Imagine leadership as driving a car. The team is the vehicle; your leadership is the driver; the workplace environment is the road. As a leader, your job is not just to steer, but also to check the engine, maintain the brakes, follow navigation, adapt to changes in terrain, and ensure passengers feel safe and supported.
Eric Liechty, in Driving Engagement: The Drive Formula (2022), uses this vehicle metaphor: productivity and leadership are like moving a car from 0 to 60 mph. You need ignition, motivation, trust, communication, and then consistent throttle (support), steering (vision & values), brakes (boundaries, feedback), tires (skills, resources), and good fuel (psychological safety, recognition). Without all of these components working together, the vehicle breaks down.
The Road Is Bumpy: Adapting When Nothing Goes to Plan
Rarely does a journey go exactly as mapped. Flat tires, storms, and detours happen. Rarely does a journey go exactly as mapped. Flat tires, storms, and detours happen. Leadership expecting (and dealing with) breakdowns: project failures, interpersonal conflict, shifting corporate goals. Adaptation is key. When the road ahead is blocked, do you:
- Pull over and assess?
- Call for help?
- Find a new route?
Because if you barrel ahead ignoring warning lights (signs of low morale, lack of engagement, conflict), you risk crashing.
Recent research underscores this point. A recent study published in Organizational Psychology Review (Wu et al., 2024) describes how successful teams and leaders “switch gears” by adapting leadership styles in dynamic contexts. Leaders who paused to reflect, diagnose the situation, and intentionally adjust their style helped their teams stay resilient and engaged, even under pressure. The study emphasized that reflection is a meta-process that drives adaptability. In vehicle terms, you can’t change gears without first checking your speed and road conditions.
No Fear or Intimidation Allowed in the Cab
If you’re driving but your passengers are terrified, afraid to speak up about potholes ahead, they won’t point out danger. If you employ fear or intimidation, people stay silent. That’s like driving blind.
Eric Liechty emphasizes: trust, communication, and action are essential to getting from 0 to 60. If people are afraid, communication shuts down. Your car stalls. No progress. Fear is never a useful tool for long-term engagement. Integrity, openness, and psychological safety are what allow feedback, innovation, and correction. That’s true in Driving Engagement.
And the data support this: a meta-analysis of 53 studies (16,500+ participants) found that humble leadership, characterized by leaders who admit mistakes and listen, is strongly correlated with trust, job satisfaction, engagement, and creativity (Oc et al., 2023). Fear may get compliance, but humility and safety drive real performance.
Leadership: Are You the Problem?
Here’s a hard question: maybe the roadblocks aren’t outside you, they’re in how you’re driving.
- Do you assume you always know best?
- Do you resist feedback?
- Do you blame others when outcomes are poor?
Humility is a powerful gear. Leading well means being able to lift the hood, admit the engine’s overheating, and accept that maybe you misread the map. Accept accountability.
Research by Hu et al. (2022) in Personnel Psychology found that when leaders reflect on their mistakes, they actually become more humble, which strengthens team trust and performance. In short, leaders who look inward and admit flaws create stronger, more innovative teams.
Without Leadership Support, No Good Journey Lasts
Even with engaged passengers (team), good tires (skills), fuel, and a road map, if the driver stops helping, if steering is absent, the gas pedal floored too early, or no maintenance, you’ll still end up stranded.
Leadership must provide:
- clear expectations (where are we going, what speed, what milestones)
- resources (tools, training, time)
- feedback (course-correction)
- encouragement & recognition
Otherwise, morale drops, effort slacks, engagement dies.
A Cautionary Tale: Survey Promise and Then Cut-Off
A company that wanted to increase engagement, so they rolled out surveys, listened, and initially made improvements. Morale rose, people felt heard, and performance followed. But as soon as negative feedback came in, leadership pulled the plug. Sruverys ended. Improvements stopped.
The result? Engagement collapsed. Profits dropped. The company went bankrupt.
That’s like driving a car and only checking the fuel gauge when it’s full and ripping the gauge out when it reads “low.” Employees, like drivers and passengers, need to know their input matters, especially when it’s inconvenient. Ignoring bad news is a form of leadership denial that kills momentum.
Recent survey research confirms this: organizations that treat employee feedback as a continuous loop (collecting, acknowledging, acting, and re-assessing)report up to 23% higher profitability than those that do not (Gallup, 2023). Closing the feedback loop when results are comfortable is leadership denial, and it almost always leads to decline.
How WD-40 Company Models the Right Kind of Driver
Contrast that story with WD-40 Company, famous for its workplace culture as much as its spray can.
Mission, Values, & Culture
WD-40’s purpose is “creating positive lasting memories in everything we do, solving problems, making things work smoothly, and creating opportunities.” A philosophy that extends beyond its product (WD-40 Company, 2023). CEO Garry Ridge, often cited in leadership research, describes the company as a tribe, not a workforce, emphasizing belonging, mentorship, and shared learning (Ridge & Barrett, 2019).
