13 Warning Signs You're About to Lose Your Best Leaders

Your best leaders are not going to tell you they are thinking about leaving. They are going to update their LinkedIn profile, start saying "that is fine" in meetings where they used to push back, and one morning you will get a resignation letter that feels like it came out of nowhere. But it did not come out of nowhere. You just were not paying attention.

Losing a high performer is expensive. Losing a high-performing leader is devastating. These are the people who set culture, drive results, retain their own teams, and carry institutional knowledge that cannot be replaced by a job listing. When they leave, they take all of that with them, and the ripple effects last for months or years.

Gallup's State of the Global Workplace report found that only 21 percent of employees globally are engaged. In the United States, engagement hit a decade low in 2024 at just 31 percent, with 17 percent actively disengaged. But here is the part most organisations miss: engagement among managers specifically fell from 30 percent to 27 percent, with managers under 35 and female managers showing the steepest declines. Your leaders are disengaging faster than anyone else, and you may not even see it happening.

The cost is staggering. Gallup estimates that low employee engagement costs the global economy $8.9 trillion annually, roughly 9 percent of global GDP. And the cost of replacing a senior leader is typically 100 to 200 percent of their annual salary when you account for recruitment, onboarding, lost productivity, and the downstream impact on their team.

I work with leadership teams around the world as a Certified Working Genius Facilitator and the author of Step Up or Step Out (10,000+ copies sold globally). Whether it is a corporate executive group, a school leadership team, or a nonprofit board, the warning signs that good leaders are about to leave are remarkably consistent. Here are 13 of them, what causes each one, and what to do about it. If any of these hit close to home, reach out at jonno@consultclarity.org and let us talk about what is really going on.

1. They Stop Pushing Back in Meetings

This is almost always the first sign, and it is the one most leaders miss because it feels like a good thing. The leader who used to challenge ideas, ask hard questions, and advocate passionately for their perspective has gone quiet. Meetings feel smoother. Decisions happen faster. And it feels like alignment.

It is not alignment. It is resignation. When a strong leader stops pushing back, it usually means they have decided their input does not matter, that the decision will be made regardless of what they say, or that the political cost of disagreement is no longer worth paying. Gallup's data shows that only 46 percent of employees clearly know what is expected of them at work, down from 56 percent in 2020. When expectations are unclear and input feels futile, the best leaders check out before they check out.

What to do about it: Pay attention to who has gone quiet. If a leader who used to be vocal has become agreeable, do not celebrate the lack of friction. Have a private conversation. Ask them directly: "I have noticed you have been quieter in meetings lately. What is going on?" Then listen. For more on how to restructure meetings so that genuine debate is welcomed, read 29 Simple Strategies on How to Improve Team Dynamics.

2. They Have Stopped Volunteering for New Initiatives

Strong leaders naturally gravitate toward new challenges. They put their hand up for cross-functional projects, offer to lead new initiatives, and actively seek ways to grow their impact. When this stops, something has changed.

The shift is usually subtle. They still do their job well. They still hit their targets. But they have stopped reaching beyond their current role. They are no longer investing in the organisation's future because they have started investing in their own future somewhere else. Dr. Amy Edmondson's research at Harvard on psychological safety shows that people withdraw initiative when they perceive the environment as unsafe or unrewarding. If your best leaders have stopped volunteering, ask yourself what changed.

What to do about it: Do not wait for leaders to volunteer. Create deliberate development opportunities and invite them personally. But more importantly, ask yourself whether the last few times they volunteered, their effort was recognised and rewarded. If the pattern is that initiative gets punished with more work and no acknowledgment, you have your answer.

3. Their LinkedIn Profile Just Got a Makeover

This is not subtle, but it is overlooked surprisingly often. When a leader updates their profile photo, rewrites their headline, starts posting content, or suddenly adds a flood of new connections, they are either building their personal brand for your benefit or preparing for their next move. In most cases, it is the latter.

Research shows that 77 percent of the global workforce is either quiet quitting or actively disengaged. LinkedIn activity is often the first visible sign that a leader has shifted from committed to curious about what else is out there.

What to do about it: This is not a sign to confront directly. It is a signal to reflect. Ask yourself: does this person have a clear growth path in our organisation? When was the last time you talked to them about their career aspirations? When was the last time you gave them a meaningful challenge? If you cannot answer those questions, you may have already lost them. Email me at jonno@consultclarity.org if you want to talk through how to create the kind of environment that retains your best people.

