The Leadership Energy Crisis: Why Engagement Starts at the Top—and How MarvinScout Can Help

A wave of new research in 2025 signals that the engagement crisis in today’s workplace isn’t just affecting front-line workers—it’s hitting leaders hardest.

Almost half (47%) of all managers consider themselves “fully engaged” at work, and a similar number say they would willingly give up their title for the chance to feel engaged again.

*Kahoot! 2025 Workplace Engagement Report

This signals a profound shift in what leaders truly value—connection, recognition, and genuine involvement from their teams and organisations.

The Hidden Cost of Disengaged Leadership

The ramifications extend well beyond the C-suite. Gallup’s 2025 State of the Global Workplace Report reveals that global manager engagement has slumped to just 27%. Leaders directly influence up to 70% of overall team engagement, making their wellbeing and energy pivotal for organisational performance. When leaders run on empty, whole teams follow suit. The Kahoot! study found over a quarter (26%) of managers have considered quitting in the past year, and 34% report feeling burned out daily or several times a week.

The top drivers of manager disengagement? Emotional exhaustion from motivating disengaged teams, constant change, economic uncertainty, and feeling invisible or undervalued by executive leadership. Trying to juggle engagement alongside other priorities—or to coax engagement from Gen Z team members—only increases the strain.

Training and Tools: The Missing Ingredients

Staggeringly, 57% of surveyed leaders have never received extensive training in how to re-engage teams, while only 17% report their company always provides effective tools to keep teams motivated. The vast majority are improvising at a time when alignment and clarity matter most. Only 30% gave themselves an ‘A’ for engaging their teams, with 70% admitting they’re falling short.

What would help? Recognition and incentives top the list, identified by 69% of leaders. They also crave more regular team connection (57%), friendly competition and gamification (44%), and open two-way feedback from senior executives (42%). Leaders say they’d feel more engaged with more energy, creativity, or fun in daily work (58%), and further opportunities to grow their skills (52%).

Is Your Engagement Program Delivering Results?

Despite investments in engagement programs, most organisations still struggle to measure the impact. Less than a quarter of leaders feel they can clearly and consistently track engagement. Many wish they had better ways to measure how engagement actually drives productivity, rather than simply logging hours.

Communication is another gap: only 14% of leaders say training and meetings reliably spark motivation. The overwhelming message is that leaders want to be genuinely heard and recognised. Fixing this issue could be transformative for morale and retention.

How MarvinScout Can Help Western Australian Leaders Reclaim Engagement

At Marvin HR, we understand that real engagement starts with understanding people—not just performance metrics, but what motivates, inspires, and connects employees at work. That’s where MarvinScout comes in.

MarvinScout isn’t just a psychometric tool.It’s a one-page engagement dashboard designed from decades of insights in professional sport and organisational management. The Scout methodology assesses members of your team across five key human dimensions, starting with character and values, and ending with maximising every individual’s unique strengths. It’s a holistic, character-driven approach that goes far beyond standard engagement surveys.

Crucially, MarvinScout helps you:

• Identify and celebrate character and values—focusing on “how” employees work, not just “what” they accomplish.

• Strengths so you can build on them and make weaknesses irrelevant, driving performance and satisfaction.

• Deliver weekly feedback loops and regular catch-ups rather than relying only on annual reviews, ensuring that employees feel listened to and valued all year round.

• Customise engagement strategies for different demographics, including ways to better connect with younger employees such as Gen Z.

• Enable actionable consultation: The Scout results are best interpreted with the guidance of a Marvin HR consultant, helping you contextualise and turn insights into measurable action.

Our clients tell us that MarvinScout transforms the conversation around engagement. Instead of burnout and disengagement, leaders find new energy and a sense of belonging—for themselves and their teams.

If you’re looking to close the engagement gap, retain your talented managers, and build an energised, productive workplace, now’s the time to put MarvinScout to work. To learn more or arrange a consultation, visit marvinhr.com/everything-testing.

Let’s make engagement more than a buzzword—let’s make it your company’s superpower.