We spend an awful lot of time in organisations talking about culture, engagement, retention, and wellbeing.

These are BIG words. Important words.

But somewhere in the middle of all that conversation, a simpler thing gets lost.

The quality of the dialogue.

Socrates believed that knowledge wasn’t “given.” It was produced through the shared exchange of words. He called it dialogue.

Fast forward to the 21st century, and we have replaced that profound exchange with Slack and Teams messages and target-setting exercises.

We are talking more but genuinely connecting less.

I am not talking about structured one-on-ones where the agenda is set and the week’s hot topics get ticked off.

I am talking about real conversations. The kind where a manager asks a courageous question, leans in, and actually hears what is going on for the person sitting across from them.

 

After 15 years of coaching leaders, one thing has never changed.

 

The quality of the conversation determines almost everything else.

 

That is coaching. And most organisations are desperately short of it.

 

Marshall Goldsmith, the world’s preeminent executive coach, puts it simply.

 

“Successful people become great leaders when they learn to shift the focus from themselves to others.”

 

It sounds obvious, yet the execution is still our biggest hurdle.

 

Here is what the data tells us.

 

Australian employers spent an average of just $1,122 per employee on training in 2025.

 

For context, that is less than the cost of one day of lost productivity from a disengaged team member.

 

And yet the International Coaching Federation reports that 87% of organisations that invested in coaching saw a positive return.

 

The median ROI sits at around 7 times the initial investment.

 

And AHRI’s own research confirms that leadership development ranks as one of the most effective strategies available for improving retention.

 

So, the question is not whether coaching delivers a return.

 

The data is clear on that.

 

The question is why more organisations are not making it a priority.

 

Coaching is rarely something people just figure out. It is a skill that must be built.

 

This is where the “Accidental Manager” gap shows up most painfully. These are the people promoted because they were brilliant at their technical job, then left to muddle through the complexities of human leadership without a map.

 

There is a world of difference between a manager who says, “Here is what you need to do,” and one who asks, “What do you think would work here?”

 

The first one gets compliance. The second one builds capability.

 

Two millennia after Socrates, the Socratic method remains the most sophisticated

technology we have for building that capability.

 

It is not a soft skill. It is the highest-returning investment a business can make.

 

So where do you start?

 

The most practical first step is engaging an experienced coach for your managers.

 

Not a one-day workshop. A meaningful relationship built over time that develops the habits and self-awareness to bring out the best in others.

 

As Goldsmith famously said, “What got you here won’t get you there.”

 

The skills that made your managers great individual performers are not the ones that make them great leaders.

 

But those skills can be developed. And when they are, everything changes.

Is coaching something your organisation invests in, or is it still sitting on the nice to have list?

 

Drop your thoughts in the comments. I would love to hear your perspective.

And most organisations never see it coming.

 

AHRI’s latest research is clear. Australian organisations are investing heavily in technical skills but falling short when it comes to developing the human ones.

 

Yet we keep taking our best technical people, giving them a bigger desk and a round of applause, and leaving them to figure the rest out themselves.

 

And the same AHRI research tells us that only 15% of Australian employers plan to invest their training budgets in leadership and management development this year.

 

So there they are. Brand new managers. Responsible for the careers, the performance, and the well-being of the people around them.

 

Given a pat on the back and sent on their way. Sure, it’ll be grand!

 

Sound familiar?

 

Here is what usually happens next.

 

A gun salesperson gets promoted to sales manager.

 

The best engineer becomes head of engineering. The person who could always be relied upon to get the job done is now responsible for making sure everyone else does, too.

 

The person who never put a foot wrong is suddenly in charge of making sure nobody else does either.

 

Everyone waits for the magic to continue.

 

And then it goes pear-shaped.

 

We call it the Promotion Trap.

 

The skills that made them exceptional before, drive, focus, personal accountability, and the ability to just get things done, are often the very skills that work against them as a manager.

 

Because great management is not about focusing on yourself.

 

It is about getting the best out of the people around you.

 

And unless they are naturally gifted people managers, most newly promoted leaders default to doing instead of leading.

 

They struggle to delegate.

 

They take the work back.

 

They micromanage without meaning to.

 

Meanwhile, the team starts to disengage.

 

Good people quietly look elsewhere.

 

And by the time the resignation letters arrive, the damage is already done.

 

This is not a personal failure. It is a systemic one.

 

We set people up to struggle and then wonder why they do.

 

The Peter Principle was written in 1969.

 

Here we are in 2026 and the research suggests we are still living it.

 

The good news? This is entirely avoidable.

 

It starts with genuinely understanding who your people are before the promotion is made.

 

How do they think?

 

How do they influence?

 

How do they handle pressure and ambiguity?

 

Do they understand the difference between being a leader and a manager, and can they be both?

 

The most effective approach starts with benchmarking your best managers to understand what actually makes them successful.

 

Then compare your next potential leader against that benchmark.

 

Identifying the gaps honestly.

 

And providing the right support through experienced coaching.

 

Remember, coaching is not teaching.

 

It helps your people to learn, at their own pace, in the context of their own role.

 

Ideally, a promotion should never come as a surprise.

 

It should be part of a deliberate process of building bench strength so that when the moment arrives, your people step into the role with confidence, not apprehension.

 

A promotion should never be a reward for past performance.

 

It should be a considered decision about future fit.

 

Have you seen this play out in your organisation?

 

Where have promotions worked, and where have they fallen short? Drop your experience in the comments.

 

Link to the AHRI research.

The latest Employee Engagement report from Gallup landed, and what it tells us, I think is quite sobering…

 

Global employee engagement has now fallen for the second consecutive year, sitting at just 20%. In Australia, we are at 21% (down 2 points).

