Why Your Best Employees Are Frustrated (And How To Fix It)

Inspiring leadership doesn’t matter—if your employees are stuck in frustration. Every leader wants to be motivational, visionary, and inspiring. But here’s the reality: even the most inspired employees will burn out if roadblocks keep getting in their way. And that burnout isn’t just about lost productivity—it’s about losing the very people who have the most potential to drive your organization forward.

A Leadership IQ study found that only 16% of employees say their leader actually removes obstacles to their success. Yet, eliminating roadblocks drives 31% of an employee’s motivation to give their best effort. That’s an enormous impact from something that too many leaders ignore.

The truth is, employees want to give their best effort, but when they’re mired in bureaucratic inefficiencies, conflicting priorities, and broken processes, they can’t. And worse, if those obstacles remain in place for too long, employees will disengage. Research has found that in 42% of organizations, high performers are actually less engaged than low performers. Why? Because they get stuck carrying the load while others coast. They get buried under inefficiencies while low performers are left unbothered. They see their suggestions for improvement ignored while mediocrity gets rewarded.

So what’s the fix? It starts with a simple question: “In the past 30 days, what frustrating roadblocks have slowed you down?”

This question is deceptively powerful. First, it forces specificity. Asking about frustrations in a broad, theoretical sense is too vague to elicit actionable insights. But narrowing the scope to just the past 30 days ensures that employees will recall concrete, immediate obstacles.

Second, it communicates that you actually care. Too many leaders pretend to listen, nodding along in meetings but failing to take action. The moment employees believe their leader is just gathering input for the sake of optics, they stop offering real feedback. This is why we see such a dramatic engagement gap between organizations where leaders encourage suggestions for improvement and those where leaders ignore them. In fact, research has shown that employees who believe their leader “always” encourages suggestions are 12 times more likely to recommend their company as a great employer.

Third, this question only works if followed by action. Employees need to see that their frustrations aren’t just being acknowledged but actively addressed. Too many companies launch initiatives, gather survey data, and hold focus groups, only to let those insights sit in an unread report. When leaders fail to act on employee feedback, they don’t just maintain the status quo—they actively destroy trust. And once trust is gone, employees stop speaking up.

So how do you actually make change happen?

1. Fix One Issue Fast – Employees don’t need every problem solved overnight. But they do need to see momentum. Find one tangible, fixable issue and resolve it quickly. If meetings are inefficient, cut them in half. If a process is broken, streamline it. If priorities are conflicting, clarify them. Just fix something.
2. Communicate the Fix – Too often, leaders make improvements behind closed doors, assuming employees will notice. Don’t assume. If you’ve solved a problem, tell people. “Hey, last week we heard that the approval process was slowing everyone down. We cut two steps from the process, and here’s how it’ll be better moving forward.” That kind of visibility builds credibility.
3. Keep Asking – Removing roadblocks isn’t a one-time event. It’s a leadership habit. The best leaders don’t wait for an annual engagement survey to figure out what’s wrong. They’re continuously asking, listening, and fixing.

Leadership isn’t just about inspiration; it’s about clearing the path so people can do great work. And if you don’t remove the obstacles standing in their way, all the inspiration in the world won’t matter.