The new leadership imperative in government

Government employees have been through massive changes over the past year. At the Federal level, workforce disruptions have been designed to “encourage” employees to leave government service. For state and local public sector employees, the perception of simultaneous threats has emerged: the “Federal model” of downsizing could come their way, AI could replace their jobs, and budget cuts could squeeze them to do more work with fewer resources.

Serving as a people leader in this environment poses historic challenges. Leaders are being asked to “reset” their organizational cultures toward a high standard of excellence and improve productivity and save public resources. And they have to do this with a workforce that feels demotivated, disconnected, and distrustful. How can leaders understand and reengage their employees amidst disruption? How might leaders build the workforce resilience that will help employees improve performance, find new ways of working, and adopt new technologies like AI?

For nearly a decade, Qualtrics workplace scientists have conducted extensive research on employees’ experiences and the leadership behaviors that deliver high-performing and resilient teams, even during times of massive change. Having watched closely the tumultuous events of the past year, we see opportunities for leaders to apply best principles we have surfaced in our global work.

First, seek to understand

Empathy is the foundational skill for effective leadership and high performance. According to our research, the most effective leaders create space for employees to express themselves, whether that’s through confidential, in-person team meetings; offsite teambuilding experiences like happy hours; or digital listening for distributed or larger teams. By listening with the intent to understand, leaders develop a more nuanced understanding of workforce experiences.

For instance, survivors of layoffs may feel guilty and disconnected; public servants called back after layoff may feel resentful and distrusting; and new hires may struggle to integrate into teams still reeling from disruption, driving early attrition risk, and a resulting brand hit for future recruitment. By identifying and understanding the specific experiences of the people on their team, leaders can design better strategies to support employees and drive high performance.

Here are a few principles we’ve uncovered throughout our research of disruptive events:

• Employees grieve perceived losses. The government workforce has had a lot to mourn over the past year: Loss of colleagues to layoffs; loss of resources to achieve the mission; and loss of respect for the workforce, which has even resulted in threats against their lives because of their jobs. These perceived losses produce negative effects, including a sense of loss of control and severed psychological contracts. We have looked at similar disruptions in the private sector since 2022, when the wave of return to office (RTO) rollouts began. Many organizations rolled out progressive RTO plans while some others, notably the Federal government, launched abrupt and complete policies, demanding employees return four to five days per week. Predictably, employees have responded negatively, with many opting to quit their jobs rather than lose their flexibility.
• Employees need to feel heard. During tough times, the need to feel heard increases. In 2020, every organization experienced massive disruption stemming from COVID. Among our customer base, we recognized that many organizations were adapting well while others weren’t. We sought to help struggling organizations by understanding why adaptive organizations succeeded. In the summer of 2020, we studied over 17,000 global workers to explore leadership practices that either helped or hindered engagement, well-being, and resilience. We tested dozens of potential factors. But nothing we hypothesized came close to simply feeling heard. Above everything else, employees wanted a voice and they wanted their leaders to listen deeply.

Then help people move forward

Leaders can best protect their workforce from further disruption by creating the right environment and cultural norms for engagement and high performance across the team. What makes high-performing organizations effective?

They clearly communicate a vision

In 2024, researchers at Qualtrics explored what makes high-performing organizations different from the middling majority. Leveraging our massive database of over 27 million employee responses from 2021 - 2023, they found that one of the biggest differentiators was strategic alignment. In other words, high-performing organizations do a much better job of communicating a motivating vision for the future and a clear vision of the path ahead. High-performing organizations don’t just receive superior ratings from employees; they outperform their peers across numerous financial metrics, such as revenue growth and return on assets.

They build resilience through thoughtful change management

Another hallmark of high-performing organizations is the attention they pay to change management. High-performing organizations aren’t immune to the effects of change, but employees working for them report that their leaders take the time to communicate the reasons for change (the Why) and offer support throughout the change process. Support can take many forms from giving employees the space to vent and ask questions, to openly discussing their mental health, to formal training and guidelines that support new ways of working.

They co-design ways of working

Government employees want to see their organizations improve how they get work done and serve customers. Qualtrics 2025 Government Trends report found that for the public sector workforce, the ability to improve customer experiences and operational processes are the top drivers of employee engagement and wellbeing. These mission focused public servants want to adopt new tools and methods such as AI. Yet this same study found that US government employees lag behind the overall global workforce by a massive 30 percentage points in AI adoption. This is not due to lack of interest or willingness, but rather that they do not feel well trained or supported to be successful and keep systems safe. As our research has clearly shown, guidance, guardrails, and proper training are essential to driving adoption of new tools such as AI.

And throughout, be authentic

Leadership is incredibly challenging, especially during times of disruption. And the reality is the world is rapidly changing.. But what is true in any environment is that humans need and want real, authentic leadership.

Bring a human orientation to your organization

While peoples’ differences are important to understand and acknowledge, there are also common needs that every employee shares. First, everyone needs to feel a sense of belonging within the groups they work in. Humans are a social species and we’re hard-wired for group living and working. Second, everyone needs to feel their contributions matter. This must come in the form of recognition. Meaningful recognition is not about handing out participation trophies constantly; it’s about publicly recognizing individuals for making progress and delivering strong performance. And finally, humans are innately motivated to grow and develop. The current environment may limit opportunities for upward mobility, but emerging technologies open the door to all sorts of ways employees can expand their jobs. Encourage employees to get creative with new tools and ways of working.

Listen more during times of disruption

As many organizations learned during COVID, periods of disruption are precisely the times when employees need to feel heard the most. Unfortunately, these are also the times when it’s most inconvenient to pause for conversation. But every organization is a group of people working toward a common mission. And feeling heard is one of the most primal ways employees know they belong to the group. During change, leaders should employ multiple listening tools from personal 1:1s, group discussions and focus groups, to scalable listening activities (e.g., employee surveys).

Make the uncertain, certain

Not knowing what’s going to happen next wreaks havoc on the workforce. And often, you as the leader, are also in a state of uncertainty. The good news is that there are practical things you can do to reduce the negative effects of uncertainty. First, make the uncertain, certain and be transparent about what is known and unknown. Ironically, knowing what’s unknown helps people cope with the unknown. Next, what you do know. And finally, give people a path toward more certainty, citing any upcoming plans or timelines for updates.

Moving forward, workforce resilience will be key to weathering the continued disruptions coming at organizations with increasing speed. Practicing the leadership skills that have been proven to build resilient organizations will set you and your teams up for sustained success.