When leaders don’t grow up

Companies are increasingly worn down not by the work itself, but by their leaders. Strategy and competence are rarely the issue. More often, the problem is executive immaturity: leadership rooted in control, transactions, and fear rather than responsibility and respect.

The cost is visible. Global employee engagement fell to 21% in 2024, the lowest since the pandemic. Engagement among managers dropped from 30% to 27%, and managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement, according to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2025. As leadership weakens, demands intensify and trust erodes.

The real divide is not good versus bad managers, but mature versus immature ones. Drawing on Immanuel Kant’s principle—treat people as ends, not merely as means—immaturity shows up in five ways: KPIs used as threats, “honest” feedback that humiliates, promotions based on loyalty, evasive handling of layoffs, and micromanagement driven by fear.

Mature leaders take responsibility for systems, deliver feedback with care, promote competence, face hard decisions directly, and choose trust over control. Companies fail not because leaders lack intelligence, but because they never fully grow up.