The Real Cost of “Good Enough” Managers

AstutEdge Resource Center
Jun 23
1 min read

Not terrible. Not great. Just... fine.

That’s how many employees describe their managers. And in most organizations, "fine" tends to fly under the radar. There’s no crisis. No formal complaints. Just a steady stream of missed potential.

Five managers in an office raise their hands, smiling. A wooden table holds papers and a tablet, indicating development. Team is sitting in an open office setting with white walls and large windows.

But here’s the thing: the cost of “good enough” managers is anything but neutral.

The Hidden Impact

When managers fail to inspire, develop, or communicate clearly, teams don’t revolt. They disengage. They stop stretching. They start looking elsewhere.

That slow drift shows up in key metrics:

Turnover in your high-performing, high-potential talent
Lagging team performance despite capable individual contributors
Managers becoming bottlenecks to decision-making and innovation

Why This Happens

Many mid-market companies promote managers based on technical performance, not people leadership. Without support, training, or expectations around leading others, managers default to what they know: tasks, not teams.

Leadership becomes a secondary responsibility instead of a core function.

Developing Beyond “Good Enough”

If you want performance to scale, your management capability has to scale too. That doesn’t mean sending managers to generic workshops or handing them a book.

It means:

Clarifying what good leadership looks like in your context
Building feedback mechanisms and coaching into the rhythm of work
Holding managers accountable for how they lead, not just what they do

In other words, treating leadership as a business capability; not an optional soft skill.