4. They Have Become Cynical About the Organisation's Direction

Leaders who care about the organisation argue about its direction. Leaders who have checked out make sarcastic comments about it. The shift from passionate disagreement to cynicism is one of the clearest indicators that a leader has moved from engaged to disengaged.

Cynicism in leaders is particularly dangerous because it is contagious. A cynical senior leader gives implicit permission to their entire team to disengage. Gallup found that countries and organisations with less engaged managers consistently have less engaged individual contributors. When your leaders become cynical, their teams follow.

What to do about it: Take cynicism seriously. When a leader you respect starts making dismissive comments about strategy, do not brush it off. Ask them what they would change if they could. Then actually listen. Leaders become cynical when they feel their perspective has been repeatedly ignored. The antidote is not motivation, it is genuine influence over decisions that matter.

5. They Are Working Strictly to Their Job Description

High-performing leaders naturally exceed their job description. They coach people outside their team, contribute to organisational strategy, build relationships across departments, and care about outcomes beyond their immediate remit. When they stop doing all of this and start operating strictly within their defined role, they are quiet quitting at the leadership level.

This is what Gallup describes as the majority of the global workforce: "not engaged," meaning they do the bare minimum. When this behaviour shows up in a leader rather than a frontline employee, the impact is exponentially greater because they are modelling disengagement for everyone who reports to them.

What to do about it: Recognise that this behaviour is a symptom, not a character flaw. Have an honest conversation about workload, recognition, and whether the role still fits who they are becoming. Often, leaders start operating strictly to their job description because they feel overwhelmed, undervalued, or stuck. The Working Genius assessment can be particularly powerful here because it reveals whether a leader is spending too much time in their frustration areas and not enough in their genius areas. Read The Six Types of Working Genius Book Summary to understand how this works in practice.

6. They Have Stopped Developing Their Team

One of the first things a disengaging leader sacrifices is the development of their people. Coaching conversations get shorter. One-on-ones become status updates. Development plans get pushed to "next quarter." The leader is still managing, but they have stopped leading.

This matters because it is a leading indicator. A leader who is invested in the long term develops their people. A leader who is planning to leave stops investing in a future they will not be around to see. Pay attention to what is happening below them. If their team members start leaving or disengaging, the root cause may be that the leader has already emotionally departed.

What to do about it: Ask the leader about their team development plans. If they are vague or non-existent, dig deeper. Ask them what would need to be true for them to feel genuinely excited about developing the next generation of leaders in their area. Their answer will tell you whether they still see a future with you. If your team needs help building the skills to have these conversations, email me at jonno@consultclarity.org.

7. They Are Visibly Exhausted but Will Not Ask for Help

Leaders who are burning out rarely ask for help. They have been conditioned to believe that asking for help is a sign of weakness. So they work longer hours, absorb more pressure, and gradually erode. The result looks like disengagement, but the root cause is unsustainable workload.

Gallup found that 41 percent of employees globally experienced "a lot of stress" the previous day, with stress levels 60 percent higher among those working under ineffective management. The cruel irony is that your best leaders are often the most overloaded precisely because they are the most capable. They get given more because they can handle more, until one day they cannot.

What to do about it: Do not wait for leaders to ask for help. Proactively review workloads and create space for recovery. Ask each leader on your team: "What is one thing on your plate that should not be there?" Then actually remove it. If your leadership team has not discussed how work is distributed, the Working Genius framework is a practical starting point. It reveals where each person contributes their best work and where they are being drained. I facilitate these sessions for teams around the world. Read 100 Proven Tips for Working Genius in the Workplace to see how it applies.

8. They Have Stopped Sharing Ideas for Improvement

Leaders who are engaged see problems and propose solutions. Leaders who are disengaged see problems and say nothing. The shift from solution-oriented to silent is a powerful warning sign because it means the leader has concluded that improvement is either impossible or not worth the effort.

Only 30 percent of employees strongly agree that someone at work encourages their development, according to Gallup, down from 36 percent in 2020. When leaders feel that their development and their ideas are not valued, they stop offering both. The tragedy is that these are exactly the people whose ideas you most need to hear.

