Written by Sandor Kovacs: CEO and Co-Founder of DorWay™
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When you ask managers or directors how to increase employee engagement, you often hear the same suggestions: better benefits, compensation increases, or maybe a wellness retreat. These surface-level employee engagement ideas are popular because they feel like quick fixes.
There’s a belief that you can increase employee productivity by flipping a switch—throw in some perks and people will start caring more. But is it that simple?
But while these initiatives can slightly improve work conditions, they rarely address the deeper issue. They don’t build an ownership mindset. And they certainly don’t create accountability in leadership.
Here’s the real picture: global engagement is collapsing. Gallup’s 2025 data shows:
- Global employee engagement dropped to 21%—only the second decline since 2009.
- Manager engagement fell to 27%.
- The U.S. hit a 10-year low, with 3.2 million fewer employees feeling enthusiastic about their work.
- Only 37% of employees strongly agree they’re treated with respect.
- 42% of turnover is preventable, yet organizations consistently fail to address it.
- Less than 30% of projects finish on time and on budget.
These numbers paint a clear picture: we’re looking in the wrong place for solutions. Free snacks and remote work stipends won’t reverse this trend.
But why is this really happening?
It’s not just compensation, perks, or “bad bosses.” These are convenient narratives that distract from the deeper issue: a breakdown in purpose in the workplace, and a lack of leadership accountability training that empowers people to lead, not just manage.
So if you’re wondering how to increase employee engagement in a meaningful, lasting way—look deeper. Let’s uncover the true root of disengagement and what real leaders can actually do about it.
What Really Creates This Employee Engagement Crisis?
Let’s get to the truth most leaders are ignoring.
The rigorous fact? At its core, this global employee engagement crisis is fueled by a lack of meaningful ownership and commitment. The root of this issue is the absence of purpose in the workplace.
If you are thinking, “I know that.”. But it’s still happening on your watch.
In reality, people are disengaged, whether they are frontline employees, middle managers, or executives, because:
- They do not see themselves as the cause of anything important or meaningful.
- They do not experience their work as a personal stand tied to something bigger than themselves. A weak purpose driven by dismal leadership.
- They operate inside a context of compliance: doing things because they should, have to, or get paid to.
- Their way of being is reactive, dictated by circumstances, moods, or other people’s opinions. Their mindset is not anchored in a conscious declaration of who they are and what they’re committed to.
And that’s what’s missing.
Do Employees Truly Own Their Purpose In the Workplace?
Most people, most of the time, are running their lives and careers by reasons, not by freely made choices. They weigh, justify, and decide based on what to avoid or protect, killing off possibilities in the name of being “practical.”
They almost never stand in a choice that exists independent of reasons. In countless leadership accountability training sessions, I’ve seen this play out:
They justify.
They explain.
They defend.
They wait for conditions to improve.
They let the past or outside circumstances dictate how engaged they are, or whether they engage at all.
But when people wait, culture stagnates. So what happens when your workforce—at any level:
- Confuses who they are with their results (so if results drop, they see themselves as failures and withdraw)?
- Waits for the environment to change instead of being the one who changes it?
- Looks for evidence to feel good rather than standing in a self-authored commitment?
You end up with exactly what Gallup reports is showing us:
- Low engagement.
- Low accountability.
- Low energy.
- High turnover.
And you get leadership teams recycling the same outdated employee engagement ideas. Even as disengagement quietly drains your culture and costs your business millions.
Why? Because they’re missing the signs of an ownership mindset at work. And without that lens, all the well-meaning strategies fail to reach what’s really broken.
The Cost of Not Standing in Ownership and Accountability
Disengagement exists because people are not standing in ownership. They do not see themselves as the source of what happens around them. That’s when they lose their purpose in the workplace.
They hesitate. They burn out. They check out—sometimes physically, sometimes just mentally—yet stay on your payroll.
That’s why:
- Less than a third of global projects finish on time and on budget.
- Teams drift into mediocrity and complacency.
- Managers hide in busywork.
- And why entire cultures settle for just getting by.
This is not a compensation problem. It’s a consciousness problem.
Because here’s the truth no one wants to say out loud: No one is coming to save you—regardless of your job title or skillset.
That’s the brutal gap between comfort and true leadership. And unless you bridge it, no incentive, no bonus, no ping-pong table will ever fill it.
What Accountability at Work Actually Means
So many organizations pay lip service to accountability. They turn it into a scoreboard, a carrot-and-stick game, or a monthly review ritual.
A feedback session. A performance review checklist. That’s what passes for employee engagement ideas these days.
That is not accountability. That is oversight masquerading as accountability.
