Why Your Best People are Likely Quitting
- Eddie Geller
- Jun 23
- 2 min read
Most companies assume their managers are doing fine — until the best people quietly leave, burnout spreads, and teams stall out.
It’s not always obvious. Teams might look productive. Meetings happen. KPIs get reviewed. But dig deeper, and you’ll find the real signal: most employees aren’t experiencing great leadership.
In a survey of over 8,000 tech workers (completed by Lenny's Newsletter), only 26% said their manager was highly effective. Nearly half rated theirs as ineffective.
The impact? Massive.
Workers with poor managers are 4.3x more likely to quit
They’re more than twice as burned out
And they feel 62% less enjoyment in their jobs
This isn’t a personality issue — it’s a leadership system failure. Companies often promote high performers into management roles without giving them the mindset, tools, or feedback loops to succeed. It’s like handing someone a playbook without ever running drills.
The result: team members drift, feedback disappears, and what looked like a strong team starts quietly underperforming.
Most organizations don’t catch this early. They rely on sentiment surveys or lagging indicators like turnover and engagement dips. But those are symptoms, not root causes.
If you want to retain your best people, stop focusing only on culture as a vibe or HR initiative. Focus on the daily experience of being led.
Ask yourself:
Do your managers create clarity around priorities?
Do team members feel safe raising concerns or pushing back?
Is there recognition for contributions — or just correction for mistakes?
Are you measuring these things objectively, at the team level?
Because here’s the uncomfortable truth: many of your managers don’t know where they stand. And neither do you.
The companies that are winning right now aren’t just training managers — they’re building systems to consistently assess how leadership is experienced across the org. Not just at the top. Not just once a year. But team by team, role by role.
Leadership can’t just be assumed. It has to be visible, experienced, and measured.
Otherwise, the best people will keep walking out the door — and you won’t know why until it’s too late.
Want to see how your teams actually experience their leaders?
Take the SKOR Preview — it’s free, fast, and built to show how team performance can really drive success.
