A New Study Found That There Are 4 Core Skills Every Leader Should Hone

Leaders need to master the skill of attunement—the ability to be deeply aware of people’s needs.

EXPERT OPINION BY MARCEL SCHWANTES, INC. CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, EXECUTIVE COACH, SPEAKER, AND AUTHOR @MARCELSCHWANTES

The biggest challenge workplaces face is not keeping up with advances in AI; it is employee disconnection and disengagement.

According to a Gallup study, leaders are navigating the lowest levels of engagement since 2020: 3.2 million fewer engaged workers since 2023, and approximately $2 trillion in lost productivity. This is a tremendous loss that stalls innovation and, above all, a functioning, healthy company.

What’s driving this decline is something deeply personal

Employees no longer feel seen, valued, or even noticed. Respondents to that study reported that they do not feel as though their supervisor, or anyone at work, cares about them as a person. That same Gallup study showed that in 2020, 54% of millennial and Gen Z employees felt someone cared about them compared to just 41% in 2025.

How can we meaningfully improve connection and engagement at work? I spoke with Nidhi Tewari, LCSW, author of Working Well: How to Build a Happier, Healthier Workplace Through the Science of Attunement. She shared the insight that “leaders and teams need to master the skill of attunement–the ability to be deeply aware of, responsive to, and aligned with the emotional and interpersonal dynamics and needs of colleagues, clients, and the organizational environment.” 

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Tewari, along with IO psychologist Dr. Mallory McCord, conducted the first study to examine the impact of attunement. They surveyed 490 participants and found that “the four core attunement skills—flexibility, reading cues, self-regulation, and collaboration—were correlated with improved psychological safety, better job satisfaction and team satisfaction, higher team cohesion and connection, increased team and individual productivity, and enhanced trust in both leaders and teams.” 

The four core skills that every leader and team member should hone are:

Flexibility is the acknowledgment that different employees require different approaches. It encompasses meeting people where they are, adapting behaviors accordingly, and being sensitive and responsive to another person’s needs. 

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