Accountability means being the cause in the matter of your life, your culture, your leadership, and your results. It means being the sole primary factor. You are it. You own all of it, the good, the bad, and the ugly, regardless of circumstances or the situation you’re in.
Pointing fingers and doing nothing about it is a thing of the past. As we said in a previous article, complaining is not leadership and has little to do with employee engagement.
Accountability carries a power, a force, a drive that compels a person to love their life. Not because circumstances are perfect, but because they are the one generating their future regardless of circumstances.
What An Ownership Mindset Means
This is why DorWay™ does not just teach leadership skills. We develop people to be leaders and to practice leadership effectively in any situation or circumstance.
Through our LifeWorks Mastery System™ and Leaders Edge Path Training System™ , we train people to reclaim and remember that innate power, to choose, to declare. We help them move from “doing a job” to becoming the source of their results, their team’s culture, and the future they want to create.
Because here’s a truth we’ve witnessed again and again:
Until a person stands in true ownership—not reasons, not excuses, not moods—nothing changes.
A mentor of mine, Jack Schropp, former Navy SEAL Commander and author of Unbeatable: Recreate Your Life as Extraordinary Using the Secrets of the Navy SEALs, once shared this line I’ll never forget:
“Commitment is going beyond any justification to quit. You are either a victim or a volunteer. Commitment is always stepping into the unknown. The future is never what you expect, so how can you know what your commitment will hold?”
That perspective changed the course of my life. It taught me to become 100% accountable and responsible for the experiences in my life — and for everything I chose.
The essence of what we call the ownership mindset.
And this leads to this question. It’s one that most leaders, managers, and even peers rarely ask themselves:
Are we actually serving the people we work with? The employees who devote their hours. Their energy. Their lives.
Are we serving them when we allow justifications, reasons, and excuses to persist? When we buy into them—both for ourselves and for others?
Are we truly serving them when we let them drift through work? When they never feel what it’s like to stand 100% responsible. When they aren’t held accountable for the experiences they create. For the choices they make.
After seeing the numbers in the Gallup report, it seems the answer is no.
Employee disengagement is not just a business issue. It’s a leadership choice.
I’ve seen it again and again: the greatest act of service you can offer someone is to stand for their greatness, not bend to their mediocrity.
It is to stand for people being great, even when they resist it.
Especially when they resist it.
You are often the line of demarcation—between an employee losing meaning in their work or rediscovering purpose.
How to Increase Employee Engagement
So how do we actually increase employee engagement in a way that lasts? How do leaders foster an ownership mindset in their teams—not just for show, but as a real cultural standard?
And how do we move beyond generic employee engagement ideas to something that actually drives transformation?
It starts with you. If you’re in a leadership role, accountability in leadership must begin with your conversations, your agreements, and the way you show up—consistently.
So here’s where to begin disrupting disengagement in yourself, your team, and your company:
- Stop buying into your and other’s reasons: Catch yourself when you say, “I can’t because…” or “That’s just how it is.” Rewrite it: “I choose not to.” Then ask why.
- Declare who you are being now and now, again and again. Say it out loud. Pick one commitment today that transcends circumstances. Write it. Be accountable for it, regardless of how you feel.
- Ask your team where they’re operating from compliance vs. choice: Have one rigorous conversation this week. Not about KPIs. About ownership. About who they are being.
- Audit your last three meetings: Were you the cause of alignment, energy, and momentum, or were you waiting for it? Adjust how you show up.
- Replace “should” with choices: Stop saying, “We should do X.” Start saying, “We choose to do X because we’re committed to Y.” That small shift changes everything.
If what you’re reading hits home—for you, your team, or your organization—take it as your wake-up call. Commit to learning what real accountability and responsibility look like. Commit to learning and mastering the difference between making choices versus living based on reasons.
Because this is how you activate purpose, boost engagement, and create a culture where people lead—not because they have to, but because they choose to.
Discover the Signs of Ownership Mindset at Work
Is your organization facing employee engagement challenges? Then it’s time to stop treating disengagement like something you simply observe.
Because if you’re in leadership, it’s not just your job to notice the problem—it’s your responsibility to address it.
At DorWay™, we’ve developed a powerful tool to help you do just that: the Leadership Fit Assessment. Take the assessment today.
It will help you pinpoint the gaps in your leadership accountability, uncover blind spots, and identify where you need to develop stronger ownership mindset skills—for yourself and your team.
Commitment and productivity won’t shift through perks, positivity posters, or hoping for better attitudes.
Because disengagement doesn’t change by hoping for better attitudes. It changes when people see themselves as the source, and act from that stand, no matter the conditions.
Instead, decide who you are being, what you are cause in, and refuse to wait for circumstances to improve. That’s leadership. And that’s how you obliterate disengagement from the inside out.