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📈 How 1,018 Employees Rated a CEO Exit
What culture looks like when it survives a leadership change
Louis Carter
August 12, 2026
A leadership exit is the moment a certified culture either holds or breaks.
Welcome to The Work Ahead, where we explore the forces reshaping how people work, lead, and build organizations.
Across Most Loved Workplace® certification data, I keep watching what happens to emotional connectedness the year a company changes its top leader.
This week: a 1,018-employee survey that closed mid-transition at Mohegan Sun, and a defense-training company that decided its own certified proof, not a departing narrative, should define its reputation.
Let's dive in 👇️
MLW Research Brief
Respect Outranks Pay When People Decide Whether to Stay
Across companies certified as Most Loved Workplaces®, our Love of Workplace Index research consistently shows that Respect is one of the strongest drivers of long-term employee loyalty, even when compensation is the most common request for improvement.
At Mohegan Sun, a 2026 survey of 1,018 employees illustrates the pattern. Respect earned the highest score of the five measured workplace dimensions. While compensation generated the most suggestions for improvement, "people and colleagues" remained the most frequently cited reason employees loved working there, appearing in 414 responses.
Three patterns consistently appear across certified organizations:
Respect predicts loyalty beyond compensation. Employees who feel respected remain committed even when pay is identified as an area for improvement.
Strong Respect scores align with longer tenure. At Mohegan Sun, 740 of 1,018 respondents reported working there for five years or longer.
Healthy cultures combine Respect with inclusion. Organizations that score highly on Respect also tend to produce stronger belonging and inclusion outcomes across employee groups.
Respect is often the first signal employees experience and the last one they remember, making it one of the strongest foundations for lasting workplace culture.
LEADERSHIP INTELLIGENCE
A CEO Exit Tests Whether Trust Was Ever Real
Mohegan Sun belongs in Leadership Intelligence because its top leader changed mid-certification survey, and the workforce answered honestly anyway.
In December 2025, Mohegan's president and CEO stepped down after roughly 25 years. By May 2026, the company named Kelly Williams as Chief People Officer.
Based on our leadership research at Best Practice Institute, connectedness survives a leadership change only when it never depended on one individual. The survey, fielded during that handoff, still returned strong scores on coworkers and respect, though the CEO-specific rating dipped, a fair outcome for a leader mid-exit.
The mechanism worth studying: 'You Said It, We Did It,' converting feedback into named, visible fixes. At one property, it produced more than 550 documented changes.
Retention: 740 of 1,018 employees stayed five years or longer.
Discretionary effort: gratitude was the most common emotion in 1,018 responses.
Collaboration: coworker relationships scored second highest of all dimensions.
Connectedness outlasts a CEO change only if built into a system.
Delta Defense: One Culture Warriors Team Owns the Belief System
What They Do: Delta Defense is the organization behind USCCA, the leading self-defense education and training provider in the US, and a certified Most Loved Workplace®.
What Sets Them Apart: Most organizations assign culture to one function and hope it spreads.
Delta Defense built a Culture Warriors Team that distributes ownership across every department. Every employee carries a playbook built around named 'semiotics,' like 'sweat the small stuff,' meant for real meetings when a detail gets missed.
Results: In 2026, Delta Defense launched Culture 2.0, documenting these systems in independently verifiable form.
Jack Henry: A People-First Culture That Scales Through Relationships
🎖️ No. 4 on the 2026 Top 100 Global Most Loved Workplaces®
What They Do: Jack Henry provides financial technology solutions that help banks and credit unions strengthen connections with the people and businesses they serve through modern software, payments, and digital banking capabilities.
What Sets Them Apart: While many technology companies prioritize products first, Jack Henry builds its culture around people.
Leaders maintain visibility through regular town halls, direct communication, and ongoing engagement, while associates are supported with mentorship, learning opportunities, flexible work options, and meaningful recognition.
Results: That people-first approach creates consistency as the organization grows, allowing thousands of associates to stay aligned around shared values instead of relying on individual leaders to carry the culture.
CAREER STRATEGY
Ask About the Pipeline, Not Just the Posting
Across Most Loved Workplace® sentiment data, growth shows up on both sides of one ledger. At Mohegan Sun, 106 of 1,018 employees named growth as something they love, while 98 asked for more of it.
Before you accept a front-line offer:
Ask how many internal leadership programs exist, not just whether growth is listed.
Ask for one named example of someone who started entry-level and now leads a team.
Ask how manager scores compare to company scores. A gap under five points means culture holds on the floor.
Growth employees ask for while praising it is growth still being built.
INDUSTRY INTELLIGENCE
🏨 Mohegan Sun's $29M Employee Center Backs Its Score
Eagleview Center anchors a workplace scored 83 out of 100 during a mid-leadership transition.
🛡️ Delta Defense Gives Every Department a Culture Owner
A Culture Warriors Team turns belief-system upkeep into a shared job across departments.
🔍 Verified Signals Beat Cached Reviews, Research Finds
Our BPI research finds verified culture content out-converts firms relying on old reviews alone.
What Do Candidates See When They Search Your Company?
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