Employees start to disengage from their work when their personal interests and goals don’t align with the goals and vision of the company where they work. It’s a critical issue for many businesses and one that’s often overlooked.

Business leaders are often so focused on growing the company that they fail to really consider the role their team plays in achieving those growth milestones, and this is especially the case with their marketers. Senior executives don’t necessarily understand the intricacies of digital marketing, which makes it easier for them to behave in ways that cause employees to disengage.

Marketers aren’t worried about ad blocking or fraud as much as they used to be. Instead, as a group, they’re primarily concerned about talent and skills. In fact, the average marketer gives his or her team’s digital capabilities a grade of just 57%.

Much of the onus to ensure that your marketers avoid the pitfalls of disillusionment falls on the executives who structured the marketing team. It can happen anywhere, but I see it most at startups chasing after rapid growth. Understaffed marketing teams are spread in so many directions that focused impact becomes a critical challenge, and if a true leader sees this happening at her company, it’s up to her to fix it.

And all the while, the demand for data skills and pressure to demonstrate ROI among marketers is rising, even though young, creative marketers themselves are not necessarily interested in deep dives into analytics.

Here’s how today’s business leaders can ensure they keep marketers engaged.

Leadership As A Collective Effort

Rather than micromanaging and passing decisions down to your marketing team, work with them. Involve them in decision making processes and explain the reasoning behind the decisions.