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Think about the last time a manager in your organization seemed to be struggling. Maybe decisions kept stalling. Maybe the team kept waiting to be told what to do. Where did your mind go first?
For most of us, it goes to the person. What skill are they missing? What training would help? Sometimes that's exactly the right place to look. Just as often, the answer lives in the conditions around them.
A lot has changed
Managers are working through a lot right now. AI is changing jobs and workflows. Organizations are moving faster. Economic pressure is real, and political and social tensions are showing up at work.
People feel it. They are less certain where they stand, whether their voices matter, and what they can count on.
And some things have not changed at all. People still need clarity and useful information. They need to know what is expected and how decisions get made. They need room to contribute, feedback, growth, and to know their perspective matters. Managers are still the ones most people look to for all of it.
Where inclusion lives
The word "inclusion" has been dropped from many organizations' vocabulary. I can't think of a time it has been more needed.
Every day, managers decide who is heard, who grows, how power is used and shared, and how people experience the organization. Our response is to build those values into everyday practice. Each of the six needs below is also a question of inclusion: does everyone on the team get it, or only some people?
Two ways to look at each need
For each of the six needs, there are two places to look. The person is what the manager brings: skills, habits and choices. The conditions are what the system allows: roles, decision rights, workload and structures.
Often it is both. Development works best when it accounts for both. Today I'll walk through the first three needs. On Friday, the other three.
1. Clarity and useful information
It sounds like this: "I don't know where we're headed. Messages from leadership are absent, vague or change often." Or: "My team wants certainty that I can't provide."
Clarity is possible even when certainty is not. Managers create it by naming what is known and what is not, connecting the work to what matters most, and asking up for what their team needs.
The conditions are part of the picture when the manager doesn't have the information either, when priorities change faster than anyone can share them, or when several managers struggle in the same way. What the system needs is the ability to orient, so every person knows where the work is headed, why it matters and how to contribute.
Communication answers "What is happening?" Orientation answers "What does this mean for me?" When orientation is built into the system, managers receive a decision and what it means for their team before or at the same time as their staff, and everyone works from one current source of priorities.
2. Knowing what is expected and how decisions get made
"I am accountable for results, and I am not sure which decisions are mine to make." "We decide something in a meeting, and a week later it changes."
Clear expectations start with clear roles. Managers create them by naming who decides, explaining the reasoning, and asking up when their own decision rights are unclear.
Look at the conditions when decision rights were never defined, when decisions get reversed above the manager, or when a manager is accountable for things they have no authority over. How many of your managers could name which decisions are theirs to make? The system needs the ability to decide, and to make decision-making visible.
3. Room to contribute ideas, experience and perspective
"My team has good ideas, but there is no structure for sharing them or having them considered or acted upon." "I want people to take ownership, and I am not sure how much I can hand over."
People take ownership when they help shape an idea and carry it forward. Managers create paths for good ideas to be shared and considered, and coach people to position their ideas so they benefit both the person and the organization.
In most organizations, good ideas are plentiful. A visible path is scarce. When people can't see who decides, how ideas move or when they will hear back, they stop offering. What happens to a good idea in your organization after someone shares it?
Before Friday
Pick the one of these three that matters most to you right now, and imagine two things. What would it look like if you, or your managers, had the skills and confidence to meet that need every day? And what would it look like if the structures, processes and priorities around them made meeting it easier?
What would be different for you, your team, and the people you serve?
On Friday, I'll share what the 2026 research says about the pressure managers are under, then take up the other three needs: feedback, growth, and believing your voice matters.
