What's Your Leadership MIA Score?

I came across a story about a high-profile executive whose team considers him seriously missing in action. He’s paranoid and constantly confronts others about their fealty. His character is pockmarked by well known bouts of intoxication on and off the clock. He’s the brunt of organization gossip and cynicism. People are fearful to confront him and silently suffer with the hope that he’ll be fired sooner than later. It's an extreme case, however it made me wonder: what would a Missing In Action self-assessment look like for the rest of us?

Here are some questions to help you gauge your own leadership engagement.

Presence & Visibility

  • Do my team members regularly see and hear from me, or only when there's a problem?

  • Am I accessible, or do people hesitate to approach me?

  • When I'm in meetings, am I fully present, or distracted and rushed?

If your team mainly experiences you during crises, that's a red flag.

Communication & Clarity

  • Do I clearly communicate priorities, or do people guess what matters?

  • How often do I actively listen versus just wait to respond?

  • Do I give timely, specific feedback, or avoid difficult conversations?

Engaged leaders create clarity; absent ones create confusion. As the saying goes, "clarity is kindness."

Connection & Trust

  • Do I know what motivates each person on my team? Do I connect before content and genuinely know their stories?

  • When was the last time I had a meaningful 1:1, not just a status update?

  • Do people feel safe bringing me bad news?

If people filter reality before it reaches you, trust may be low.

Accountability & Ownership

  • Do I follow through on my commitments?

  • Do I hold myself accountable first, and then others, consistently, or only when issues escalate?

  • Do I model the behavior I expect from my team?

Inconsistent accountability often signals disengagement. It starts with you.

Support & Development

  • Am I actively helping my team grow, or just managing output?

  • Do I remove obstacles, or expect people to figure it out alone?

  • Have I recognized someone's effort or progress recently?

Engaged leaders invest in people, not just results.

Strategic Involvement

  • Am I focused on the right priorities, or buried in low-value tasks?

  • Do I provide direction during uncertainty — or go silent? Am I the signal or the noise?

  • Does my team understand the "why" behind decisions?

Disappearing during ambiguity is a classic MIA trait.

Self-Awareness Check

  • Would my team describe me as supportive and present?

  • If I asked for honest feedback, would I actually hear it?

  • Am I avoiding something I know I should address?

The most important answers are often the uncomfortable ones.

If you answered "not really" or "I'm not sure" to several of these, it's worth paying attention to. The good news: engagement is a behavior, not a personality trait. It's fixable.

As Marcus Aurelius put it, and I come back to this often, “what's in the way is the way.”

Think Big, Start Small, Act Now,

- Lorne

Garrett’s View: One little jaunt down Customer Service Avenue might suggest that the bar is set pretty low these days. If the cautionary tale in the opening paragraph is believable, we've clearly let standards slip further than we should have. The MIA assessment is a reasonable baseline, and clearing it already puts us ahead of the pack. We become who our circles are, so it's worth being intentional about the standards we surround ourselves with. Support businesses/organizations that adhere to high standards, and start with leading by example.

AI Response: The data backs this up. A Gallup study found that only 23% of employees worldwide are engaged at work — meaning the majority are either passively disengaged or actively working against their organization's interests. Research also shows that managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores, making leadership presence less of a soft skill and more of a bottom-line driver. Companies with highly engaged workforces outperform their peers by 147% in earnings per share — which means the MIA score above isn't just a self-reflection exercise. It's a competitive differentiator.













































































































































































































































































































































































































































 

Search Blog Posts:

Follow Us:

Personal Leadershippb+jCulture, Focus, Goals, Leadership, Learning, Lessons, Success, The Character Triangle, 1000 Blogs, belonging, belongify, growth, performance