
Why Giving Your Best Employees More Autonomy Sometimes Backfires (And What to Do Instead) A #straightfromcait Episode
Published: May 3, 2026
Duration: 11:47
Autonomy can be the silent mismatch that drains a team long before anyone names burnout.
Leadership and autonomy are often treated as simple: give people more freedom and they will do better work. Cait Donovan offers a more useful frame. Autonomy works when it matches the person, the role, and the responsibility in front of them. When there is an autonomy mismatch at work, the result can look like poor performance, low employee engagement, or workplace stress that has gone unnamed for too long.
This episode looks at autonomy...