Your team is getting through the work. They are not in it.

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Hey Spark Family,

Gallup's new data just landed. And it changes how you should think about the second half of the year.

Right now, eighty percent of your workforce is either not engaged or actively checked out. Only twenty percent are genuinely engaged. That baseline is your starting point for July through December.

The second half of the year is when leaders have the most opportunity. It might feel like the year is already written, but it is not. The second half is not fixed. What happens next depends entirely on what you do starting now.

The Research Is Clear

In 2025, 20% of employees worldwide were engaged at work. Sixty-four percent were not engaged. Sixteen percent were actively disengaged. That data comes from Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2026 Report, based on surveys across more than 160 countries from January through December 2025.

The stress picture is equally worth sitting with. Forty percent of employees globally experienced stress “a lot" the previous day. That number has held above pre-pandemic levels for five consecutive years. It is not a spike. It is a baseline.

And the job market has opened back up. Fifty-two percent of employees globally say it is a good time to find a job where they live. That matters for leaders right now because disengaged people with options do not tend to stay quiet indefinitely.

The mid-year moment is not just a cultural lull. For many teams, it is the point where accumulated fatigue, unclear priorities, and a more open job market combine. Leaders who wait until they see it clearly in the data are usually six months behind it.

What I'm Seeing In The Field

The leaders I talk to right now are not describing a crisis. They are describing a drift.

Meetings that used to generate energy now generate compliance. Conversations that used to come back full of ideas come back with answers. People are doing the work. They are not bringing themselves to it the way they were.

I see the leader who notices her most reliable people have gotten quieter and assumes it is a hard season. She is not wrong that it is hard. But she is waiting for them to say something, and they are waiting for her to ask.

I see the team that is hitting its numbers but has not had a real conversation about what it is building toward in longer than anyone can remember. The goals are clear. The meaning behind them has gotten blurry. And when meaning fades, so does the energy people bring.

I see the leader who is running fast himself and has stopped checking in the way he used to. Not because he stopped caring, but because everyone seems fine. Fine is not the same as invested. He will not know the difference until someone is already halfway out the door.

Mid-year drift does not look like disengagement from the outside. It looks like a team that is doing its job. The cost is invisible until it is not.

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What We Teach Leaders Inside Spark Brilliance

The leaders who catch this early do not wait for an engagement survey to tell them what they can feel in the room. They get deliberate about three things.

First, they reconnect people to meaning before urgency forces it. Not through a big all-hands or a mission statement rehash. Through a direct conversation: what part of this work still matters to you right now, and is that coming through in what we are doing together? That question, asked with genuine curiosity, does more than any culture initiative ever will.

Second, they name what they are observing. Calling out the drift without making it dramatic is one of the most underused leadership moves there is. Saying "I have noticed we have gotten a little quiet lately, and I want to talk about that" gives people permission to be honest. Most of them have been waiting for someone to open the door.

Third, they treat the second half of the year as a reset point, not a continuation. Mid-year is a natural moment to reprioritize, to ask what still matters and what can be let go, and to make sure the work people are doing still connects to something worth doing. That clarity does not happen on its own. The leader has to create it.

🌟 Your Challenge This Week

Before your week is over, sit honestly with these.

➡ When did you last ask someone on your team what part of the work still feels meaningful to them, rather than how things are going?

➡ Is there someone who has gotten quieter lately that you have been meaning to check in with and have not?

➡ If you could reset one thing about how your team operates in the second half of this year, what would it be, and have you said that out loud to anyone?

And the one worth sitting with longest:

➡ Are you waiting for the drift to become obvious before you do something about it?

The second half of the year is in front of you. What you do with the next few weeks determines whether your team finishes strong or just finishes.

With gratitude,
​Jackie

P.S. – If you are feeling the drift yourself, hit reply and tell me what you are seeing. I read every response. ✨

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