The 70% Rule
Managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement. Not culture. Not perks. Not mission statements. The person running the weekly standup.
Gallup has studied engagement for decades. One finding keeps resurfacing: managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement scores.
Not compensation. Not the office snacks. Not the company's inspiring vision statement. The manager.
The mechanism is straightforward. Managers control the daily experience of work. They determine how goals are communicated, how feedback is delivered, how autonomy is granted or withheld. Culture is abstract until your manager makes it concrete through a hundred small decisions each week.
This has strategic implications. Most organizations invest heavily in enterprise-wide engagement programs while underinvesting in manager capability. The math suggests that's backwards. Every dollar spent on company-wide initiatives influences 30% of the outcome. Every dollar spent on managers influences 70%.
The nudge: If engagement is the goal, stop asking "how do we improve our culture?" Start asking "how do we improve our managers?" One is diffuse. The other is actionable.
