Back to Basics: Why Leaders Must Trade Activism for Excellence

Author: Whitney Munro

Corporate leaders are scrambling to understand why trust in leadership is at a low point, employee morale is declining, and productivity is eroding. Perhaps the problem is self-inflicted.

For the past decade, executives prioritized ideological activism over business fundamentals. Instead of uniting employees around shared goals, they pushed divisive social policies that distracted from their core mission of building great companies.

The result? A fractured workforce, declining engagement, and a loss of pride in work. It’s time for a course correction.

A Decade of Distraction

Not long ago, corporate leadership had a clear mission: drive innovation, increase profitability, and create value for employees, customers, and shareholders. Then came the rise of corporate activism. Companies rushed to issue political statements, implement diversity mandates, and impose ideological training sessions. CEOs began using their platforms to champion causes that had little to do with their industries.

While some efforts were well-intentioned, they came at a cost. Rather than strengthening workplaces, they introduced division, resentment, and distraction. This distraction isn’t just theoretical. Recently, leaders at companies like Starbucks and Coca-Cola have expressed frustration with a workforce that appears increasingly disengaged and divided, with Starbucks’ CEO telling employees to step it up and be more accountable for their jobs.

The Fracturing of Workplace Culture

Corporate culture should unify employees around a common mission. Ironically, Starbucks used to be an innovator at the intersection of culture and strategy, uniting its staff around a powerful shared purpose. But by inserting political ideology into the workplace, companies like Starbucks created factions that eroded that shared purpose over time.

Employees who once saw work as a place of collaboration were required to attend ideological training and pressured into compliance. Those who disagreed faced social and professional consequences. Instead of fostering camaraderie, these policies fueled distrust. Workplace relationships that had been built on mutual respect were replaced by ideological policing.

When teams are divided and employees lose sight of their shared mission, morale plummets. People disengage—not because they don’t care about their work, but because they no longer feel like their contributions are building toward something bigger that matters.

The Decline of Productivity and Meritocracy

For decades, the best companies operated as meritocracies—rewarding hard work, innovation, and expertise. But in recent years, merit has taken a backseat to identity politics.

Hiring and promotions became driven by quotas rather than qualifications, signaling to employees that their value was based not on skill but on demographic checkboxes.

And as executives prioritized activism over execution–making decisions for the sake of social justice campaigns instead of employees and customers–workers lost confidence in their ability to lead.

The resulting drop in productivity shouldn’t surprise leaders.

Employees don’t want politics in the workplace–survey after survey makes that much clear. They want fairness, opportunity, flexibility, and clear expectations.

The Way Forward: A Return to Business Fundamentals

Companies that abandon ideological distractions and refocus on their core missions and regain trust, boost productivity, and restore morale. Here’s how:

• Prioritize excellence over activism. Reward skill, effort, and results. Remove quotas from hiring and promotion decisions.
• Unite employees around shared professional goals. What is the “why” behind your organization? Build culture and strategy around your larger purpose and impact.
• Drop the politics. Companies are not advocacy groups. Employees don’t need their workplaces to dictate the personal beliefs of their managers.
• Rebuild trust. Leaders must refocus on business growth, fairness, and a work environment that values contribution over compliance.
• Build strategically for good. Current and future generations of workers reject activism and social justice mandates—but they do believe in service. Build programs that allow teams to give back through actual service, over simply the illusion of impact.

At its best, business is a force for innovation, prosperity, and progress. But that only happens when leaders prioritize business fundamentals and their core missions.

The companies that do so will thrive. Those that don’t will continue their slow decline, wondering why their employees are disengaged and trust is eroding.

Smart leaders know what to do.

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