People leadership is hard (and it’s not going to get easier)
“My god, Ross, PEOPLE!”
“Do you want to come and manage my team, Ross, because I am OVER IT?”
“A person (who started in June) quit after I declined their last-minute request for three weeks’ leave in January. WTF!”
“How can someone have a degree and still not be able to write a coherent, professional email?!”
“I took five references on the guy (our most recent GM hire, now departed) and somehow nobody managed to say, or even hint, that he has addiction issues?”
“I can’t believe it. One of my recruiters told me she was disappointed I haven’t been checking in with her regularly about how she’s coping after her dog died!”
“I’ll give myself until the end of this year to stabilise the team. If I can’t do that and turn profitability around, I’ll downsize to me plus one and just have an easier life.”
These are not comments from relatively new leaders I am coaching; these are almost verbatim expressions of exasperation and frustration I have heard from owners and MDs in the past month.
Although these sorts of issues are not new, the never-ending stream of people issues appears to be causing a significant rethink for many recruitment agency owners.
Although the range of issues is wide and the causes are varied, a few generalisations apply.
- Competition for the best clients, candidates, and recruiters remains high
- The range and cost of support resources supplied by employers to their recruiters continues to grow without any significant clawback in reduced commissions
- Generous commission schemes are largely unprofitable as “no deficit“ schemes become more common
- Workplace flexibility remains a significant challenge in balancing employee expectations with keeping a high performance culture and generating consistent profits
- Profit margins across the recruitment industry are declining
- The use of AI tools to customise resumes and facilitate mass applications is making candidate screening, verification, and assessment more problematic
- Prospects, clients, and candidates are answering their phones and responding to messages at a declining rate
- The experience of calls ignored and messages not returned, at scale, becomes more demoralising over time
- Recruiters with as little as 6 -12 months of recruitment experience have many alternative employers
- Employees expect more attention, not less, from their leaders, which makes leadership, especially remote leadership, both more time-intensive and more emotionally demanding.
I don’t see any lessening of these issues.
Veteran industry M&A advisor Rod Hore outlined his views in an excellent Substack post last month Tackle 2026 with rigour and determination as the uncertainty continues.
“The role of a leader in these times has changed. Accepting more responsibility, dealing with greater ambiguity, and making decisions that have deeper and wider impact.
Hands on people leadership has become more important in the post-pandemic era.”
I possess no pearls of wisdom to supersede Rod’s – he is spot on.
This is no cynical dip; it’s a fundamental shift in how business leaders need to operate to succeed in the long term.
As was noted in the Harvard Business Review two weeks ago, “In a July 2025 Gartner survey of 900 HR leaders, nearly 80% acknowledged that managers are overwhelmed by the expanding scope of their responsibilities—a trend that’s likely to continue alongside rapid technological transformation”.
Acknowledging that people leadership is inherently challenging and recognising that it’s only going to get easier through building genuine relationships with team members and peers is a sound starting point.
The best news is that for those leaders who are willing to learn and change, there will be significant rewards ahead, as many leaders will decide it’s not worth it.
What’s your choice?
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Hi Ross
The comments made by managers that you reported today could have been raised, with similar words in any of the last few decades.
My next question of the manager would be to ask the critical performance question, which usually highlights a Recruitment Error.
The question is
“if you knew at time of hire what you now know, would you rehire – definitely Yes, possibly Yes, possibly No, definitely No.
My guess is that most would not be rehired.
Recruitment Managers often have the most unsophicated recruitment processes, nothing like the 2026 approach taken by AbilityMap.
These management issues are solvable using technology.
Happy to chat.
Shameless Plug 👏
It is an interesting period Ross. It seems to me those organisations that are succeeding (or maybe just progressing with less stress) are the ones acknowledging the changing uncertain and times within their organisation. Then building resilience to change – accepting it not fighting it – so they can determine what is important and deal with issues as they arise.
Keeping the pressure at the owner level or even at the leadership team level is probably not the right approach in 2026.