Every promotion you’ve ever gotten came with a cost nobody mentioned at the time. It narrowed the circle of people willing to tell you the truth.
Gallup just put a number on this. Their 2026 State of the Global Workplace, covering more than 160 countries, found that senior leaders score 10 points higher on loneliness than the people who report to them. Higher on stress. Higher on anger. Higher on sadness. And less likely to laugh or feel enjoyment on an average workday.
Tim Cook made a version of this point when he advised Apple’s incoming CEO, John Ternus. He framed the human and relational side of the job as more foundational to long term success than any product bet. Brian Chesky, Indra Nooyi, and Carol Tomé have all said some version of the same thing publicly.
Loneliness isn’t about being alone in a room. It’s the gap between the relationships you have and the ones you actually need. For senior leaders, that gap tends to grow with every title change, because the information reaching you gets more filtered as you rise.
There’s a health cost to this too. Former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has compared chronic loneliness to smoking close to fifteen cigarettes a day. Meta-analyses put the added mortality risk near 26 percent, with even higher numbers for heart disease and stroke.
Here’s what actually helps:
- Build a peer network of people who have no stake in your decisions, whether that’s an outside group, a coach, or an executive program.
- Audit your feedback environment. If you can’t remember the last time someone’s input changed your thinking, that loop has probably already gone quiet.
- Treat your wellbeing like a strategic input, not a personal luxury. Exercise, rest, and real food matter, but so does doing some of that alongside other people.
Gallup found that leaders who’ve built genuine connection are 14 points more likely to say they’re thriving overall. That’s not a soft outcome. That’s a leadership advantage.
This Week
Ask yourself when someone inside or around your organization last gave you feedback that changed how you thought about your role as a leader. Reach out to one peer outside your organization who has no stake in your strategy and decisions. Talk about what it means to lead with the type of relational connections that overcomes human loneliness.
Who’s the one person outside your organization you could reach out to this week?
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