Employees Say Only 59% Of Leaders Are Actively Engaged. Could This Be Undermining Your Company’s Success?

When it comes to employee engagement, a significant gap exists in the conversation.

We recently surveyed 1,000 full-time employees and asked them what percentage of leaders they believe are actively engaged in their work. The results are concerning: employees estimate that only 59% of leaders are actively engaged. ⚠️

While most company leaders agree that engagement starts at the top, discussions about boosting engagement typically focus on individual contributors and frontline employees.

Don’t get us wrong—understanding how engaged employees are is crucial. But the employee engagement data tells a clear story:

• 64% of employees say their work experience is impacted when other employees are disengaged.
• 33% believe their manager has the biggest influence on their engagement, while 21% point to the CEO or executive team.
• 71% say they need to feel engaged to stay with a company long-term.

‍Understanding the impact of leadership engagement on teams is more critical than ever, so we’re diving deeper into these statistics to explore the relationship between employee and leadership engagement.

The Current State Of Leadership Engagement Needs Work

On average, employees say that 59% of leaders are actively engaged at work.

Leadership engagement numbers are middle of the road, but companies want to create world-class cultures. 🌎

We must pay attention to the leadership engagement gap to create the best company cultures.

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Engaged Employees Have Engaged Leadership

The idea that engagement starts at the top is a common statement, but what does that actually mean for companies? When you focus on engaging your top leaders and managers, it does flow into the experience that your team has.

During our recent survey, we asked employees ten questions about their engagement based on various topics like pay, recognition, psychological safety, workplace relationships, and more. We gave each employee an engagement level depending on how positively they answered our survey:

• Low Engagement: Employees said yes to 0-5 questions on our survey.
• Medium Engagement: Employees said yes to 6-8 questions on our survey.
• High Engagement: Employees said yes to 9-10 questions on our survey.

Next, we asked the following question about leadership engagement:

• Approximately what percentage of leaders or managers at your company do you believe are actively engaged in their work?

The results are clear: employees with low engagement rate their company’s leadership much lower than highly engaged employees.

But what’s the more nuanced story here? If you look at the detailed data, you can see a straightforward story across all 1,000 employees. Highly engaged employees are more likely to have highly engaged leaders.

One of our survey respondents shared the impact that engaged leaders have on a team ☕:

“When a leader is really engaged, it's like a shot of energy. I remember one time when my manager noticed the extra effort I put into a project and gave me a shout-out in front of the whole team. That felt awesome and made me want to keep up the good work.”

Increasing leadership engagement is a simple but effective way to motivate your entire team.

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The Ripple Effect of Disengaged Leadership

We know that engaged leaders create engaged teams, but what are the side effects of disengagement? Is it really that bad for business? Disengaged leaders create a toxic atmosphere that’s hard to work in. Let’s discuss how it impacts general sentiment, turnover, and promotions within an organization.

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Disengaged Leaders Give Employee Permission To Disengage

Did you know that many employees try to match the energy you give at work?

When you don’t show up and take the lead, employees often use it as an opportunity to slack off or do less at work. As expected, getting employees to do things they feel like their leaders don’t do can be challenging. Here are a few interesting quotes from our survey respondents to paint a clearer picture of how this works:

• “If you see a leader not engaged, it feels like permission to be less engaged.”
• “I am less engaged and focused as a result of his failure to engage.”
• “Less engaged leaders lead to less engaged employees.”

Are your company’s leaders accidentally giving your employees permission to disengage by not being active at work?

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Disengaged Leaders Drive Employee Turnover

Disengagement from leadership wreaks havoc on your organization. A whopping 55% of the employees we surveyed shared that they would be likely to leave if their company’s leaders consistently appeared disengaged. By employing disengaged leaders, you are setting your organization up for failure and mass turnover. Employees want to work for leaders who are excited and motivated to come to work every day.

Increased turnover can have profound impacts on your workforce. In a recent survey, we asked employees which aspects of turnover impact them most. Employees mentioned increased recruitment costs, disruption of team dynamics, increased workload, and decreased engagement among colleagues as the most impactful part of turnover. If improving leadership engagement can significantly impact turnover, companies must try to create more engaged leaders.

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Missed Career Opportunities Due to Disengaged Leadership

When you have disengaged leadership, you are making it harder to spot the next generation of talent in your organization.

Disengaged leaders are often checked out. They are barely thinking about their own career, let alone the careers of the employees on their team.

Unfortunately, 10.7% of the employees we surveyed shared that their leader’s level of engagement has negatively impacted them. These employees have missed some opportunities due to leadership engagement.

This number might not seem like much but spread it across your organization. For example, if you have 1,000 employees, our data suggests that ~107 employees have experienced negative impacts from their leader’s level of engagement.

How has your leader's level of engagement impacted your opportunities for career growth within your company? Here’s an example of how one leader’s disengagement has affected one of our survey respondents and stopped them from being able to advance at work:

“I'm told that until he officially initiates promotions, raises,etc. they can do nothing.  They are fully aware that I act in his capacity most of the time and they are satisfied as long as things are getting done.”

