Episode recap:

If you are a champion for human-centered leadership and workplaces, Marcel would love to speak with you to explore possibilities. Book a call here: https://calendly.com/marcelschwantes/discovery-call?month=2026-02  

In this solo episode, Marcel Schwantes calls out senior leaders and executives as being primarily responsible for the disengagement crisis. Research states that middle managers are more disengaged than ever, causing a trickle-down effect to disengaged workers. Marcel offers a solution and a way forward for human-centered senior leaders to consider for impacting their managers and solving the disengagement problem. 

Bio:

Marcel Schwantes is a leadership coach, speaker, author, and advocate for more humane workplaces. He partners with organizations tired of burnout, disengagement, and hollow cultures — and ready to build something better. 

Marcel’s work includes: 

• Executive coaching
• Leadership development programs for managers
• Keynote speaking and workshops
• Executive roundtables and culture strategy sessions 

Marcel is the author of Humane Leadership: Lead with Radical Love, Be a Kick-Ass Boss. Whether coaching a CEO or training a leadership team, Marcel’s #1 goal is the same: To help leaders become the kind of people others want to follow. 

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Show Notes

Quotes:

• “Your strategy isn’t failing—your managers are being set up to fail.” 
• “Disengaged managers don’t just struggle—they silently destroy performance from the inside out.” 
• “When you stop developing managers, you start breaking your business.” 

Takeaways:

1. The true bottleneck in performance is not strategy, but underdeveloped middle management.
2. Disengaged managers create disengaged teams—culture is a direct reflection of leadership.
3. Modern leadership requires connection, clarity, and development—not control.
4. Coaching is no longer optional; it is the core skill that drives sustainable performance.
5. Organizations that invest in managers as strategic assets gain a lasting competitive advantage. 

Timestamps:

00:00:00 The question every leader should ask in 2026 

00:00:25 What’s really keeping executives up at night 

00:00:50 Why strategy isn’t the real problem 

00:01:20 The truth about global disengagement 

00:02:00 Why middle managers are the pressure point 

00:02:40 The ripple effect of disengaged leadership 

00:03:20 The broken expectations placed on managers 

00:04:00 Why command-and-control leadership is outdated 

00:04:40 The shift from boss to coach 

00:05:30 How coaching unlocks performance and ownership 

00:06:30 Building a culture through managers 

00:07:30 The leadership wake-up call 

00:08:10 Final rallying cry to senior leaders 

00:08:54 Closing remarks

Conclusion:

If you want better results, stop fixing strategy and start fixing how you develop your managers. They are the force multiplier of your business—when they fail, everything fails; when they’re equipped, everything works. Invest in them, train them to coach, and treat them as your most critical asset, because the organizations that win today aren’t the ones with the best plans—they’re the ones with the best managers.

The Book

Links/Resources: 

The book: https://www.amazon.com/Humane-Leadership-Lead-Radical-Kick-Ass-ebook/dp/B0CWG3PTL4/  

Substack: https://marcelschwantes.substack.com/  

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/marcelschwantes/    

X: https://x.com/MarcelSchwantes  

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@MarcelSchwantes1  

Instagram: https://instagram.com/marcel.schwantes/  

Now Accepting Podcast Sponsors

We would be delighted to accept your sponsorship for future episodes as we challenge current management thinking and practices and build skills around human leadership and human-centered work cultures. If interested, contact Marcel.