Three Leadership Qualities That Improve Employee Retention in Supply Chain

In a 2025 supply chain workforce survey conducted by Total Talent Resources, surveyors discovered a surprising trend amongst current supply chain employees: Company culture ranked among the top three reasons employees remained at their current jobs. This preference ranked higher than job security, growth opportunities, and even compensation.

Why does company culture play such a significant role in employee retention? What can you do as a leader to secure committed and satisfied employees? In this article, we’re going to dive into the secret behind successful work cultures—from the leader’s perspective.

Company Culture and Retention Rates

According to the Oxford Reference, company culture is defined as “an intangible system of values, collective personality, and beliefs shared by people in an organization.”

Othman Ajana, Founder of Better Leaders Training Foundation, adds: “The traditional definition of culture tends to be somewhere along the lines of ‘what we do and how we do it. For me, it’s what we do and why we’re doing it.” An organization’s mission, values, and behavior create its culture, which directly affects the satisfaction of both employees and customers.

Researchers at MIT Sloan Management Review found that toxic company culture is 10 times more likely to predict employee turnover rates than salaries. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. The Great Resignation of 2021—the year this research was conducted—revealed that employees were dissatisfied with work cultures that fostered backstabbing, favoritism, and unethical behavior. As a result, many either engaged in silent quitting or left their jobs altogether.

The consequences of a toxic culture extend far beyond employee dissatisfaction—they directly affect a company’s costs and overall performance. Businesses spend thousands of dollars on job postings and onboarding processes. Production often takes a hit as new employees settle into their positions, which also impacts the company’s bottom line. In the supply chain industry, where logistical and industry insights are vital to a company’s success, losing experienced employees also means losing institutional knowledge that would increase efficiency. To mitigate the inherent disadvantages of high turnover, leaders should invest time in cultivating a culture that inspires employee loyalty and passion as they carry out the organization’s vision.

A Leader’s Role

Culture in any sector almost always starts at the top. As a leader, you have the privilege and responsibility of creating an environment where your team feels valued and safe. So what leadership qualities should you adopt to prime the workplace environment for synergy and productivity?

Become a Source of Trust

Patrick Lencioni, author of “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team,” says the very foundation of a team is trust. Without it, even the most promising companies would fall apart. When trust is lacking, employees are slow to share new ideas, take initiative, and voice concerns; however, when a sense of confidence and security pervades the workplace, performance and enthusiasm increase.

“Relationship building answers the WHY piece [of company culture],” Ajana says, “And that’s powerful enough to give people a sense of belonging to the company, its cause, as well as the people whom they work with.”

As a leader, establishing a trust-based relationship with your team is one of the best ways to safeguard your company against high turnover and talent loss. In his TED talk, “Why Good Leaders Make You Feel Safe,” leadership guru Simon Sinek emphasized that true leaders put their team members before themselves. They are the first to expose themselves to danger and the last to receive reward. When team members recognize that their leader has their back, they invest more energy in performance rather than self-preservation.

Manage Your Emotions

Imagine walking into the office and discovering that production has been halted because a shipment was never placed. Stress is mounting, pressure is coming from all sides, and you start looking for the nearest employee to lash out at.

Nothing kills morale like tearing into the people who look to you for support during a work crisis. If you want to maintain an environment where your team isn’t afraid to admit mistakes or express concerns, learn to manage your emotions, even in the most stressful situations. Your team needs to know that when they walk into your office or stop you on the floor, you will be receptive and ready to listen to their needs. They need to know that you value them as a human more than their performance.

Your emotional intelligence—the ability to manage your thoughts and feelings—will play a critical role in crisis management and overall resilience. Knowing how to take command of a disastrous situation is beneficial; learning how to do so while maintaining your emotional control and preserving your team’s mental health is even more effective.

Hold Yourself Accountable

In an industry as complex as supply chain management, mistakes and setbacks are inevitable. Who do you blame when things go wrong? Referencing Lencioni again, another quality of a dysfunctional team—and a toxic company culture—is a lack of accountability. This is especially true for those in leadership positions.

As a leader, your accountability relationship will set a precedent for the rest of your workforce. When you and your team select a supplier, establish your KPIs, or develop a forecast, you must be willing to accept responsibility for the outcome, whether good or bad. No one likes taking the blame when things go wrong, but leaders who do are more likely to gain their team's respect. Your self-accountability opens dialogue and collaboration. It inspires your team to hold themselves accountable to the company’s goals and vision, and it generates a sense of teamwork and togetherness.

Conclusion

Companies are what their leaders make them. In the demanding world of logistics, it’s easy for management staff to lose touch with their employees. As you establish yourself as a leader in the industry, choose to be different. The workforce needs a leader who is willing to lay aside their ego and invest time in building a company culture established on trust, empathy, and accountability. By cultivating these leadership qualities, you will take another step toward connecting with your employees in a way that will strengthen your company’s culture and increase loyalty for years to come.

Are you ready to take the next step in becoming a leader in supply chain management? Better Leaders Training Foundation certifications equip professionals with the skills and confidence they need to advance their careers and drive the future of their organization. Check out our certification options today!