What to do about it: Create structures that explicitly invite and reward improvement ideas. This does not mean a suggestion box. It means asking each leader in your team to bring one improvement idea to each strategic meeting and then acting on the best ones. When leaders see their ideas translate into action, engagement increases. When they see their ideas disappear into a void, they stop trying. Email me at jonno@consultclarity.org if you want to discuss how to create these structures.

9. They Are More Engaged with External Networks Than Internal Ones

When a leader starts spending more time at conferences, industry events, and external networking than on internal collaboration, they may be building their exit strategy. External engagement is healthy when it brings value back into the organisation. It becomes a warning sign when it replaces internal engagement.

This is particularly common among leaders who feel they have outgrown their role or their organisation. They start seeking intellectual stimulation, recognition, and career opportunities externally because they are not finding them internally.

What to do about it: Do not restrict external engagement. That will only accelerate the departure. Instead, create equivalently stimulating opportunities internally. Invite the leader to contribute to strategy at a higher level, lead a cross-functional initiative, or represent the organisation in a new way. Match the external pull with internal purpose.

10. Their Relationship with You Has Become Transactional

Think about your relationship with each leader on your team. Is it growing or shrinking? Are your conversations getting deeper or more superficial? When a leader's relationship with their boss shifts from trusting and open to purely transactional, something fundamental has changed.

Patrick Lencioni places absence of trust as the foundational dysfunction in his model because everything else depends on it. When a leader stops being vulnerable with you, stops sharing concerns, and stops asking for your input on their challenges, they have withdrawn their trust. And once trust is withdrawn, departure is usually not far behind.

What to do about it: Rebuild the relationship before you try to rebuild engagement. This starts with vulnerability on your part. Share something you are struggling with. Ask for their honest assessment of how you are leading the team. Create space for a real conversation, not a performance review. For the full framework on building vulnerability-based trust, read 183 Tips to Build Your Team: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Summary. If your leadership team needs to rebuild trust at a deeper level, email me at jonno@consultclarity.org.

11. They Have Started Saying "It Is What It Is" About Known Problems

This phrase is the language of learned helplessness. When a leader who used to fight for change starts accepting dysfunction with a shrug, they have given up. They are not calm. They are not at peace. They have simply stopped believing that improvement is possible.

This is one of the most damaging stages of leader disengagement because it normalises dysfunction for everyone around them. When senior leaders accept broken processes, cultural toxicity, or strategic misalignment with resignation rather than resolve, it signals to the entire organisation that mediocrity is the new standard.

What to do about it: Challenge the normalisation directly. When a leader says "it is what it is," ask them: "And what would it look like if it were different? What is actually stopping us?" Often, the barriers are smaller than people think. The real barrier is the accumulated fatigue of raising issues that never get addressed. If you want to change the pattern, start addressing the issues.

12. They Are Taking More Time Off Than Usual

A sudden increase in personal days, sick leave, or "working from home" days can indicate a leader who is either using their leave before they resign or simply needs more distance from a workplace that is draining them. Both are warning signs.

Research from Gallup shows that 54 percent of actively disengaged workers experienced "a lot of stress" the previous day. Leaders who are burning out or disengaging often use absence as a coping mechanism. They are not being lazy. They are protecting what is left of their energy for a transition they may already be planning.

What to do about it: Approach this with curiosity, not suspicion. Ask the leader how they are doing, genuinely. Ask whether the role is still energising them. If they are burning out, help them restructure their workload. If they are disengaging, help them find a path forward that reignites their commitment, whether that is in your organisation or, honestly, somewhere else. Great leaders respect honesty more than retention tactics.

13. You Are Reading This and Thinking of a Specific Person

This is the most important sign. If you have read through these 13 warning signs and a specific leader's face keeps appearing in your mind, trust that instinct. You already know. The question is what you are going to do about it.

Most organisations respond to leader departure with reactive measures: counteroffers, sudden promotions, or belated recognition. These rarely work because they address symptoms rather than causes. By the time a leader has decided to leave, the relationship damage is usually too deep for a pay rise to fix.

What to do about it: Have the conversation now. Not a retention conversation. A real conversation. Ask them how they are. Ask them what they need. Ask them what would make this the best role they have ever had. And then do whatever you can to make that true. If you cannot, be honest about it and help them find what they need. That kind of honesty builds a reputation that attracts the next generation of great leaders to your organisation.

What to Do Next

If you recognised several of these warning signs in leaders on your team, here is where I would start.

