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The Quiet Resignation of Senior Leaders: Understanding Why Your Best Executives Are Disengaging
Employee disengagement is well-studied at the individual contributor level. At the senior leader level, it takes a different form — and the consequences for organisations are significantly more costly.
AC
Admin CXO India
CXO India's 2025 Senior Executive Engagement Survey asked 380 C-suite and senior vice president level executives about their current engagement levels, intentions, and the factors driving their satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The results would concern any board or CEO who took the time to read them carefully. Twenty-three percent of respondents described themselves as "actively disengaged" — executing their current role competently but without discretionary effort or genuine commitment to the organisation's success. A further 31% described themselves as "passively disengaged" — staying because the alternatives are not yet compelling enough to move, but not investing the extra energy that drives organisational performance.
The drivers of senior leader disengagement differ from those at more junior levels. Compensation is rarely the primary issue — although it becomes one if it falls materially behind market rates. The dominant drivers that our survey identified are: lack of genuine influence over strategic decisions, a gap between the organisation's stated values and its observed behaviour, inadequate investment in the executive's own development and career growth, and — most commonly — a CEO or board chair whose leadership style creates an environment where candour is discouraged and political behaviour is rewarded.
The cost of senior leader disengagement is difficult to quantify precisely but easy to estimate qualitatively. A disengaged CFO who does not flag an emerging risk because they have learned that delivering bad news is career-limiting is an enormous liability. A disengaged CHRO who processes the talent management agenda without challenging the organisation's culture is presiding over a slow erosion of capability. Boards that invest in understanding and addressing senior leader engagement — through honest conversation rather than survey-and-ignore — consistently find it among the highest-return governance investments they make.