World Class Manager research · new and unfolding

1,850 managers. Five numbers. Five actions.

New research from our own data. What managers tell us about their practice, and the gap between what they value and what they actually do. For anyone who cares about customer experience, and the managers who deliver it.

Read the findingsThe productivity return
Self-reported1,850 managers24 organisations

01 Standards

25%

often challenge bad behaviour in a meeting

Three in four managers say nothing when they see bad behaviour.

The action

Challenge it in the room. Every time.

Because only 25% of managers do it today.

Self-reported · 1,850 managers · 24 organisations

02 Customers

97.5%care about their customers' experience
55%spend time with their customers

The gap: 42.5 points

Caring is not the same as being there.

The action

Put every manager in front of a customer.

Because only 55% spend time with customers.

Self-reported · 1,850 managers · 24 organisations

03 Listening

90%say they have made feedback safe
56%actually go and ask for it

The gap: 34 points

Creating the space is the easy half.

The action

Ask for feedback. Every week. Then act.

Because only 56% of managers ask for it.

Self-reported · 1,850 managers · 24 organisations

04 Trust

82%trust their team
60%know they need to let go

The gap: 22 points

Trust in principle. Control in practice.

The action

Trust means letting go.

Because 60% know they are still holding on.

Self-reported · 1,850 managers · 24 organisations

05 Vision

believe their vision excites and energises anyone

Half of all vision statements are inert.

The action

Give every team a vision they can feel.

Because only 49% think their vision excites anyone.

Self-reported · 1,850 managers · 24 organisations

Five actions for every manager.

Each one closes a gap managers already admit to. None of them needs a budget to start this week.

Talk to us about your managersTake the free diagnostic

Self-reported · 1,850 managers · 24 organisations

  1. 01Challenge it in the room. Every time.Because only 25% of managers do it today.
  2. 02Put every manager in front of a customer.Because only 55% spend time with customers.
  3. 03Ask for feedback. Every week. Then act.Because only 56% of managers ask for it.
  4. 04Trust means letting go.Because 60% know they are still holding on.
  5. 05Give every team a vision they can feel.Because only 49% think their vision excites anyone.
The productivity return

The bridge between where your managers are, and where you want them to be.

Before the programme, managers tell us where they are. After each module, we ask what they did about it. 4,712 managers asked what they did differently, across 24 organisations and ten years. Every quotation is verbatim.

44%of managers say they spend most of their time firefighting

Get your managers out of the firefight

Reactive managers cost you twice: their own time, and everything that does not get done.

“I have blocked time in my diary to focus on the projects that I am currently working on which means non urgent workload does not interrupt my thought process.”

Pharmacy

“I have experimented with time blocking by scheduling dedicated periods for emails, Netcall, coaching sessions, and administration tasks.”

Local government

“I have worked on optimizing my time, review my calendar more often, just deal with important tasks and delegate more. I have worked on team briefings to be more tailored to all the staff needs.”

Agriculture and fresh produce

Value it against: Management hours going to the wrong work, priced at loaded salary.

60%of managers say they need to delegate more and trust their team

Stop paying senior salaries for junior work

Work held at the wrong grade is paid for at the wrong grade.

“Since completing the World Class Manager course, I have adopted a more strategic and coaching focused leadership style. I delegate more effectively, hold more meaningful one to one conversations, provide clearer and more constructive feedback.”

Financial services

“I have started being more intentional with delegation, linking tasks to development opportunities, practising structured feedback using models like SBIER, increasing regular one-to-one conversations.”

Medical devices

“I have started to implement SMART goals within the team and in supervisions Started to prioritise my work - this is done by using my diary and also by discussing with the team and delegating work.”

Independent healthcare

Value it against: The grade differential. Work held one level too high is paid for one level too high, every week.

76%of managers say they can make their meetings more effective

Make every meeting earn its place

The largest admitted gap in the archive, and the fastest one to act on.

“I started applying structured briefings with my team, ensuring clarity of objectives and expectations. I improved meeting management by setting clear agendas and focusing on outcomes.”

Financial services

“I have introduced more structured goal setting and clearer communication within my team. We now hold weekly one-to-one meetings to review priorities, workload, wellbeing, and development.”