Step one: Identify the leader you are most at risk of losing. Rate each of the 13 warning signs honestly for that person. The signs that make you most uncomfortable are the ones that need the most attention.

Step two: Have a genuine conversation with that leader this week. Not about performance. About them. What is energising them? What is draining them? What would they change if they could?

Step three: Consider whether the problem is individual or systemic. If multiple leaders are showing these signs, the issue is not the leaders. It is the leadership culture. And that requires a facilitated team conversation, not a series of one-on-ones.

I work with leadership teams, school leadership groups, and boards to facilitate exactly these kinds of conversations. Whether you need a Working Genius session to understand how your team is wired, a team health diagnostic using the Five Dysfunctions framework, or a facilitated offsite to address the real issues, I can help.

I am the author of Step Up or Step Out, which has sold over 10,000 copies globally, and I host The Leadership Conversations Podcast with more than 230 episodes and listeners in over 150 countries. My Working Genius masterclass at the ASBA 2025 National Conference achieved a 93.75 percent satisfaction rating.

If your organisation is losing good leaders and you want to understand why, email me at jonno@consultclarity.org. The leaders you are about to lose are usually the ones you can least afford to.

FAQ

What are the most common reasons good leaders leave?

The most common reasons are a lack of genuine influence over decisions, feeling undervalued, unsustainable workload, poor relationship with their own leader, limited growth opportunities, and misalignment between their strengths and their role. Gallup data consistently shows that people leave managers, not companies, and this applies even more strongly to leaders who have high expectations for the quality of leadership above them.

How do you retain high-performing leaders?

Start with trust and honest conversation. Beyond that, ensure they have genuine influence, clear growth paths, sustainable workloads, and roles that align with their strengths. Tools like Working Genius reveal whether a leader is spending too much time in their frustration areas and not enough in their genius areas, which is a common but invisible cause of burnout and departure. As a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, I help teams diagnose and address these dynamics. Email jonno@consultclarity.org to discuss your situation.

What is quiet quitting at the leadership level?

Quiet quitting at the leadership level is when a leader continues to perform their core responsibilities but withdraws all discretionary effort: coaching, strategic thinking, cross-functional collaboration, and organisational citizenship. Gallup reports that 62 percent of employees globally are not engaged, and this includes leaders. The impact of a quiet-quitting leader is magnified because they set the tone for their entire team.

How much does it cost to lose a senior leader?

Research suggests the cost of replacing a senior leader ranges from 100 to 200 percent of their annual salary when you factor in recruitment, onboarding, ramp-up time, and lost productivity. But the hidden cost is often greater: their team may destabilise, institutional knowledge walks out the door, and organisational culture takes a hit that can take months to recover from.

Can a disengaging leader be re-engaged?

Yes, but only if the root cause is addressed. Perks and pay rises are rarely sufficient. Re-engagement requires honest conversation about what has changed, genuine action to address the underlying issues, and often a recalibration of the role to better match the leader's strengths and aspirations. The earlier you intervene, the higher the chance of success. If you have tried and nothing is working, email jonno@consultclarity.org and let us discuss a different approach.

What tools help organisations retain leaders?

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team assessment measures trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, and results across your leadership team. The Working Genius assessment reveals where each leader contributes their best work and where they may be frustrated or drained. DISC workshops help leaders understand communication and conflict styles. StrengthsFinder sessions help individuals understand their natural talents. I facilitate all of these and find the combination of Working Genius plus Five Dysfunctions gives leadership teams the most complete picture of what is working and what is driving people away. Email me at jonno@consultclarity.org to discuss which approach fits your team.

NEXT READ: 10 Warning Signs Your Executive Team Is Dysfunctional (And What to Do About It)

About the Author

Jonno White is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, bestselling author, and leadership consultant who works with schools, corporates, and nonprofits around the world. His book Step Up or Step Out has sold over 10,000 copies globally, and his podcast The Leadership Conversations has featured 230+ episodes reaching listeners in 150+ countries. Jonno founded The 7 Questions Movement with 6,000+ participating leaders and achieved a 93.75 percent satisfaction rating for his Working Genius masterclass at the ASBA 2025 National Conference. Based in Brisbane, Australia, Jonno works globally and regularly travels for speaking and facilitation engagements.

To book Jonno for your next leadership team offsite, workshop, or keynote, email jonno@consultclarity.org.