The Manager Multiplier: How Engagement Turns Into Margin

You don’t need a billion-dollar strategy to boost your bottom line. You need a manager who gets it.

Here’s the math: move a team from meh to energized, and you’ll see profits rise 23%, sales climb 18%, quality jump 14%. No new software. No flashy rebrand. Just people doing their best work.

Yet most executives treat people leadership like a side project. “Our VP is perfect — except for people skills.” That’s a punchline in the boardroom. Except it’s not funny. Imagine praising a chef for amazing recipes — “just don’t trust them with the oven.”

Seventy percent of engagement lives in a manager’s daily choices. Strategy sets the stage, but culture happens in the small moments: the quick thank-you, the on-the-fly coaching, the one-on-one that feels more like a conversation than a checkbox.

Here are the three habits that matter:

• Feedback Weekly: Not vague pep talks. Concrete suggestions. “Here’s what’s working. Here’s where to go next.” Do it every week.
• One-on-Ones as Production Meetings: These aren’t remedial. They’re an ongoing project plan for people. What’s your priority? What’s in your way? What do you want next?
• Recognition in Plain Sight: A private email is nice. Public praise is powerful. Link it to your team’s values. Watch behaviors spread.

None of this costs extra. It costs attention. It costs discipline.

So, why don’t we do it? Because we promote top doers into roles they’re not trained for. The brilliant engineer becomes the frantic manager. They default to solo heroics: late-night firefights, last-minute demos, trying to do it all. Feedback dries up. Recognition goes on hold. Engagement drifts. Turnover ticks up. Profit slips away — quietly, until you notice a gap in your forecast.

It doesn’t show up as “people problems.” It hides behind “market shifts,” “supply chain noise,” or “changing customer tastes.” But the source is always the same: skipped conversations, unmet appreciation, ignored potential.

What if you treated engagement like a product? You’d iterate. You’d test. You’d measure the metrics that matter. You’d ask: Did the feedback land? Did the one-on-one uncover a blocker? Did that shout-out spark more of the same behavior?

At Best Companies Group, we built the Management Fundamentals Bootcamp to do just that. We gave managers a playbook — tactics that work. We handed them agendas — frames that focus their time. We showed them how to spotlight wins — publicly, immediately, often. Whether they follow our training or not, the principle holds: engagement is the outcome of manager behavior, not an HR checkbox.

In a tight labor market, the cost of turnover doubles. One lost engineer costs you twice her salary when you count hiring fees, lost knowledge, ramp time. A high-engagement team halves that risk.

Technology and AI automate tasks, but they can’t replace the simple magic of “I noticed you did that.” They can’t replicate the spark in a manager’s eye when they ask, “What do you want to do next?” Those moments still outpace any algorithm.

Your secret lever isn’t in the C-suite. It’s in the half-hour blocks on your frontline managers’ calendars. Fill that time with purpose, and watch your margins grow. Ignore it, and watch them leak away, one skipped conversation at a time.

Want to learn how our bootcamp can level up your managers? Reach out to me at [email protected] to set up a time to talk.

Jaime Raul Zepeda is EVP, Principal Consultant for Best Companies Group and COLOR Magazine, part of BridgeTower Media.

Wondering whether your organization is on the right path to win? Talk to us at Best Companies Group so we can analyze your organization’s health, your team dynamics, and your leadership’s effectiveness. We’ve helped over 10,000 companies understand and improve their workplace using data-driven strategies.