Editorial
Only 31% of US employees are engaged at work, and manager engagement dropped to 27% in 2024. At the same time, leadership burnout rose to 56%, with 75% of leaders saying they need additional support to manage their responsibilities effectively. Something is clearly broken. But that something isn't what most people think.
We're Solving 2025 Problems With a 1950's Playbook
The workplace we inherited was built for a different era. In industrial times, the people at the top knew the most. You were the best widget maker, so you became the widget manager. Eventually you made it to the C-suite. The richest knowledge and experience sat at the top, and the job of leadership was to cascade that knowledge down. Big changes and initiatives began where the expertise lived and made their way down the hierarchy.
That model made sense then. It doesn't make sense now.
The pace of change, the need for innovation, the speed required to stay competitive all necessitate knowledge at every altitude. We need perspective from every vantage point. Senior leaders facilitate change, but they can't own and design it all. They don't have the knowledge. They don't have the bandwidth. And they certainly don't have the proximity to see what's actually broken, or where opportunity is missed, in the day-to-day work.
But we're still acting like they do. Employees wait for leaders to fix the work experience. Leaders believe they need to fix everything from the top. Both groups are playing roles that made sense 70 years ago. And the workplace experience continues to degrade.
The result is leaders burn out trying to carry it all while employees wait for solutions that aren't coming. And nothing moves forward.
But there's good news buried in this. Knowledge lives everywhere now, not just at the top. The person drowning in pointless meetings knows what needs to change. The team that sees colleagues feeling isolated can create ways to connect them. The manager who spots untapped potential in their people can create opportunities for growth and visibility. The team dealing with confused handoffs can see the fix more clearly than any C-suite initiative ever will.
Power to improve the work experience exists at every level. Not just to fix what's broken, but to build what's missing. The question is whether people will use it.
Too many of us are still waiting for permission to act. But we need to stop waiting — and just act.
Start Here
If you could wave a wand and change anything about your work experience, what would it be?
Now the harder question: What's the smallest first step that could move you toward there, if not necessarily all the way there? If it still feels too big, shrink it until it's clearly within your locus of control.
Most people underestimate what's in their control. They focus on everything outside it: the strategy they can't influence, the budget they can't access, the org structure they can't redesign. But inside that circle sits real leverage. The friction you experience daily? You can see it more clearly than anyone above you. And often, you can do something about it.
These aren't big initiatives. They're low-risk experiments. If they work, you win. If they don't, you learn something and try the next thing. No permission needed. No budget required. Just a problem you can see and a move you can make.
What These Small Actions Actually Look Like
Creating connection where there's isolation
In one organization, employees were feeling disconnected. Engagement scores showed it. People were largely remote or hybrid, relationships had become transactional, and there was no real sense of culture.
A handful of employees created a shared document. People could post where they needed help, where they had expertise, what their hobbies were. Others could browse and reach out where there was synergy. A few connections formed. The concept caught on. Over several months, more people added themselves. They started sharing when they'd be in the office so others could coordinate. Engagement began to rise.
Nobody asked permission. They saw isolation and created a way to bridge it. No budget. No approval process. Just a shared doc and an idea.
Building readiness when you can't create outcomes
In another organization, a manager was frustrated. His team of three wanted career advancement, but he couldn't fabricate openings. What could he actually do?
He realized career advancement was outside his control. But readiness wasn't. He could create networking and exposure opportunities. He could put his team in positions of project leadership. So when opportunities did present themselves, his people would be more ready than others.
He couldn't change the outcome. But he could change the inputs.
Resetting boundaries when you can't reduce volume
One team was overwhelmed by inbound requests from other teams. They felt helpless to say no. They couldn't reduce the volume. But they could change how requests came in.
They created a simple intake form with key questions. They established standards around timelines and turnaround. It wasn't about turning down the volume (out of their control). It was about resetting boundaries around how they engaged with it (in their control).
The requests kept coming. The team stopped drowning.
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If You're a Senior Leader: Your Job Has Changed
If you're in the C-suite or senior leadership, you've probably been operating under the belief that fixing the work experience is your job. That engagement, culture and organizational dysfunction are yours to solve from the top.
That belief is crushing you. And it's also keeping your organization stuck.
Your job has changed. You can't be the source of all solutions anymore because you don't have all the knowledge. The people closest to the work do. Your job isn't to solve it for them. It's to create the conditions where they can solve it themselves.
Here's what that actually means.
First, name what you're hearing. Be specific. "I'm hearing that handoffs between teams create confusion." "People feel unclear on priorities." "Teams are drowning in meetings." Don't minimize it. Don't spin it. Just name it.
Second, be clear about what's actually non-negotiable. Most leaders think everything is. It's not. Get specific about the handful of real constraints and be honest about why they exist.
Third, invite experimentation. Say it clearly: "I can't solve this from where I sit. You're closer to the work. What's one small thing you could try this week that might move us in a better direction?"
Then get out of the way.
This isn't abdication. You're not abandoning the problem. You're distributing the power to solve it to the people who can actually see it. And when you do, something shifts. People stop waiting for you to have all the answers. They start trying things. Problems get solved faster because the people with proximity are empowered to act.
And you? You stop drowning. The impossible weight lifts. You get to focus on the things only you can do.
These are experiments, not commitments. Low risk. If something doesn't work, people learn and try the next thing. The cost is minimal. The potential is massive.
Why This Compounds
Small acts of ownership create permission for others to act. One team redesigning how they work gives the next team ideas. One manager protecting their people from noise shows other managers what's possible. One leader inviting experimentation shows other leaders what happens when they stop hoarding control.
Change doesn't need to start at the top anymore. It needs to start. And once it does, it compounds.
What Becomes Possible
When leaders stop trying to solve everything and instead create conditions for others to solve problems, they stop burning out. Their teams stop waiting. Work actually improves because the people closest to it are shaping it.
When everyone else stops outsourcing their agency to leadership, the daily experience of work starts to shift. Not because of a program or an initiative, but because people are actively improving what they can see and touch instead of passively enduring it.
This isn't about adding more to anyone's plate. It's about recognizing that the power to improve your work experience doesn't live at the top anymore. It lives everywhere. Including with you.
The permission you're waiting for isn't coming. And that's actually good news. Because it means you can start right now.
Editor's Note: Read more about actions you can take today to improve your day to day work:
- 5 Things You Can Do Today – for Free – to Improve Your Digital Employee Experience — As digital employee experience leaders, our focus should be on making big changes. But we shouldn't lose sight of the simple actions that can improve DEX.
- The Key to Employee Engagement Is ... Better Processes? — New research finds employees want efficient systems that help them do their jobs well. Experts share how to get your processes right — and keep employees happy.
- 5 Tips to Improve the Culture of Your Organization — To change culture, we must change behavior.
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