Engagement & Accountability
- WD-40 runs confidential employee surveys regularly and in multiple languages, signaling they value continuous feedback.
- Leaders are trained to respond, not react. Instead of avoiding hard truths, they act on them.
- They emphasize accountability and ownership at every level. Leaders don’t just drive; they teach others to drive.
The result? WD-40 consistently reports employee engagement scores above 90% one of the highest in global benchmarks. Their steady profitability and minimal turnover are proof that accountability and psychological safety go hand-in-hand (Rowe, 2025).
This stands as living evidence that when leaders listen and adapt, the organization thrives.
Putting It All Together: Leadership Action Steps as Vehicle Maintenance
Below are action steps drawn from all of this, giving you tools to ‘steer better’ right now.
| Part of the Vehicle | What You Should Do as a Leader |
|---|---|
| Rear-view mirror (feedback & listening) | Collect engagement data (surveys, one-on-ones), especially allowing honest negative feedback. Listen, don’t defend, then act. |
| Engine (motivation & trust) | Build trust by being transparent, admitting your mistakes, and showing humility. Fuel people with meaningful work and recognition. |
| Steering (vision & alignment) | Make sure everyone knows where you’re going. Clear goals, clear values. Align every decision with those. |
| Brakes (boundaries & correction) | When needed, correct behavior—not in shame or fear, but fairly, with standards. Give feedback that’s timely and helpful. |
| Tires (skills & resources) | Ensure people have what they need—training, support, tools. If someone is misaligned, consider reassigning (as in the Liechty example: matching skills to roles). (productivityadvocates.com) |
| Fuel (psychological safety, recognition, belonging) | Create an environment with no fear or intimidation. Celebrate wins, big & small. Let people know their work matters. |
Accountability & Humility: The Driver’s Mirror
You, as a leader, need to check your own frequently. It takes humility to ask:
- Am I encouraging negative feedback, or muzzling it?
- Do I admit when I’ve screwed up?
- Do I blame others too quickly?
Accountability means owning your own role in both successes and failures. In Driving Engagement, Liechty stresses that leadership isn’t about perfection but about consistency, authenticity, and responsiveness. Because without that, any plan, even a strong one, collapses when tested.
When the Map Changes: Adapting & Overcoming
Sometimes the route you planned is blocked:
- Market changes
- Internal restructuring
- Unforeseen crisis
Great leaders don’t abandon the journey; they adapt. They slow down if needed, reroute when required, and keep communication flowing. A detour is not a failure; it’s a chance to prove resilience.
Warning Signs on the Dashboard
These are indicators that something’s wrong in leadership or engagement:
- People stop speaking up.
- Surveys get ignored, disappear, or end after bad results.
- Turnover rises
- Morale drops, work becomes mechanical.
- Innovation stalls
If any of those show up, check leadership: possibly you are the problem. Or at least, part of it.
Conclusion: Be the Driver Who Builds, Not One Who Abandons the Car
Leadership isn’t about being the loudest voice or fastest accelerator. It’s about being the caretaker of a vehicle that must carry many, sometimes over rough terrain. It’s about humility, accountability, support, and trust.
Eric Liechty’s Driving Engagement gives us the formula: trust + communication + action = going from 0 to 60. You need all three. No shortcuts.
The research is clear: leaders who adapt, reflect, and accept accountability drive stronger engagement, higher performance, and lasting success. Leaders who ignore warning lights or shut down feedback stall out.
So the real question is: as the driver of your workplace vehicle, are you fueling progress, or are you the problem?
References
Gallup. (2023). State of the Global Workplace Report 2023. Gallup Press.
Hu, J., et al. (2022). Learning from errors: How leader reflection on past mistakes fosters humility and team improvement. Personnel Psychology, 75(4), 915–942.
Oc, B., Bashshur, M. R., & Kim, S. (2023). Humble leadership and its impact: A meta-analytic review. The Leadership Quarterly, 34(1), 101–118.
Ridge, G., & Barrett, K. (2019). Helping People Win at Work: A Business Philosophy Called “Don’t Mark My Paper, Help Me Get an A.” Wiley.
Rowe, M. (Host). (2025, May 13). Any dumbass can do it (No. 436) [Audio podcast episode]. In The way I heard it with Mike Rowe. 436: Garry Ridge—Any Dumbass C… – The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe – Apple Podcasts
WD-40 Company. (2023). Our culture and mission. Our Culture – WD-40 Company
Wu, Y., Li, N., & Zheng, X. (2024). Switching gears: How teams co-construct adaptive leadership style transitions in dynamic contexts. Organizational Psychology Review, 14(1), 42–65.