“Only 27% of people describe their manager as highly effective”: Learning to lead, retain employees, and free up time
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“Leadership isn’t a skill you get overnight, and it isn’t a superpower,” said Andy Coley, leadership development trainer at Game Studio Training.
“82% of leaders and managers have never had formal leadership development training. Only 27% of people describe their manager as highly effective.”
Coley shared these stats and more at PGC London 2025, discussing the importance of effective leadership in optimising workflow and retaining staff. He noted that 49% of people have quit a job due to their manager, and thus offered advice on improving one’s leadership skills.
Competency and control
“Leadership is something you can learn,” said Coley, having worked with Meta, Ubisoft, Powell Group, Supermassive Games and others to teach leadership techniques.
He argued that becoming an effective leader doesn’t happen just by being in charge of people, but rather, the ways in which people lead often reflect their own past managers. This can be an advantage or disadvantage.
“If you’ve had a fantastic manager, that’ll probably have rubbed off on you and you’ll manage in a fantastic way,” he said. “But mindset shifts happen. You have the ability to think differently.
“We start off unconsciously incompetent – we don’t know what we don’t know. Then we become consciously incompetent – we know what we don’t know. Then consciously competent, and finally unconsciously competent, where you do things automatically.”
“Leadership isn’t a skill you get overnight, and it isn’t a superpower.”
Andy Coley
Among the advantages of effective leadership, Coley highlighted the end result – the ability to trust a team, step back and allow them to work. He advised leaders against micromanaging experienced teams but to set expectations, then “engage them and provide empowerment”.
The maturity of the team matters too: “Initially within a team you need to be quite at the centre and in control. Then you need to be a coach. Then you need to step out and trust them.”
Though of course, even an experienced team requires a leader who can “set control and get that project working again” if there’s a problem.
Managing time
Lastly, Coley discussed problem-solving and freeing up managers’ time – to avoid their entire days being taken up solving issues.
“If you keep solving stuff for people, they will come to you for solutions. If you allow them to self-own, they will work it out for themselves,” he suggested.
“If they don’t know how to solve it, encourage a growth mindset. Have them come to you with a couple of potential solutions.”
He also advised encouraging a team to think about why they’re doing the work they are, rather than just “because they’re told to”.
Another year of PGC London is nearly at its end, but that means there’s plenty to discover from the fantastic conversations throughout both days, plus more talks still taking place right now.
