Leadership style drives engagement & retention. Transformational & participative approaches inspire trust & growth, while autocratic styles drain talent.
HumanTag Editorial Team
In today’s working world, it’s about whether people feel trusted, heard, and inspired to grow, or whether your leadership style quietly drains that sense of connection and purpose.
The stakes in 2025 are higher than ever. A hybrid, flexible workforce is now the norm. Employees are more mobile, more aware of their worth, and more willing to disengage the moment they feel their leaders are out of touch. If you want to hold on to your best people, you need to start by examining how you lead them.
People rarely leave because of a single moment. They leave because of patterns. Unclear communication, rigid control, or a lack of genuine trust wears them down. And when they do leave, the impact ripples beyond headcount; you lose institutional knowledge, team morale, and the spark of creative energy that keeps your organization alive.
Research shows exactly what many of us observe on the ground: leadership style is one of the strongest drivers of employee work engagement. Transformational and participative styles consistently raise engagement and commitment. Autocratic and purely transactional approaches, on the other hand, may deliver short-term results but tend to deplete the motivation that keeps people invested on the long run.
Recent studies confirm that leadership style is closely tied to three dimensions of engagement:
When your style inspires these people, they don’t just stay, they perform. They show up with ideas. They feel ownership of outcomes. And that’s what makes your business resilient.
Too many leaders are still leaning on outdated command-and-control patterns, hoping KPIs and compliance will keep performance high. But modern research shows the opposite: transactional leadership, managing people through rewards and punishments, works only in the short term. It rarely fuels the deeper sense of belonging people need to push past the minimum.
And autocratic leadership? The evidence is clear. It erodes trust and psychological safety. It might deliver quick decisions in a crisis, but day to day, it leaves people feeling invisible and powerless.
Research review aligns strongly with global findings: transformational leadership builds intrinsic motivation and self-belief and helps people link their individual growth to the wider mission of the organization.
A transformational leader does more than give orders. They:
Equally important is the participative (or democratic) style. This style involves employees in real decisions, creating ownership and loyalty. It’s not just about holding a weekly town hall; it’s about shaping processes and solutions together. Teams feel a sense of collective responsibility, and that’s exactly what builds resilience in times of change.
Hybrid and digital-first work models aren’t going away. But they come with new risks: isolation, miscommunication, and eroding team cohesion. Leadership has to counteract these problems.
Gartner’s 2025 workforce trends confirm what we see in practice: the most engaged teams are led by managers who actively build connection rituals and intentional spaces for open dialogue and collaboration, whether online or in person.
At the same time, transactional-only reward structures are becoming less effective in knowledge-based roles. People want meaningful autonomy, recognition, and to see that their leaders trust them to make decisions.
No one wants to feel micromanaged. But people also don’t want to feel abandoned. Laissez-faire leadership, giving people total freedom with no support, has also been shown to hurt engagement, unless your team is extremely self-directed and motivated.
In other words, the best leaders today balance freedom with guidance. They check in thoughtfully, not intrusively. They ask questions. They show they care about people’s well-being, not just their output.
Before you redesign your next engagement plan, start with yourself. Ask:
If your honest answers are unclear, you’re not alone...but you do have a chance to shift.
The research is consistent: authentic connection, shared ownership, and emotional safety are what keep people motivated and loyal. You don’t need sweeping programmes to start rebuilding these, you need simple habits.
When you commit to a more transformational and participative style, you’ll notice the difference. People stay because they’re seen, heard, and trusted. They show up because they want to, not because they feel trapped.
Make sure it’s working for you... and not costing you the very people you need most.
"Better leadership is built on real insight, not assumptions. I always encourage leaders and HR professionals to dig deeper into what the research says, challenge their own habits, and keep asking what really helps people thrive."
Editorial Team
The HumanTag Editorial Team is dedicated to providing insights and thought leadership in executive education, leadership development, and organizational transformation.