What needs to change so people want to be managers again?

It’s time to stop blaming the talent pool for not wanting management roles and start fixing what we’ve turned those roles into and the support we provide to perform in them, writes Rebecca Houghton.

Only 6 per cent of Gen Zs say their primary career goal is to reach a leadership position, according to Deloitte’s latest survey.

Yikes.

It mirrors BoldHR’s own research, which profiled more than 1,000 existing managers and found fewer than 14 per cent are motivated by promotion.

Let’s put Deloitte’s six per cent into organisational design terms:

Six managers for every 100 employees. That’s nearly 17 direct reports per leader.

No organisation is built to function at that ratio. And certainly not when this generation is asking for more coaching, more development, and let’s be honest–more quasi-therapy sessions from their managers, not less.

We are staring down the barrel of a serious leadership void.

And if your instinct is to say, “That’s fine, we’re streamlining!” or “AI will fill the gap!”–you might want to check the maths first.

Gen Z and Millennials are set to make up 74 per cent of the global workforce by 2030. That’s already locked in. At the same time, Baby Boomers are quietly leaving the building–around 500 experienced leaders retire every day in Australia alone.

So, who exactly are we expecting to take the reins, if only 6 per cent of Gen Zs say they want to lead?

If the grand plan is to let AI handle the rest, good luck.

The tech isn’t ready. And even when it is, it won’t replace human judgment, emotional intelligence, or the ability to read and lead a room.

Not convinced? Fast forward a few years. The Boomers are gone. The AI’s glitching. Your managers have gratefully slid back into individual contributor roles. And your one remaining manager is on Teams, trying to coach 100 direct reports.

It sounds ridiculous, but I’m serious. That’s the trajectory we’re on–unless we fundamentally redesign the role of the manager.

So the real question isn’t how we build ‘leadership capability’, like every second LinkedIn think-piece would have you believe. It’s this: Why on earth would anyone want the job? And what needs to change to make management sexy again?

What do Gen Z and Millennials want?

Deloitte’s survey says they’re after the trifecta: money, meaning, and wellbeing.

They want to be paid properly, do work that actually matters, and not end up sobbing in the office toilets once a week. Outrageous, I know.

They’re not anti-leadership. They’re just anti-back-to-back meetings without meaning, 293 unread emails, and the promise of flexibility that somehow means working at 8:30pm catching up on ‘the real work’ after a day of back-to-back meetings.

At BoldHR, we’ve worked with some of Australia’s leading employers, and I’ve personally worked with thousands of managers. And I can say this: it is possible to love the job. Many managers do.

But only when they’re set up to succeed: with clear expectations, real decision-making authority, genuine respect, and development that’s strategic. They want to be paid properly for the responsibility they carry, given meaningful work that’s more than just reporting up and calming down, and have the time and headspace to think (not just react), be with their family, get to the gym, and live their one precious life without burning out in the process. If that’s too much to ask, we shouldn’t be surprised when the next generation quietly opts out.

We must stop trashing the reputation of your managers

Speaking of genuine respect–how about we throw some in the direction of our middle managers, for a start?

They’ve spent years being painted as pencil pushers, process people, the organisational fat to be trimmed. So it’s hardly shocking that when a restructure looms, the instinct is to start lopping heads in the middle–no performance data required. Just a polite, “Thanks for your service–now off you go.”

Every second business article trots out the same tired narrative: middle managers are bloated, burnt out, or obsolete. And now that AIs are loitering around reception, apparently their days are finally numbered.

No wonder no one’s rushing to fill their shoes.

So let’s be clear: these are the people holding the whole circus together. They’re the cultural backbone, the translation layer, the human glue.

If your internal messaging–spoken or unspoken–suggests middle managers are relics from another era, don’t act surprised when their confidence takes a hit and they stop leading. Or when the people who are supposed to follow them start hedging their bets. We must stop treating managers like a problem to be trimmed and start treating them like the engine room of your strategy.

We must define the role of a manager

We’ve never quite figured out what managers are actually for.

Back in 1977, Harvard’s Abraham Zaleznik wrote a now-famous HBR essay asking if managers and leaders were different. Back then, they were different. One on the dance floor, the other on the balcony.

Fast forward to today, and the middle manager is expected to be both a strong manager, a strategic leader, and more, many of them are still individual contributors. No one can do all three jobs well.

And yet the loudest complaint I hear from the C-suite?

“Why aren’t they making decisions?”

“Why aren’t they more strategic?”

Maybe because we never actually told them that was their job. Until now.

We’ve turned middle management into a vague, catch-all job with sky-high expectations and no clear definition. If we want people to aspire to it, maybe we should start by deciding what it actually is.

Focus on what drives impact in the mid-level ranks

Managers value development. But we’re giving it to them all wrong.

Employers are frustrated too: “We’re giving you all this development–why aren’t you thriving?”

Here’s why: the problem isn’t a lack of training. It’s a lack of focus.

BoldHR’s research shows four competencies consistently drive impact in the mid-level ranks:

• Motivate and engage: Inspiring action in individuals and teams.
• Cope: Managing pressure and staying resilient.
• Manage up: Navigating power and politics strategically.
• Manage reputation: Leading and projecting value.

The average leadership development program? 8-12 competencies. While the competencies might be valid, the point is that not all managers need everything. We have to be more selective than that.

It’s time to stop blaming the talent pool for not wanting management roles and start fixing what we’ve turned those roles into and the support we provide to perform in them.

Because at this rate, the only thing leading your business in 2030 will be a chatbot and a burned-out husk of a manager with 100 direct reports.

Rebecca Houghton is Australia’s middle management expert, a best-selling author, and the founder of BoldHR.