What would your team say about working here?

The Great Detachment

Something shifted after 2020. Employees aren’t quitting at pandemic-era rates, but many aren’t fully engaged either. Gallup calls it “The Great Detachment” – a workforce that shows up but has quietly disconnected from the mission.

This creates a Face the Truth challenge – not because leaders aren’t paying attention, but because organizational dynamics make honest upward feedback structurally difficult. The people who could tell you how the team is really doing often don’t feel they can, regardless of how open you’ve tried to be. That’s not a personal failure. It’s how hierarchy works.

Why This Matters

Work is where most adults spend the majority of their waking hours. When people feel disconnected from purpose, unclear about expectations, or invisible to leadership, it affects far more than productivity metrics. It affects their sense of meaning, their relationships, their lives outside work.

The research points to two addressable problems: unclear expectations and weak connection to purpose. Both respond to leadership attention – not through motivation speeches, but through systems that make clarity automatic. Gallup’s analysis shows that improving clarity of expectations can increase work quality by 11%. Strengthening connection to mission can reduce turnover by 32%.

This is why The Shift That Sticks methodology begins with Face the Truth: building the conditions where honest information can flow, so you can define what actually matters and create systems that reinforce it over time. The goal isn’t to become a different kind of leader – it’s to build an organization where the people who depend on you can do meaningful work.

One conversation to try this week: Ask someone on your team, “What’s one thing that’s unclear about what we’re trying to accomplish right now?” Then listen without defending. The answer – or the hesitation before answering – tells you something about the conditions you’ve built.