Managers are the central nervous system of every organization, communicating strategy to their teams and ensuring they successfully execute it. A company can have the most elaborate and innovative strategy, but if managers aren’t able to harness the talent of their teams and lead them in the right direction, the strategy will likely fail.

In effective organizations, managers are laser focused on making their organization’s vision a reality. They spend most of their time implementing strategy through their team. Shockingly, these days that appears to be the exception rather than the rule.

The American Management Association’s latest research found that managers are not focused on this key area. Most managers spend less than half of their time implementing their organization’s strategy, raising questions about their dedication, focus, efficiency—and above all, whether they are adequately trained to meet the challenges facing today’s managers. The unintended consequences of not focusing on strategic implementation is that organizations fall short of achieving their goals. Our survey identified the than half of their time implementing their organization’s strategy, raising questions about their dedication, focus, efficiency—and above all, whether they are adequately trained to meet the challenges facing today’s managers. The unintended consequences of not focusing on strategic implementation is that organizations fall short of achieving their goals. Our survey identified the skills managers need to effectively execute strategy, and determined which are in short supply, contributing to management’s crisis of focus.

Approximately 1,100 people were surveyed—including managers, directors, VPs and executives. Unless otherwise specified, the results summarized below indicate overall results for “leaders,” and for purposes of this article, the term includes all of the above job titles, as the responses about how much of their time they devote to implementing their organization’s strategy shows similar trends