How ‘accidental managers’ sink teams and sour workplaces

Data operations employee Martha isn’t the leader of her team—but she often feels like it. She coordinates work schedules, prioritizes projects, and advocates for her team members with upper management. (Martha is using a pseudonym to protect her identity). It’s not that Martha’s boss isn’t around, it’s that “he just seems much more interested in creating things than coordinating the team,” she explains. So, as the next most senior member of the team, it falls on Martha to pick up many of these managerial tasks on top of her own projects. This dynamic might sound all-too-familiar as Martha is one of many employees dealing with the ramifications of an “accidental manager.” The label is a blanket term for anyone who ended up in a managerial role without seeking one out (and who often doesn’t have managerial skills). Typically, this is because a management position was the only way to grow at a company or get a raise. But it can often be granted based on a person’s non-leadership skills, and come without proper training. A 2023 study from the U.K.’s Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and YouGov found that 82% of people entering management positions are accidental managers—indeed, with no formal training. “A lot of organizations only have one growth lane, and they use management titles as the prize because it’s the structure they have—not because the person is necessarily suited for it,” says Kendra Johnson, founder of the Venned Group, a leadership training organization. “The biggest thing we get wrong about management as a career path is that we treat it like a destination, which it isn’t. It’s a skill set, and a hard one,” Johnson adds. ‘They don’t know enough about what good management is’ Johnson credits the rise of accidental managers to a few things. “Many bodies of research are showing that Gen Z is becoming less and less interested in management—but someone still has to do it,” she explains. “That’s where I see a lot of high achievers a