The State of People Leadership in 2025: Trends, Risks, and Solutions

By Danielle Rocheleau

Every year, we release our Management Training Program Benchmark Report to share what we’re learning about non-profit managers—their confidence, their skills, and the support they need to succeed. But this year, we’re doing something a little different.

For 2025, we wanted to zoom out.

Rather than focusing only on our own data, we stepped back to look at the broader trends shaping people leadership today: what the latest research says, what’s driving burnout and turnover, and what happens when organizations effectively equip and support their managers.

What we found was striking: across sectors, the same patterns show up again and again. Managers are being promoted before they feel ready. They receive little to no formal training on how to effectively manage people. And the impact of this, on engagement, culture, retention, and organizational health, is higher than most people realize.

In this blog, I’m going to walk you through:

• What current research tells us about the growing pressures on people leaders
• Why unprepared managers are a systemic outcome, not an individual failing
• How underprepared managers affect engagement, culture, and turnover
• Where the financial and human costs show up most acutely for non-profits
• And finally, how our 2025 benchmark data reflects these same trends, and what it tells us about the difference proper training can make

Because properly equipping managers isn’t just about building skills; it’s about strengthening teams, improving retention, and creating healthier, more sustainable organizations for the long term.

What the Latest Research Tells Us About People Leadership in 2025

“Accidental Managers”: People Are Being Promoted Into Management Before They Are Ready, and Without Proper Support

In mission-driven sectors, a familiar truth rings loudly: “People don’t go into a profession to manage people.” They go into it because they love the work—not the management. This is especially true in fields like healthcare, social work, education, engineering, and the nonprofit and social purpose space.

Yet across these sectors, many dedicated professionals suddenly find themselves stepping into management, not by design, but by circumstance. They excel at their jobs, a vacancy needs to be filled, or the organization is growing, and before long they’re leading a team. These “accidental managers” didn’t set out to become leaders, and often haven’t received the training or support to feel ready.

The impact can ripple quickly. New managers may experience stress, uncertainty, or imposter syndrome. Teams may feel the effects through inconsistent communication or unclear expectations. Burnout becomes more likely on all sides—not because people lack passion, but because they were never set up with the tools to succeed.

• 60% of new managers never receive any training when they first become a manager
• More than 80% of managers say they have never received proper management or leadership training
• In their first year, 43% of managers report no formal managerial training at all

This pattern is even more pronounced in non-profits, where managers are often promoted because they were strong individual contributors—and then expected to “figure out” people leadership on their own

We’ve heard about some of these challenges first-hand, from the managers who have taken our training:

This is a predictable outcome of how our sector operates. Non-profits are wired for service, not infrastructure. When resources are limited and staff are stretched, training often becomes an optional investment rather than an operational necessity.

But foundational people-leadership skills—delegation, coaching, communication, accountability—don’t develop by accident. And trial-and-error management is costly.

This Is Not an Individual Problem — It’s a Systems Problem

There is no shortage of dedication in this sector. EDs, CEOs, boards, and people leaders deeply care about supporting their teams. But they are navigating a system that:

• Prioritizes direct service over internal capacity
• Funds programs rather than people
• Operates with persistently thin (or non-existent!) margins
• Relies on goodwill, not infrastructure, to keep organizations functioning

Research shows that Canadian non-profit organizations increasingly face a leadership development gap. Managers and emerging leaders are stepping into roles without adequate preparation or sustained support. Many sector leaders report that while demands on their organizations continue to escalate, driven by service complexity, financial pressure and workforce turnover, leadership capacity is not keeping pace. 

We can acknowledge a difficult truth: organizations are underinvesting in the very people responsible for culture, retention, and day-to-day team wellbeing.

And it’s costing them.

Managers shape their team’s engagement more than any other factor

Even the most dedicated managers struggle when they haven’t been given the tools they need. And when managers struggle, the entire organization feels the effects. This isn’t about individual shortcomings. It’s a predictable systems outcome, and research shows the consequences are real.

Gallup’s workplace research is unequivocal: managers account for up to 70% of the variance in team engagement. When managers lack clarity, confidence, or support, employee engagement declines just as sharply. As one Gallup summary puts it, “engaged managers = engaged teams.”

And this isn’t just theoretical. Analyses confirm that:

• Teams mirror the engagement of their managers
• Disengaged managers drain morale
• Poor manager support is one of the most common reasons people leave

Recent workplace findings show that manager engagement itself has been declining, and Business Insider’s review of the 2025 Gallup workplace data warns that disengaged managers are costing the global economy billions in lost productivity.

The Wall Street Journal echoes this trend, noting that many managers feel overwhelmed, underprepared, and unsupported — and their teams feel the ripple effects immediately.

When managers are unprepared, culture suffers

Underprepared managers may unintentionally:

• Communicate inconsistently
• Avoid crucial conversations
• Struggle to set expectations
• Fail to provide coaching or feedback
• Contribute to unclear or unsafe team environments

Again, this is not because they don’t care; it’s because they have not been set up to succeed.

The financial costs are serious — especially for non-profits

Employee turnover is expensive — and supervisory or middle-management turnover is especially destabilizing.

