I've spent this year on burnout prevention, and two numbers changed what I thought I was working on. The first: managers account for about 70% of the variance in whether their team is engaged (Gallup). Not pay, not perks, not the mission statement, not how much they like the CEO. The manager.

The second: three out of four middle managers are burning out, the highest rate of any level of leadership, above the executives over them and the teams under them (Simon Sinek's The Optimism Company).

Sit with those together for a second. The single person who most determines whether a team thrives is also the most likely to be quietly falling apart. And most of them were promoted for being great at the work, then handed a team with no training. (Only 44% of managers have ever received any. Gallup again.)

So I decided to build something for that person. Real skills, for the actual job.

But when I went looking for the data I needed to build it well, I hit a wall. I could find plenty on how managers are struggling. I could not find a clear answer to the two questions that actually matter for designing the training:

What do employees actually need from their manager? And what do senior leaders actually need from that same manager?

Same person, pulled in two directions, and nobody had asked both sides plainly.

So I'm asking. Two short surveys, four minutes each, one for people who report to a manager and one for people who have managers reporting to them. I'll publish what I find.

Whichever side of a manager you sit on, there's a survey for you.