Not for profit

“I have attempted to be more direct when speaking with others. I have prepared my team meetings with a clear agenda, which I use to set the scene and ask for an expectation to focus on the meeting.”

Independent healthcare

Value it against: Attendees, times hours, times loaded salary. The one cost your finance team can already calculate to the penny.

44%of managers say they need to spend more time thinking than doing

Get your strategy off the slide deck and into the diary

Strategy does not fail in the boardroom. It fails when managers spend the week on whatever shouts loudest.

“I have started planning and prioritising my day more effectively, using clearer team briefings, focusing meetings on actions and outcomes, and encouraging more open communication and feedback within the team.”

Agriculture and fresh produce

“I have experimented with regular one-to-one meetings, coaching conversations, adapting my communication style, seeking feedback, improving prioritization, scheduling focused work time, delegating more effectively.”

Financial services

“The action I have taken from these Modules so far is I make sure I take the time each morning to create a to do list of everything that needs to be done.”

Independent healthcare

Value it against: The strategic initiatives that slipped last year because the managers accountable for them were busy.

Also admitted on arrival: 41% take on too many tasks outside their job remit, and 34% say they spend too much time in meetings. Each item pooled across 19 to 20 organisations, 740 to 850 managers.

The same pattern in every sector.

We score managers across eight behaviour families. NHS, local government, a games studio, gas turbines, pharmacy, agriculture, financial services: the shape does not change. Managers score warm on people and cold on throughput.

Why this matters for your business case

Every sector we have measured loses capacity in the same two places. That consistency is what lets you plan for it, and it is why the productivity return focuses where it does.

Delegation and capacity
74.2
Motivation and discretionary effort
73.5
Capability building
70.9
Decision and conflict velocity
68.7
Feedback and improvement loop
67.0
Direction and clarity
66.4

Where throughput is lost

Meeting effectiveness
55.7
Time and priority
44.4

Index score 0 to 100, pooled across 24 organisations. Higher is stronger. A baseline diagnostic, not a measure of change.

Method, and what we do not claim.

A management programme cannot honestly be tied to an uplift in sales or a reduction in cost; too much else moves at the same time. We show you which behaviours change and how consistently. You price it against costs you already know.

How the quotations were selected

  • Every quotation answers a question asked inside the programme itself, at the end of a module: what actions have you taken, and what have you done differently since. 4,712 managers answered. That ties each action to the course and gives every figure a denominator.
  • Intent was excluded. "I need to delegate more" is a gap, not an outcome. So was confidence: knowing how to run a better meeting is not a better meeting.
  • Only responses naming a mechanism or a concrete instance are quoted. 528 described a real change. 56 were specific enough to quote.
  • A random sample was hand-checked by a human reader. Precision was 78 per cent across the full coded set; the quoted subset is materially higher.

What this evidence does not show

These are self-reported accounts collected at a single point in time. We do not hold client productivity data, turnover figures or engagement scores, and we have not attempted to model them.

We make no claim to a percentage improvement in productivity, no measured before-and-after, and no attribution of a business outcome to the programme. Where you see a number here, it counts what managers said. Nothing more.

What we would rather measure with you

The most useful evidence is the evidence we build together. Share one simple operational measure, such as time to fill a vacancy, escalation volumes, meeting load or voluntary turnover in the participating population, and we can design the measurement before the programme starts rather than reconstruct it afterwards.

Design the measurement with us

Global Growth Institute. Phase 1 archive: 24 organisations, 135,941 written reflections.

Put the research to work in your organisation.

Pick whatever fits where you are. We'll take it from there.

Book a demo

See it in action.

Thirty minutes with a senior member of the team, using real scenarios your managers face.

Book a 30 minute demo

Trial a module

Try before you commit.

Pick any module, experience it yourself and decide on the evidence.

Email Rose to trial a module

Register interest

Get the details.

Leave your email and we'll send you everything you need to know.

Organisation enquiry · World Class Manager

Tell us about your team.

We reply within one working day with a tailored proposal. No call needed at this stage.

We use your details only to respond to your enquiry. Our privacy policy