A range of reputable analyses converge on the same conclusion: replacing an employee typically costs 50% to 200% of their annual salary.

• Crestcom (citing Gallup) places the range at 0.5–2× salary
• Forma’s 2024 analysis reports similar findings and links higher costs to leadership roles
• Some estimates for certain roles go as high as 4× salary

These costs hit non-profits harder due to less administrative funding, limited redundancy, and the irreplaceable institutional knowledge people carry.

Beyond the financial impact, we all have experienced turnover eroding:

• Program continuity
• Institutional memory
• Trust with funders and stakeholders
• Staff cohesion
• Psychological safety

When managers are equipped with the right support and training, they’re far more likely to thrive and stay engaged in their roles. And because managers set tone and culture, the effects ripple far beyond a single role.

What Laridae’s Benchmark Data Shows: Confidence Starts Low and Training Changes That

We have been collecting data from non-profit managers since 2020 through our Management Training Program. More than 1,000 managers from 250+ organizations have graduated from our program.

Across these five years, including 2025, the pattern is remarkably consistent.

Before Training

• Only 27% felt they had received the training they needed to be successful.
• Only 53% felt confident in their skills and knowledge as a manager.

After Training

• 94% agree they now have the training they need
• 93% feel confident in their skills and knowledge
• 100% of leaders agree their management team has received the training they need
• 96% of participants would recommend the program

These outcomes aren’t abstract—managers experience them in real, practical ways. Here’s what participants shared about their growth:

Skill Confidence Surges Across Management Competencies

While confidence improves overall, the real story emerges when we look at the specific skills managers gain through training.

In our Skills Boost analysis, managers rated their confidence across core people-leadership competencies — including communication, team building, setting expectations, delegation, developing staff, and change management — before and after the program.

The pattern is unmistakable.

Across every single skill area, confidence jumps dramatically after training. In many categories, ratings of “4 out of 5” or higher double — and in some cases, they nearly triple — compared to pre-training levels.

Communication, delegation, setting expectations, and developing staff show some of the strongest gains. These are also the very skills that research identifies as foundational to healthy team culture, psychological safety, and engagement. When managers strengthen these competencies, the ripple effect is immediate and widespread: clearer workflows, more consistent accountability, better coaching conversations, and teams that feel supported instead of confused or overwhelmed.

Bonus: The Cohesion Benefit – Why Training Teams Together Matters

One of the most powerful outcomes we see—year after year—is what happens when entire leadership teams go through the Management Training Program together. The benefits extend far beyond individual skill development. Training becomes a catalyst for alignment, connection, and collective clarity.

When managers learn together, they begin speaking the same language. They adopt the same frameworks, use the same tools, and build shared expectations around how people leadership should work inside their organization. This creates a level of consistency that many non-profits have been trying to achieve for years.

And participants feel the difference immediately.

Teams frequently tell us that the program gives them dedicated time—often for the first time—to talk openly about their challenges, compare approaches, and recognize that many of their struggles are shared across roles and departments. This reduces isolation and builds trust.

When a full leadership group is trained together:

• Decision-making becomes clearer and more aligned
• Expectations get communicated more consistently
• Teams adopt shared approaches to coaching, delegation, and accountability
• Feedback becomes more constructive and less personal
• Leaders feel more supported by one another

The result is not only stronger individual managers, but a more cohesive, confident, and coordinated leadership team—and that has a direct impact on staff experience, culture, and retention.

The conclusion is clear

The evidence is clear: equipping managers with strong onboarding, training, tools, and support creates healthier, more effective organizations. When managers have what they need to lead confidently, the benefits ripple across every level:

• Engagement rises
• Teams communicate more effectively
• People stay longer
• Culture strengthens
• Organizations become more stable and mission-aligned

For organizations navigating tight budgets and increasing community needs, investing in all people leaders isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s one of the most strategic, cost-effective ways to improve impact, strengthen teams, and reduce avoidable turnover. By supporting managers early and intentionally, organizations build the leadership capacity required for long-term success.

For organizations, investing in management training is ultimately an investment in:

• Staff wellbeing
• Team cohesion
• Performance and accountability
• Psychological safety
• Institutional stability
• Community impact

When managers are equipped, teams stay.

When teams stay, cultures strengthen.

When cultures strengthen, the mission advances.

This is the return on investment.

A Solution Designed for the Sector We Love

Our Management Training Program for Non-Profits was built because this sector deserves people-leadership training designed specifically for its realities: limited resources, rapid change, compassion-driven cultures, and the need for clarity and stability.

It’s practical, supportive, and rooted in what we know managers actually face—difficult conversations, competing priorities, emotional labour, and the day-to-day work of supporting teams who support communities.

The results speak for themselves, and they align powerfully with what research confirms: when non-profits invest in their managers, everyone benefits.

If this struck a chord, you’re not alone.

Shifting cultures for greater impact is why we exist. And whether you’re navigating growing pains, turnover, new managers, or the weight of continuous change, we’re here to talk through the challenges and opportunities you’re seeing for your people leaders.

Let’s chat. We’d love to hear what’s on your mind.