 

That means 4 in every 5 people going to work every day are either switched off or actively miserable ☹

 

Four in five. Let that sit for a moment.

 

Disengagement is not just a number on a report. It has a face.

 

It is the person who used to bounce ideas around in meetings and now sits quietly, avoiding eye contact.

 

The one who used to stay back without being asked, who now watches the clock.

 

The enthusiastic new hire whose energy slowly drains away because nobody noticed what they needed.

 

Disengagement does not arrive loudly. It creeps in.

 

It looks like missed deadlines, it feels like a team that stops celebrating wins, and sounds like silence where there used to be conversation.

 

There is an old saying, “A fish rots from the head.”

 

Culture is not built from the bottom up. It flows from the top down. And the Gallup findings make this impossible to ignore, revealing.

 

The sharpest decline was not among employees. It was among managers, down nine percentage points since 2022.

 

When the people leading the team stop believing, it seeps into the culture until disengagement becomes the new normal.

 

That is not a management failure; it’s a human one.

 

For me, this is where the real work begins. People do not want to be managed; they want to be understood.

 

They want to know that the role they are in was chosen for them thoughtfully, not filled out of urgency. That someone considered:

 

• Who they are and how they think.
• What brings out their best.
• Where they are most likely to thrive.

 

It’s a question that needs to be answered before the role is filled, not after. And answering it well takes a blend of three things:

 

The insider knowledge of the hiring manager, the science of objective assessment, and a genuine curiosity about the human being in front of you. Get that combination right, and everything changes.

 

Engagement is not a programme you roll out. It is a feeling. And it begins at the top.

 

What are you witnessing on the ground? Are you seeing the “manager burnout” Gallup describes in your industry? I would genuinely love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

I sat down this week to write a post about leadership.

 

And then I stopped.

 

In times like these, rising costs, global uncertainty, the constant noise of the news cycle, the usual conversations about growth and strategy feel a little hollow. Not because they don’t matter. But because people matter more.

 

The leaders I admire most aren’t the ones who lean hardest on the data. They’re the ones who know when to put the report down and simply be present with the person in front of them.

 

Uncertainty is exhausting.

 

Trying to make good decisions about people, whether you’re building a team, navigating change, or simply trying to support those around you, takes more than it gets credit for.

 

If you’re finding it heavy right now, that’s not weakness. That’s awareness.

 

And awareness is what this moment is calling for… whether you’re leading a large multinational or a small family business. Heightened awareness shapes better strategies, clearer decisions, and more human actions.

 

That feels like the real work right now.

 

I’d love to know, what are you finding most useful, or most challenging, in how you’re supporting your people through this period?

 

Share your experience in the comments. Let’s learn from each other.

Your best people aren’t leaving because they don’t care.

 

They’re leaving because they cared too much, for too long.

 

A new HRD Magazine article published this week has put a name to something NFP leaders have been living with for years.

 

It’s called “burnover.” It’s the moment burnout converts into turnover.

 

And the 2025 Pro Bono Australia Salary Survey has the numbers to back it up.

 

29% of people who left NFP roles in the past year did so because of burnout.

 

A massive 21% increase on the previous year!

 

What makes burnover different from ordinary turnover?

 

When someone resigns because they’re exhausted, the work doesn’t disappear. It lands on the people still there.

 

People who are already stretched.

 

So, the team that’s left behind? They’re now doing more, with less support, less knowledge, and less energy than before.

 

The exit creates the next exit.

 

That’s the burnover cycle. One person’s burnout becomes the fuel for the next person.

 

And in NFPs, where teams are lean, missions are heavy, and there’s no slack in the system, it spreads faster than anyone expects.

 

The article highlights something many NFP leaders already sense but rarely have data to act on:

 

Your middle managers are in the firing line.

 

They’re promoted for being great at their work; then left to manage competing demands from above and below, often with no formal leadership support.

 

They become the default problem-solvers. The bottlenecks.

 

The ones who care the most and protect everyone else …until they can’t anymore.

 

What’s the Fix?

 

The article is clear: it’s not yoga days. It’s not wellness apps.

 

It’s structural. It’s about understanding what’s really driving pressure inside your teams, before people start walking.

 

This is exactly where validated people data can be a game-changer.

 

Not performance reviews. Not annual surveys that arrive too late.

 

Measurement built specifically around the dimensions that drive burnover.

 

Things like:

 

• Predictive Burnover Mapping: GPI’s behavioural assessments identify high-pressure roles by correlating stress demands with employee resilience markers to enable early intervention.

 

• Alignment and Job Fit Calibration: Re-benchmarking roles ensures employees are naturally wired for their current workload intensity, preventing the roll creep exhaustion.

 

• Leadership Resilience Training: Using 360-degree feedback helps managers recognise early signs of strain and redistribute tasks effectively to protect their teams.

 

• Retention-Focused Onboarding: Using psychometric data during hiring matches new starters with supportive mentors to build an immediate buffer against workplace fatigue.

 

When you can see the pressure points, you can act before they become exits.

 

You stop guessing.

 

You lead with evidence. You intervene early. You protect your people — and your mission.

 

The HRD article puts the cost of replacing one experienced NFP employee at between 30-200% of their annual salary.

 

Think about what that means across your organisation.

 

Then think about what it would mean to catch even a handful of those exits earlier.

 

Burnover isn’t inevitable.

 

But it does require more than good intentions.

 

It requires deep insights into your people, so you can lead proactively, not reactively.

 

For those working in or leading NFPs, I’m interested to know what your experience has been. Are you seeing burnover play out in your teams?