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The Impact Of Actively Engaged Leaders

So, if disengaged leaders permit employees to disengage, create a high turnover rate, and influence missed career opportunities for workers, what do engaged leaders do? Active leaders drive employee ambition. Imagine how much more you could get done if more of your employees were engaged at work.

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Active Leaders Make Employees Want To Go Above And Beyond

When leaders are actively engaged at work, it impacts your entire team. A whopping 80% of employees shared that when they see leaders actively participating in day-to-day operations, it makes them more engaged at work.

A few of our survey respondents spoke highly of engaged leaders and the impact they can have on workers:

“To have someone in charge actively involved in the day-to-day activities makes a big difference in the attitudes of employees. A direct manager you can talk openly too and whom you also perceive as competent goes a long way to steering everyone in the right direction.”

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“My leader's engagement influences my own attitude by providing a positive example as far as advancing my career within the company, particularly through taking on tasks above and beyond what is required.”

Are your workplace leaders encouraging employees to take the reigns in their careers?

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Engaged Leaders Recognize Their Team

Over the years, we’ve done a lot of research on employee recognition. We’ve found that:

• 83.6% of employees feel that recognition affects their motivation to succeed at work.
• 77.9% of employees would be more productive if they were recognized more frequently.
• 71% of employees would be less likely to leave their organization if they were recognized more frequently.

The impact of recognition at work cannot be understated. Most employees are not intrinsically motivated. They need consistent outside praise to be more productive.

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The data we’ve gathered here is clear. When employees get more frequent recognition, they are more likely to rate leadership highly. Employees who get weekly recognition say that 69% of leaders are actively engaged. On the other hand, employees who never get recognition say that 41% of their leaders are actively engaged. That’s a stark contrast, and it’s underscored by some of the feedback we got from our respondents:

“I've had managers who were detached, and that really sapped my enthusiasm. It's like working in a void—no feedback, no recognition, just a "do your job and disappear" vibe. That's when I felt the least engaged.”

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“There was another time when my manager was just... absent. They didn't seem to care about our projects or even our well-being. That lack of engagement made me feel like I was just a number, and my enthusiasm took a hit. It's a stark contrast to when I feel supported and recognized.”

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“My current manager appreciates the contribution I make to our company and to our profession.  I appreciate that, and it motivates me to do good work.  He is also easy to talk to about work and life in general.”

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The Solution: How To Engage Your Leaders

So, now that we know more about leadership engagement, how do we actively engage our top employees? Engagement at the highest level is similar to how we engage regular employees. You can’t stop supporting employees once they get a bigger paycheck and a larger team. How you show up for and hold leaders accountable is essential.

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Focus On Leadership Development

What makes an employee a leader? For many companies, leaders are just employees with a team. These leaders might have done well as individual contributors, so the next step in their career is naturally leading others. Not everyone is meant to be a manager, but unfortunately, leadership is typically the only way to climb the corporate ladder.

So, what happens when you plop an unexpected employee into a leadership role? Some sink, and some swim. Some of your leaders will rise to the occasion and lead teams using lessons they’ve learned from their old leaders. But what happens when these employees don’t pick up the pace? Here’s a peek at a negative leadership culture that one of our respondents shared:

“Nobody in leadership cares enough to go above and beyond for others’. The climate is self serving and energies are jaded. This leads me to going nowhere fast because they don’t care enough to nurture and develop.”

Employers must focus on training executives and managers so they can be there for their team. Without proper leadership and management training, your organization will continue to miss the mark for leaders and employees alike.

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Build A Culture Of Leadership Accountability

Once leaders are properly trained, you must set clear engagement expectations and encourage accountability. What does the ideal leader at your organization do? How do they think, act, and look? Get clear on how you want leaders to behave, tell them your expectations, and then hold them accountable to those expectations.

When expectations aren’t met, companies must be willing to do the hard work by investing in more leadership training or even firing, demoting, or moving bad leaders.

Leadership is a privilege, not a place to slack off or avoid the hard work. Employees catch on when leaders expect them to do more than they are willing to do. Building a culture of leadership accountability is essential to reducing turnover and creating an excellent environment for all your workers.

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Recognize And Reward Leaders Who Are Engaged At Work

Recognition works for all of your employees, even leaders. Employees want to be seen and praised for their hard work. When you see a leader that is engaged at work, celebrate them. From shoutouts and handwritten notes to bonus checks, there are many ways to recognize and motivate managers.

It’s easy to overcorrect a relaxed manager accountability practice by reprimanding leaders who aren’t cutting it, but hearing negative feedback all the time can become draining for your team. Instead of focusing all your energy on who’s not excelling, publicly praise the leaders who are getting it right. When other leaders see that they can be rewarded for stepping up, many will rise to the occasion.

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Conclusion

The current state of leadership engagement leaves much to be desired for employees. Only 59% of leaders are perceived as actively engaged, and this is leading to significant organizational challenges, including higher turnover and fewer career opportunities for employees.

Organizations must take action and encourage leaders to step up and be more present. Leadership isn’t an invitation to fade into the background; it’s a call to proactively lead an organization to where it needs to go. Disengaged leaders aren’t good drivers of organizational change. If you want to encourage leadership engagement, go back to the basics. Establish the rules of leadership engagement, hold leaders accountable, and recognize the people stepping up.