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 and top performers absorbing those responsibilities, because the work needs to be done. Before they know it, it’s snowballed into a full-time management position.”
Another factor comes with organizations providing vague language around managerial tasks that don’t make it clear someone’s being offered a management role. Like ‘“Can you lead this initiative?’” and “‘Would you mind onboarding the new hire?’,” Johnson says.
The trend may be linked to how the modern workforce has changed in the last few years: “Layoffs, COVID, and burnout have led to a decent amount of leadership turnover,” says Lisa Friscia, a leadership and organizational development consultant. “Some people are leapfrogging into roles they would normally have a longer runway to prepare for.”
Helio Fred Garcia, author and management and ethics professor at Columbia University and New York University, points to the “Peter Principle,” named for co-creator Laurence J. Peter, a theory that states employees are continually promoted based on their previous work and reach a point where they are “incompetent” in their newest position.
“Some people will rise to the occasion and succeed; even thrive. Some will not. Doing well on tasks is not the same as getting other people to do what they are supposed to do,” says Garcia. “They don’t know enough about what good management is to know that they’re not good at it.”
Garcia references the Dunning-Kruger effect, which describes a “cognitive bias” that people think they have greater expertise than they do. Social psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger coined the idea in a 1999 joint paper.
That’s been clear to Jane (also a pseudonym), who works in luxury goods. She started off helping her now-boss with a project and, when the latter got promoted, it was contingent on becoming a manager and supervising Jane. Jane finds herself regularly frustrated that her boss was made into an accidental manager.
“She’s really, really good at her job, but she’s not great at managing people, and has trouble having difficult conversations with people—like working through other people’s growth potential and workforce development,” she says.
Years in, Jane is no longer her only direct report, and feels her manager doesn’t have the skills to structure the team, listen to everyone, or make job roles clear.
The CMI’s study found that 28% of workers left their positions “because of a negative relationship with their manager.”
What to do if your boss is an ‘accidental manager’
For employees in Martha and Jane’s position, it can feel impossible to work with these issues. The good news? Experts have suggestions for dealing with accidental managers. The bad news? It can require a bit of “managing up.”
As Garcia puts it: “Coach the new boss to become better at being a manager. Show the boss how to manage you.”
No, it’s not part of a subordinate’s job description to do this and a manager should also take responsibility for being the best leader they can. With that said, managing up can make employees’ lives a lot easier in the long run. The key is to get specific about exactly what they need, says Johnson.
“Most people in this situation ask for more support, better communication, or more clarity, and those phrases don’t give the manager anything substantive to act on,” says Johnson. “Instead, lean into specificity to manage up, and help your leader help you.”
Johnson recommends things like providing deadlines for when you need updates by, and quantifying how much time gets wasted due to miscommunication.
Employees shouldn’t rule out all hope in their accidental manager. “Most struggling managers still have expertise and insight. The challenge is often figuring out how to access it,” says Friscia. “Get curious about what they’re seeing, what they’re prioritizing, and how they prefer to communicate. This doesn’t mean becoming a yes person—it means learning how to communicate in ways that they can hear and understand.”
How companies can fix the problem
The burden of accidental managers shouldn’t fall on employees alone. Far too often, taking on a management role is the only way to get promoted, with employees thrown into the deep end with little to go off. Part of the problem comes from companies ignoring the skills needed to be a good manager.
“It is a distinct skill and requires both temperament and technical skill. It is a mistake to assume that everyone naturally can be a good manager because they’re a good performer,” says Garcia. In contrast, he points to companies that offer their early career employees an opportunity to do manager training programs. This setup allows people to learn necessary management tools, while also seeing if that’s where their interests and skillset lie.
Jane and Martha both point to a lack of professional development options at their respective companies. Jane attributes this to how small her company is, forcing most people to manage someone, but with no opportunities to learn the skills.
At Martha’s much larger firm, though, the same is true: She notes a few one-off programs, but most are designed for those early career employees, rather than seasoned employees turned managers. “I think adding training and mentorship programs would be a great benefit,” she says.
Then there’s the problem with a solely managerial ladder. The experts point to how necessary multiple tracks are within a company. These splits can allow some people to become managers, while others take a path that focuses on their skills. Garcia notes that this is often the case for many technically-trained employees, such as scientists, doctors, and lawyers, but such clear distinctions can operate outside these professions.
Friscia believes companies should throw out the ladder metaphor in favor of a jungle gym one. “People should have multiple ways to grow, contribute, and increase their impact without being forced into people management,” she explains.
Though, both Frisica and Johnson mention a critical factor: these individual tracks should come with the same respect and comparable pay as managerial ones.
“What matters is being honest about what employees can expect,” adds Friscia. “If you want to attract and retain strong talent, emphasize that working at your organization will help them grow as professionals—and then provide real opportunities to do that.”
