About 4 in 10 stressed-out leaders have considered leaving their leadership roles to improve their well-being, which could signal a looming leadership exodus, according to DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast 2025.

As executives and high-potential talent consider abandoning their leadership roles, leadership pipelines are growing thin, especially as employees voice distrust and point to skill gaps.

“Our new research reinforces the trend of conscious unbossing,” Stephanie Neal, director of DDI’s Center for Analytics and Behavioral Research, said in a statement.

“As organizations grapple with economic volatility, AI skepticism and generational differences being amplified in the workplace, leadership is becoming a harder job — and a path that many talented people are opting out of,” Neal said. “The encouraging news is that most leaders find self-reflection, open discussion and continuous learning to be transformative practices in channeling stress into growth and innovation.”

In a survey of 11,000 leaders — including 2,000 HR pros — DDI found a major decline in trust and a growing leadership credibility crisis. For instance, trust in immediate managers dropped from 46% in 2022 to 29% in 2024. In particular, older employees between ages 50-64 reported the least trust in their managers.

High-potential talent also expressed frustration and an increasing trend of “revenge quitting.” Their intention to leave increased from 13% in 2020 to 21% in 2024. These workers were nearly four times more likely to say they’d leave in the next year if their manager doesn’t regularly provide opportunities for growth and development.

Leaders voiced concerns about their own training needs as well, identifying “setting strategy” and “managing change” as their two greatest areas with skill gaps. Only 22% of HR teams said they prioritize these skills, which could indicate areas for leadership development initiatives.

Amid the looming leadership exodus, HR leaders are also considering an exit in coming months, according to a Blu Ivy Group report. Companies can support their HR teams by investing in employee listening, developing leadership value propositions and committing to work-life balance initiatives in 2025, the report found.

Emerging leaders are also struggling to manage workplace conflict, which can increase leader burnout and employee distrust, according to another DDI report. Training could help managers offer support and resources to their team, hold conflict resolution discussions and build emotional intelligence and empathy skills, DDI said.

Managers have been facing intense pressure for some time, which appears to be growing from both top leaders and direct reports, according to a Perceptyx report. Although most managers said they’ve received formal training and have acted on feedback from direct reports, a majority said they could use more coaching.

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