Management Summary
With its annual Engagement Index, the Gallup Institute provides valuable information on employee loyalty and leadership quality in Germany.
Even if the trend of recent years continues, the result is still alarming. Only 9% of employees in Germany showed a high level of emotional attachment to their company in 2024.
A key reason for this result is the quality of leadership and direct managers. In my article, I venture the hypothesis that this part represents a dissatisfaction that lies deeper and invites us to rethink the way we work together in the world of work.
Dear managers, it is now public. What the work of the last few months has shown and what many of you, many employees and many consultants and management coaches are feeling: employees' emotional attachment to their companies is at an all-time low.
9% of employees were still emotionally attached to their employer in 2024, according to Gallup. The resulting Economic damage exceeds 100 billion euros. One central reason is the Lack of trust in the management and the managers.
After all, the workload is higher than ever before. Coupled with the economic and social uncertainty, this is pushing many managers to and even beyond their own limits.
Some managers do not understand this assessment and accuse the young generation of no longer wanting to work: "No matter what they and the companies do, it's no good."
What would happen, dear managers, if we took a different view of the situation together?
Rethinking work - thesis: Permanent employment is out.
I invite you to engage in the following thought experiment:
Let's assume that the dissatisfaction with the leadership is only the visible part of the dissatisfaction. The part that can be articulated because it is perceptible on the outside.
Now you may be asking. Ok, so what would be the invisible part?
Let's assume that the invisible part of this dissatisfaction is the part of us, including us managers, that fundamentally questions the system of working methods because - as it stands - it is restrictive. Because it does not allow us to fully contribute to our work what actually defines us.
What if permanent collaboration in its current form has had its day? What if it is more about being effective in changing co-operations with individual strengths and talents? Entrepreneurially. With personal responsibility.
What if it were a matter of breaking up rigid structures and systems and making them more flexible in order to automatically generate free spaces that allow creativity to emerge, in order to be effective again from this creativity? What if regeneration and creativity had to follow a different rhythm in order to be able to process everything that needs to be processed in our fast-paced world and then use the insights gained to provide new impetus?
Well, what would happen then? Some of you may continue to spin these thoughts. Others will shake their heads and ask: "So how do we solve the problem of frustration and inner resignation? And what impulses can I draw from this for my day-to-day management?
Leadership requires time, dialogue and appreciation - for yourself and others
Let me be specific:
- Take the time to get to know your employees and understand who they are. What makes them special? What talents do they have - regardless of company, role and tasks - regardless of education and CV.
- Ask them what problems they would like to solve? What business or social challenges would they like to work on? What would they like to change?
- Create the space for this to be possible in a trusting environment - across teams, across divisions, across companies.
- Transfer decision-making authority to where the decisions need to be made.
- Open up the space for regular and trusting dialogue.
- Let go of fixed growth targets - in a world of limited resources, these are just an unimaginative continuation of the familiar. When companies solve problems innovatively - growth is a consequence of this. But this requires a change of perspective. It requires dealing with uncertainty and fears. It requires a switch from "business as usual only with more pressure" to a meta-perspective on what the potential of the company and therefore the people in this organisation actually is. It requires breaking away from dependencies on the financial market and redefining shareholder value.
- And in everyday life, it requires opening your eyes to the people around you, appreciating each individual - regardless of their role. Appreciation of the individual. It requires continuous dialogue. It requires jointly developing the questions that are really relevant in order to change the system bit by bit. It requires driving by sight and relinquishing control.
- And it requires honesty. Honest with yourself. Honesty about what is important to you. What you would like to achieve with what makes you special and what is possible in collaboration with the potential of your team. Recognising and feeling this requires a pause. It requires acceptance of the temporary emptiness. Acceptance of not knowing. The acceptance of emptiness. Because new things can only emerge from the void.
Dear managers and entrepreneurs, the report card Gallup has issued for the German labour market with the results of the 2024 study is unsatisfactory. Transfer is not only jeopardised, it is denied.
But it would be fatal to simply repeat the school year without learning any lessons.
For centuries, Germany was known for its pioneering spirit and inventiveness.
Focus on pioneering spirit
What is stopping you, what is stopping us, from giving this quality more space again and stepping out of "business as usual"?
What decisions can you make in your area of responsibility to do things differently than yesterday? What small steps can you take together with the people around you to restore well-being in the team?
What of what is on your mind day and night needs to be shared with your team to show that you care about the situation? What else do you need to break through the feeling of powerlessness and find your way back to an energy of creative organisation?
Self-efficacy is required
Economy and society are not made. The economy and society are us. Each and every one of us. With our strengths and weaknesses, with our rough edges. The art of leadership is to open up a space where strengths can come to the fore and where the sum of strengths is more than the strength of the individual.
Effective leadership permanently balances three aspects: the market and society, the organisation with its structures, systems and processes, and the people. The key questions of effective leadership are:
- What market problem do we want to solve? What contribution do we want to make to society?
- How can we do this in a productive and value-adding way?
- Who do we need to make this happen? How can we ensure that this happens with expertise, commitment and responsibility in the long term?
People are the key. They shape the quality of the system. They develop innovative strength, they decide on productivity. People are the lasting competitive advantage. Let's focus on that again.
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