Nearly 5,000 people joined dozens of leadership experts yesterday for the Quit and Stayed Leadership Livecast. Over the course of four hours there were presentations and online discussions about what causes employees to be disengaged on the job and strategies leaders can take to address this epidemic in the workplace.

The Quit and Stayed phenomenon was studied from several angles. Leadership gurus, managers, employees, and team members examined the role an organization’s culture plays in fostering or inhibiting engagement, the value of leaders cultivating personal relationships with employees, different leadership styles to approach the situation, and the value of ongoing learning and career growth.

Here’s just a few of the thoughts that stood out to me:

• Leaders must think about growth like a deep-sea diver thinks about oxygen. Without it you die. (Mark Miller on the importance of career growth.)
• It’s leadership. It’s caring. And if you care about your people, your people are going to care about your organization. (Margie Blanchard’s reminder about the value of personal relationships.)
• When people quit and stay, it’s like a disease that drags everyone down. Be a mopey jerk on your own time. This time is for us. (Jack, a 7th grade student describing disengaged teammates on his football team.)
• My son told me, “Dad, you can’t fire me. You have to develop me.” We should look at treating our employees more like that. (Lee Cockerell on looking at disengaged employees through a different lens.)
• Too often people don’t get rewarded for succeeding in companies. They get rewarded for not failing. (Dick Ruhe describing organizational practices that encourage disengagement.)
• Respect, courtesy, compassion, and clear communication go a long way to firing people up, rather than them firing themselves. (Eileen McDargh’s reminder that kindness goes a long way.)
• My manager wore myself and my colleagues as accessories. The values at that organization offended me regularly. (Wendy Wong sharing her personal story of quitting and staying.)
• Engagement is not something to get out of employees. It is something to instill in them. When you’re disengaged at work, you’re disengaged in life. (David Zinger pointing out that disengagement goes beyond the workplace.)
• Bottom line: Life is too short to be “un” — uninspired, underwhelmed, unproductive, unimportant, unnecessary. (Jay Campbell reminding us of bigger life priorities.)
• Leaders need to start thinking about what we want FOR our people instead of what we want FROM them. (David Facer encouraging leaders to change their thinking about the true purpose and value of engagement.)
• The number one factor predicting a person’s level of engagement at work is the strength of their relationships. Your engagement is your responsibility. (Keith Ferrazzi on the importance of a strong network of relationships.)

All of the strategies shared held one thing in common — the critical importance of trust in relationships. Whether it’s the relationship between a leader and direct report, employees with each other, or individuals with the organization, a healthy level of trust must exist for any progress to be made in moving employees from “quit and stay” to “stay and thrive.”

Did you attend the Quit and Stayed Leadership Livecast? If so, what were the pearls of wisdom you discovered? If you happened to miss it, you can purchase access to the recording and/or program notes here.

This is one in a series of LeaderChat articles on the topic of trust by Randy Conley, Trust Practice Leader at The Ken Blanchard Companies. For more insights on trust, visit the Leading with Trust blog or follow Randy on Twitter @RandyConley.