What happened
Two Queen's University business researchers, Julian Barling and Kaylee Somerville, have made a case that running a team is mostly about handling the connections between people, as reported by Talent Canada. Their piece was first published by The Conversation.
They point to a trend: about 41 per cent of organizations trimmed middle management during 2025. Fewer layers means each remaining manager answers for a bigger group, with little spare time for anything but administration.
The arithmetic is the heart of their argument. A manager with eight staff is not watching eight workers but up to 28 pairings among them and the manager. Add alliances and office politics and the load grows well past that. The authors also note that colleagues who are both work partners and friends tend to perform better, because trust makes people share harder information. They say the useful ceiling is roughly five to seven such close ties per person. Their conclusion is that many organizations promote people before giving them any training for this work.
Why it matters if you are hiring
If you have flattened your structure, or plan to, the manager role you are filling is not the one you filled five years ago. A supervisor with 12 or 15 direct reports needs judgment about people, not only scheduling and reporting skill.
This changes how you screen. Technical strength is still the entry ticket for a team lead, a finance manager or a plant supervisor. But ask candidates how they handled two colleagues in conflict, or how they brought a new hire into an established group. Past answers show more than a stated philosophy.
It also changes who you promote. Your best individual performer may be a poor fit for a wide span of control. Moving them up without support risks losing a strong contributor and gaining a struggling manager.
The report is research-based commentary, not a Canadian survey, so treat the 41 per cent figure as a signal rather than a benchmark for your sector.
One thing to do this week
Pick one open or recent leadership role and count the direct reports it carries. Then rewrite two interview questions to test relationship skills: how the candidate has handled friction between team members, and how they build trust across a group. Use those same questions with internal candidates.
Traverse Staffing helps Canadian employers find operations, finance and sales managers who can lead people as well as run the numbers, and we screen for that from the first conversation.