Engagement Begins When Leaders Let Go

Global employee engagement fell to 20% in 2025, according to Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2026 report. Even managers are struggling: their engagement dropped from 31% in 2022 to 22%. Organizations keep launching surveys, adding perks and redesigning offices, and the numbers keep sliding anyway.

Engagement is not a program. It is the natural result of how people are led. And in my experience, the leaders who engage their people best are the ones willing to let go of control.

Modern leadership requires enabling potential rather than constraining it. When leaders fail to create new opportunities for their people, they lose their most innovative talent, often to organizations that will.

What Someone Did for Me

I know this firsthand. In the early years of my career, I was considered high-potential by an organization that was reinventing itself. Rather than assume I was too young to take on the responsibility of hiring and leading people twice my age, the organization's leadership invested in my potential. As a result, I grew quickly in that new role.

That calculated risk paid off. It allowed me to prove that as an executive in my late 20s, I could generate tremendous revenue growth and return on investment for the organization. I will forever be grateful to the leaders who engaged me early and guided me well.

I have also seen the opposite. I once spoke with an executive at a Fortune 80 company who had been with his organization for more than 15 years. He had grown tired of the inconsistency of his leader, who did not value him or prioritize his career development. He was ready to leave in search of a leader who had his best interests at heart while still supporting the organization's goals.

Both of us had talent. Only one of us had a leader willing to bet on it. That gap is what the six habits below are designed to close.

1. Reduce Artificial Tension

Many leaders unconsciously expect their people to think, work and communicate the way they do. That expectation creates tension that has nothing to do with the work itself. Stop asking people to mirror you. Encourage them to bring their own style, perspective and strengths. Individuality is where performance comes from, so treat it as an asset rather than a distraction.

2. Focus on What Energizes People

It is easy to spend performance conversations on shortcomings. Wise leaders spend more time identifying positive capabilities: the work that gives each person energy, the talents they use naturally and the problems they love to solve. Build roles around those strengths, and effort takes care of itself.

3. Empower Without Micromanaging

People need freedom to discover how to do their best work. Give them clear outcomes and the room to figure out the path. Provide opportunities that build confidence, and resist the urge to step in at the first sign of struggle. As AI takes over more routine tasks, the work left for people is increasingly judgment, and judgment only develops with practice.

4. Delegate Influence, Not Just Tasks

Handing someone a task tests their execution. Handing them influence tests their leadership. Put people in roles where they lead a project, represent the team or make a real decision. This is how you find out what they are capable of, and how they find out too.

5. Celebrate Collaboratively

When the team succeeds, share the credit transparently. Include your people in your own achievements, because they almost certainly helped make them possible. Leaders who hoard recognition teach their people to stop contributing ideas. Leaders who share it build teams that want to win together.

6. Demonstrate Loyalty

Loyalty is shown through consistency. Be the same leader in hard seasons as in good ones. Actively advocate for your people's development, even when it means they may outgrow their current role. Your best people need an advocate, and they notice quickly whether you are willing to be one.

The Risk of Holding On

Letting go feels risky. It means trusting people before they have fully proven themselves. But holding on is riskier. When leaders constrain their people, the most capable ones leave, and the ones who stay stop offering their best ideas.

The leaders who invested in me took a calculated risk. It paid off for them and for me. That is the kind of return engagement programs promise but rarely deliver.

Loosen Your Grip on One Person First

Pick the person you have been quietly expecting to work the way you do, and ask how they would approach the work instead. Ask everyone on your team which part of their job gives them the most energy, and listen for the answers that surprise you. Hand one meaningful decision to someone who has never made it before. And the next time you are recognized for a result, name the teammate who made it possible, in public.

Engagement begins the moment you enable full potential instead of managing it away.

Want to explore these ideas further? Learn more about my work on leadership, identity and conviction at www.theglennllopis.com.