not everybody will get what they want all of the time; particularly as expectations are so varied across any team. After all, the employment relationship isn’t a zero-sum game.
Kay Gunn is a specialist in developing first-time people managers. To understand more about the programmes she offers, please get in contact: kay@kaygunn.com
