SAN FRANCISCO – Silicon Valley, long seen as a powerhouse of tech progress, now faces a serious leadership problem. A pattern of senior resignations, ongoing debates around diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and growing dissatisfaction among junior staff are shaking up the industry. These changes are already having a strong impact, as companies work to keep key people and adjust to constant shifts across technology.
A Wave of Executive Exits
The last year and a half has seen more big-name leaders leave than ever before. Data from Spencer Stuart in 2025 places tech C-suite turnover at 22 percent, the highest rate in ten years. High-profile departures include Dave Clark, who left Amazon in 2023, and Sheryl Sandberg, Meta’s chief operating officer, who resigned in 2022. In 2024, Google’s cloud division president, Thomas Kurian, exited amid reports of internal disputes, while Microsoft lost chief product officer Panos Panay to a rival.
Several issues fuel this trend. Burnout appears often, with over half of tech leaders pointing to overwhelming pressure, according to Korn Ferry’s 2024 report. Demands to roll out new tech, such as AI, plus dealing with stricter regulations, have added to workloads. Apollo Technical’s 2022 research found that one in six tech staff left jobs due to stress, and more than a third blamed difficult bosses.
Other senior leaders want a fresh start. Many move to start-ups or launch their businesses, drawn by the promise of more control and the chance to build something from scratch, especially with new AI tools on the rise. Jane Ellison, Gartner’s tech analyst, notes that the urge to build and innovate, which helped make Silicon Valley famous, is now drawing its key people to smaller, less structured firms.
DEI: Progress Meets Pushback
DEI policies aim to create fairer, more inclusive workplaces. Studies suggest diverse leadership teams can boost innovation. For instance, Boston Consulting Group found in 2020 that such companies earn 19 percent more from innovation. Still, some question whether these programmes always hit the mark, especially if they seem more about meeting quotas than rewarding ability.
McKinsey reported in 2024 that while most tech companies have at least one leader from an underrepresented group, gaps have not closed. Women still hold just 12 percent of top roles, and only a small share of Fortune 500 CEOs are people of colour. Anonymously, some leaders say current DEI efforts look more like ticking boxes than building teams based on skill. One ex-VP shared frustration at being asked to meet targets with no proper way of measuring real gains.
Lack of support for DEI can hurt career growth, too. Forbes highlighted in 2023 that without solid mentoring, people from minority backgrounds struggle to move up, causing bottlenecks in leadership. At the same time, some experienced leaders leave rather than deal with rising tension over DEI debates. Dr Maria Alvarez, from Stanford, comments that DEI can change companies for the better if done well, but if handled poorly, it drives away talent and damages trust.
Junior Employees Left Behind
Leadership turmoil is felt right through to the junior ranks. A 2024 Gallup poll says only 40 percent of tech employees under thirty rate their company’s leadership highly, an eight-point drop since 2020. Millennials and Gen Z, who now make up a large part of the sector, often feel their career path is unclear, with 63 percent thinking they’re not being prepared for management.
Remote work adds to this sense of disconnection. Priya Sharma, a software engineer in the Bay Area, says she rarely speaks with senior staff and doesn’t see much chance for growth or mentorship. Achievers’ 2025 study backs this up, finding that only a quarter of staff feel their companies ask for honest DEI feedback, eroding trust even further.
The impact on morale is costly. Flair.hr calculated in 2024 that staff turnover due to burnout costs tech firms between $125 and $190 billion each year. Where leadership is weak, staff engagement drops by a fifth. Junior workers are searching for better guidance and recognition elsewhere. As Sharma puts it, there’s little incentive to stay if you don’t feel seen or appreciated.
Why Strong Leadership Matters
Good leaders keep companies stable and moving forward, especially in fast-moving technology fields. The Conference Board’s 2018 research showed that firms investing in inclusive leadership training outperformed others more than four times over. Trust, openness and accountability help teams reach their best, according to Gallup.
Leaders set the culture—supporting teams to take risks and work together gives the best results. Dr Alvarez points out that without such guidance and encouragement, progress stalls. Korn Ferry echoes this in its 2025 insights, saying CEOs with open minds and strong tech skills deliver nearly triple the revenue growth of their less effective peers.
What Happens When Leadership Fails
When there’s no clear plan for who takes over, companies lose good people and may drift off course. DDI’s 2024 research links strong leadership “benches” with higher numbers of women and minority leaders, plus greater success attracting skilled staff. In contrast, weak succession planning brings lower morale and slower progress.
Recent events make this clear. Twitter’s upheaval after Elon Musk’s 2022 takeover caused mass job cuts and lost advertisers on a huge scale. At Intel, repeated CEO changes led to lost ground in the market and years of uncertainty.
The financial cost is striking. Forbes estimated in 2018 that poor leadership drained US companies of up to $550 billion each year, a figure likely even higher today as tech’s influence grows. Stock prices often fall when key leaders leave, as seen in UnitedHealth’s price crash during an ongoing investigation.
How Tech Can Recover
Big tech’s leadership issues need urgent attention. First, companies must focus on finding and developing future leaders early. DEI programmes need a rethink, putting real skills first while keeping teams open and friendly. Jane Ellison at Gartner believes DEI should unite people, not just meet targets.
Senior staff also need to rebuild connections with junior workers through regular mentoring and open feedback, ideas supported by Achievers’ 2025 report. Investing in leadership courses that teach adaptability, emotional awareness and new technology skills, as Korn Ferry suggests, will also help.
With everything at stake, strong leadership is more than helpful—it’s essential. Without it, tech risks falling behind, losing its best people and missing new opportunities.
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