Powers Resource Center

06/05/2026

Your managers are not fine.

They're telling you they are. They're managing the optics. But the data tells a different story:

- Manager engagement has dropped 27%
- 71% of managers report burnout
- 40% of leaders considered quitting in the past year alone
- More than half are emotionally exhausted

These are the people translating your strategy into daily reality. They're holding culture together, supporting teams, driving performance, and absorbing pressure from both directions.

And most of them are carrying all of it without a framework, without enough support, and often pretty alone.

Not because they're hiding something. Because in a lot of organizations, it doesn't feel safe to say "this is too much."

So before you ask "why aren't our managers handling this better," try asking a different question:

What are our managers carrying that they don't feel safe or supported enough to say out loud?

This isn't a manager performance problem. It's a manager support problem.

If we want healthier teams and stronger organizations, we have to stop assuming managers are fine and start building the support they actually need.

🎥 More on this in the reel.

06/04/2026

After 25 years in leadership development, I have stopped being surprised by the burnout numbers in the management layer. What still gets me is how often we read those numbers as a story about the managers themselves.

It isn't. Most managers were strong individual contributors who got promoted on technical ability and then handed a people-leadership role with almost no preparation. We didn't give them the frameworks. We didn't give them the support. And then we wondered why the results were uneven.

The managers are not the problem. What we ask them to carry alone is.

If you lead people who lead people, this is worth sitting with before it shows up in your attrition data.

06/04/2026

Annual mini golf Olympics - loser does the chicken dance 💃💃💃 glad it wasn’t me 💪

06/02/2026

Summer vaca with some of my favorite peeps

05/31/2026

OCNJ 2026

05/28/2026

Here's what I keep seeing as organizations scale their AI investments.

The biggest risk isn't the technology. It's what's happening with people underneath it.

Almost every organization is investing more in AI. Very few are seeing real maturity from it. That gap should tell us something.

Managers right now are carrying culture, performance, communication, change, and AI disruption, often without the support they need. 71% feel burned out. That's costing employers more than $10,000 per manager per year.

And employees underneath it are quietly asking: Will I still matter? Will my judgment count? Is this happening with me or to me?

That's a trust problem. And it's solvable, but not with more technology.

Culture is one of the core variables driving AI ROI. If you're investing in AI but not in trust and leadership capability, you're leaving returns on the table.

That's what we focus on. Let's talk.

05/28/2026

05/27/2026

Your last promotion may have just created your next organizational crisis.

Not because you chose the wrong person. Because nobody coached them through the transition.

A brilliant director gets promoted and keeps doing exactly what made them successful. The decisiveness that worked as a VP now reads as bulldozing. The directness that got things done now shuts down honest conversation. The confidence that made them a star now makes it impossible to ask for help.

Nobody tells them. And by the time it's obvious, the turnover has started, the culture has taken a hit, and everyone saw it coming except the person it was about.

The answer isn't finding a different successor. It's coaching the one you've got, before the announcement goes out.
Is a promotion on the horizon at your organization? Let's talk.

05/21/2026

If you're leading people through any kind of transformation right now, I want to share something I've been turning over for a while.

A 2025 Wavestone report found that 92% of organizations are increasing AI investment. Only 1% have reached AI maturity.
That gap stopped me. Because I don't think it's a technology gap at all.

The organizations struggling aren't struggling because of the tools they chose. They're struggling because of what's happening at the human level underneath those tools. Managers running on empty. Trust quietly eroding. Employees who have learned from experience whether their concerns actually get heard.

Gallup found that only 29% of employees trust their immediate manager right now. That number has dropped 17% since 2022, during exactly the years we've been asking people to take on the biggest shift in how work gets done in their lifetime.

That's not a coincidence. That's a consequence.

I wrote about all of this, and more importantly, about what the leaders getting it right are actually doing. If you're in HR, L&D, or carrying the weight of a transformation that isn't moving the way you hoped, this piece is genuinely for you.

92% of organizations are increasing AI investment. Only 1% reach maturity. Tara Powers explains why the gap is human — and what leaders must do now.

05/19/2026

If you work in HR or L&D, you know the frustration of doing everything right on paper and still watching ex*****on fall apart on the ground.

My May 22nd Executive Forum is designed for leaders like you. We'll spend one focused hour on the leadership climate patterns that slow teams down and walk away with a realistic 90-day plan to shift them.

No fluff. No massive initiative required. Just practical moves that create noticeable change quickly.

Request your complimentary invite at the link.
👉 www.powersresourcecenter.com/executive-forums