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People Don't Quit Agencies, They Quit Their Bosses

Let's get one thing out of the way: good leadership is the single most powerful retention tool any agency has.

And bad leadership? Well, bad leadership is basically a talent repellent.

As leaders, we love to blame turnover on burnout, the fast-paced work, the customers, anything but the simple, blunt truth:

People leave bad bosses far more often than they leave bad jobs.

In fact, research consistently shows:

At least 50% of employees have left a job to get away from a manager (Gallup).
Managers account for up to 70% of the variance in employee engagement, which basically means they make or break team morale.
Employees who feel poorly managed are 3x more likely to actively look for a new job.

Across nationwide employee exit surveys and crowdsourced self-reported surveys, the trend is consistently clear: leadership matters for retention, a lot.

The Problematic "Next in Line" Leadership Default

Agencies are notorious for promoting people because they:

Have seniority ("been there the longest")
Seem like the "easy" choice
Are good at their craft

But this is the problem: being good at the job does not mean someone can lead people doing that job.

Good performers do not necessarily make good leadership, because good leadership requires intention and training.

When you promote good performers with no leadership training or experience, you end up with:

Brilliant performers who hate managing people
Amazing strategists forced into leadership roles they never wanted
Fulfillment directors whose "leadership style" is frankly, overbearing

Leadership is a lifelong skill, and promoting someone without it is like handing car keys to someone "next in line" to drive who has never seen the inside of a car.

The Fallout: How Bad Leadership Quietly Hurts Teams

1. Bad bosses create chronic confusion

When leaders can't communicate clearly, the team will pay the price. Teams end up operating in a fog where no one knows the priorities, what quality work looks like, or who's accountable for what tasks.

One of the major pitfalls of poor leadership is task delegation. Many leaders hand off work and then disappear until the final review. Without check-ins or mid-point guidance, the team spends hours moving in the wrong direction.

And when the work is reviewed and inevitably doesn't match the leader's unspoken standards, the leader mislabels it as a performance issue rather than a process issue.

2. They micromanage because they don't know how to lead

Micromanagement isn't about perfecting the work. It's what happens when leaders don't trust their team to deliver results without hovering. When a leader can't delegate, can't trust, or can't let go, the team ends up suffocating under constant oversight.

Every revision, every comment, every nitpicked detail sends the same message: "I don't trust you to do your job."

And nothing drains creative, strategic talent faster than leaders who hover.

3. They don't protect or advocate for their people

A leader's job is to be their team's biggest supporter: to filter chaos, set boundaries, and keep unreasonable demands from affecting their team.

But bad leaders do the opposite: they absorb pressure from above and pass it straight down to their team.

As a result, teams end up juggling impossible deadlines, client blowups, and shifting expectations alone, leading them to eventually choose the only option that gives relief: leaving.

4. They stunt growth and development

A leader who doesn't know how to coach will stall careers and development.

Great leaders push teams forward and challenge them to innovate, grow, and change. Bad leaders leave them stuck, plateaued, or invisible. Without mentorship, direction, or skill development, talented employees quickly outgrow the role, and with it, the agency.

Agencies Need Intentional Leaders, Not Convenient Ones

If agencies want to fix turnover, morale, and quality of work, they must start with one thing: Promote people who can lead and are capable of strong mentorship.

That means:

1. Separate leadership pathways from craft pathways

Not everyone who excels at the work wants to (or should) manage people. Agencies burn out top performers when they turn leadership into the only form of growth.

Healthy organizations build dual tracks:

A craft track where experts deepen skills and earn seniority
A leadership track for those who intentionally choose to lead humans, not deliverables

When people grow in the direction they're best suited for, everyone wins: the team, the clients, and the culture.

2. Promote based on leadership ability, not convenience

Before considering a senior team member for promotion, agencies should be evaluating the key characteristics below to assess for proper fit:

Communication style
Emotional intelligence
How they give feedback
Conflict navigation
Ability to delegate and prioritize
How they coach and interact with others

Leadership isn't a reward for longevity with the agency, it's a responsibility that requires the right temperament, the right skill set, and the right values.

3. Train leaders intentionally instead of hoping they "figure it out"

Agencies often make the same mistake: promote fast, train rarely. And without proper preparation, even the strongest performers struggle in leadership roles.

Leadership requires a toolbox: frameworks for feedback, coaching models, expectation-setting, delegation, conflict resolution, and time management. When someone is promoted without training in these categories, they're being set up to fail.

This isn't to say great leaders can't emerge naturally, some absolutely do. The issue is that relying on that is a gamble. Leadership is a skill that requires intentional development and refinement, especially if you want a culture that grows consistently, not sporadically.

4. Hold leaders accountable for team health, not just output

The best leaders elevate people, not just fulfillment stats. Retention, morale, clarity, and team energy should all be measurable performance indicators.

If a leader is losing people repeatedly, that's not a coincidence, it's an indicator of leadership strength.

Because in agency life, a strong leader can transform a team… and a poor one can unravel it over Slack overnight.

The Hard Truth: Bad Leadership Is Expensive

There's a misconception in the agency space that good leadership is expensive. But in reality, it's bad leadership that devastates margins. The inefficiency, the turnover, the stagnation… that's where agencies lose the most money without realizing it.

Good leadership will pay out. When leaders are trained to coach, mentor, and support, teams move faster, problems get solved earlier, and your customers will feel the difference. Culture improves, efficiency rises, and retention increases across the board.

Because here's the secret the industry keeps ignoring:

If you want people to stay, give them leaders worth staying for.