Manager Insights 2026 · Brooke Baxter, collabbWAY
You're not the only one finding this hard.
Over five months, more than 40 managers told me what's really going on inside their teams. Not what they're supposed to say in a performance review. What it's actually like.
Read it slowly. You'll probably see yourself in at least three of these.
This isn't a report about what you should be doing better.
It's what managers told me is actually happening, in real teams, with real people, right now. The accountability gaps. The loneliness. The senior leaders who won't back them up. Looking after everyone else's burnout while quietly running on empty themselves.
What came back wasn't a list of skill gaps. It was relational pressure, the kind that lives in the space between people and never shows up in a performance review.
8
patterns that kept coming up
40+
managers, in their own words
5
months of conversations, January to May 2026
One thing nearly all of them said: this is harder than anyone tells you it will be.
The 8 patterns, and what helps
See which ones sound like your week.
01
Accountability that won't stick
You've asked. You've reminded. Three weeks later you're having the same conversation again. People doing just enough, instructions missed, problems passed along.
What helps: ALIGN Feedback Bundle, Hold the Room
02
Leading without feeling like a leader
People come to you to offload, not to be led. You're more sounding board than boss, and you're not sure how much influence you really have.
What helps: The Relational 1:1 Reset, a Reset Session
03
When the problem is above you
A manager who avoids conflict. Directives that don't make sense. Senior leaders who keep everyone happy except their own team.
What helps: a Reset Session
04
New to leading, with no map
You're building the plane while flying it. No structure, no 1:1 framework, nobody to model it on, and a growing list of things no one warned you about.
What helps: The Relational 1:1 Reset, ALIGN Feedback Bundle
05
A team dynamic that's quietly wearing everyone down
One or two people creating friction for the whole team. Grown adults in conflict. A mood that's hard not to get pulled into.
What helps: Hold the Room, a Reset Session
06
Burnout, theirs and yours
Everyone's running low for different reasons. You're trying to look after each person individually, and quietly running on empty yourself.
What helps: Leadership Load Reset, The Relational 1:1 Reset
07
A mess you didn't make
Being gaslit. An acquisition gone wrong. Teams refusing to help each other. Hard, ethically messy, and mostly on your own with it.
What helps: a Reset Session
08
The loneliness of the middle
Holding your team, managing up, soaking up everyone's feelings. Part counsellor, part leader, and nobody asking how you're going.
What helps: a Reset Session
Keep a copy.
All eight patterns, the managers' own words and what helps, in one PDF. Save it, print it, or send it to the manager who needs to hear they're not the only one.
In their own words
'I feel like I'm part counsellor, part leader. It's draining.'
People-centred organisation
'Leading my team through their challenges is one thing. Doing it without support of senior leadership is another.'
No performance management environment
'Hardest part is getting the best from team members and getting them to own their role. It's driving me mad.'
Team leader, multiple industries
'I don't think I come across with much authority. I'm more of a person to offload to rather than a leader.'
New leadership role
What this tells you
These aren't performance problems. They're relational ones.
If you saw yourself in this, you're not failing. You're carrying a lot, often without the structure, support or role models you needed from the start.
What's hard lives between people. In trust. In power. In the expectations nobody says out loud, and the conversations that never quite happen. Most of the managers here were working through it without peer support or anyone senior backing them.
And it's rarely that you don't know what good leadership looks like. It's doing it under pressure, on a Tuesday, with someone who's upset in front of you.
Start here
Most of this doesn't get fixed in a workshop. It gets named in a conversation.
A Reset Session is 90 minutes on the one pattern that's costing you most. The conversation you keep putting off. The team dynamic. The decision you're stuck on. You bring the situation, we work out what's really going on, and you leave with a clear head and a next step you can take that week.
90 minutes · $450
Rather work through it on your own?
Practical tools you can use this week.
Guide
ALIGN Feedback Bundle
For feedback that actually lands. A framework and the words for the conversations you keep avoiding.
Guide
Hold the Room
For the heavy conversations. A relational guide built like a coaching session, for when you keep moving it to next week.
Tool
Leadership Load Reset
For when you're carrying too much. Work out what to stop, hand over and protect, before burnout decides for you.
Workshop
The Relational 1:1 Reset
Turns your 1:1s from status updates into the most useful leadership tool you've got.
Free · 5 minutes
The Leadership Reality Check
The way you lead might not be how your team experiences you. This quick quiz shows you your strengths, and where you might be getting in your own way.
Free · Monthly
Want the next set of patterns?
Once a week, I send one short email to managers who want to lead better in the small moments that matter the most. No spam. Just what I'm seeing.
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Brooke Baxter · collabbWAY · Relational Leadership Method · hello@collabbway.com.au