Across the exit surveys run by our sister company – MI-Say, employees consistently rate “My Manager” as one of the most positive aspects of their time at an organisation, second only to the recruitment experience, casting doubt on that well used phrase ‘people don’t leave jobs, they leave managers’.
That’s not a one-off. It’s a trend.
The data that stands out
When leavers rate positively framed statements about their experience, My Manager clocks in at 69.3% positive. Meanwhile, The Leadership Team is notably lower at 49.5%. Only 14.5% of respondents gave a neutral score to their direct manager, which suggests they have a strong view one way of the other. There is a bit more neutrality, dare we say indifference, given 29% respond neutrally to statements relating to the leadership team.
In terms of trust, arguably the core of any working relationship, the gap is also stark. 70% said they trusted their manager. Only 43% said the same about the leadership team.
So no, people aren’t leaving their managers, if anything, they’re holding onto them as one of the more meaningful parts of their working lives.
Why the gap?
It’s not always about competence, while good management matters, it’s about something more primal, more social, and more human.
One concept we keep circling back to is propinquity: In social psychology, it means we tend to feel closer to the people we’re physically or emotionally near. We trust them more. We relate to them more easily. We notice when they show up and when they don’t.
In the workplace, that means employees often feel a stronger connection to their immediate manager or team than to a distant executive team they rarely meet. Even small increases in contact, face-to-face or virtual, can strengthen trust, improve communication, and make teams feel more connected (Kiesler & Cummings, 2002).
When we ask leavers about belonging, they nearly always link it to their direct team.
Not the wider organisation.
Not the mission statement.
Not the all-hands from the CEO.
Just… their people.
The visibility problem
So why the trust gap with leadership?
Part of it is exposure. In larger organisations, many employees never have a meaningful interaction with the exec team. Leaders have wide mandates and limited time, but that doesn’t erase the perception problem. You can’t trust someone you don’t know and it’s hard to feel inspired by someone who might feel more like a PowerPoint slide than a person.
There’s also a growing mismatch between what employees want from leadership such as transparency, humanity and purpose and how leadership often presents itself: polished, corporate, detached. Neutrality isn’t always bad news. But it could signal disengagement….or distance. A slow drift is harder to spot and fix than unhappiness.
Managers matter. But…
Yes, keep investing in managers, but not just in performance metrics or strategic alignment. Invest in their ability to build trust, psychological safety, belonging, and mattering.
These aren’t “soft” skills. They’re survival skills in the modern workplace. Managers are the emotional barometers of an organisation. When they’re supported, they can turn even the most chaotic vision into a meaningful day-to-day experience.
Leaders can’t lead from a distance
The numbers suggest a growing need for senior leaders to show up in more visible, human, and intentional ways. Not just in Town Halls or quarterly video messages. It’s small, high-touch moments, storytelling, vulnerability, personable.
If people feel distant from those at the top, they stop believing those leaders are on their side and when that happens, you don’t just risk losing people to another job. You risk losing them to the slow erosion of trust, connection, and belonging.
The real takeaway
It’s time to retire the neat little myth that “people leave managers.” It’s too simple and it’s not true. People leave for many reasons. But more often than not, it’s about how connected they feel to the people around them, the leaders above them, and the culture they’re part of.
Managers matter.
Visibility matters.
Trust matters.
People don’t leave managers or companies. They leave when it stops feeling like home.
External sources:
Kiesler, S., & Cummings, J. N. (2002). What do we know about proximity and distance in work groups? A legacy of research. Distributed work, 1, 57-80