Download the scorecard below and observe your leaders for two weeks. Every time a defensive behaviour stops a conversation — mark it. Multiple marks per day is fine. Count your total at the end.
02
Enter your total count, headcount, average salary, and number of people leaders. Hit calculate.
03
See the estimated invisible number on your P&L — what changing the patterns could recover, and how SSC does it in one session. Download your personalised report.
Approximate Cost Per Blocked Conversation
Our default
$1,500
Earlier VitalSmarts study average (n≈650) used as the conservative floor live rate applied
Published average
$7,500
Costly Conversations study (2016) VitalSmarts / Crucial Learning n = 1,025 respondents
75%
Of leaders lead Reactively Leadership Circle's published range: 70–80% we use the midpoint
Print before your two-week observation. Mark freely — as many times as you observe each behaviour each day.
When your two weeks are done, photograph your completed scorecard and send it to calculations@singlesession.online — we will come back within three working days with a more precise estimate based on your per-behaviour data. Or enter your totals below and calculate now.
— Calculate Your Number —
Gallup (2026) puts the global cost of disengagement at $10 trillion a year — 9% of world GDP. This calculator estimates your organisation's share of a related, more specific drain: the conversations blocked by defensive leadership behaviour. Enter your inputs below, for your whole organisation or a single team — just keep every figure to the same group. All outputs are estimates based on published research and your observed data. No revenue or individual pay data required — an average salary figure is all it uses.
Your two-week total from the scorecard — all behaviours, all marks combined
How many people leaders did you watch over two weeks?
No scorecard yet? Estimate from experience. For each behaviour, slide to how often you see it stop a conversation — on a typical fortnight, across the leaders you watch or work with.
NeverMonthlyFortnightlyWeeklyDaily
Rung 1 of 3 — a two-minute honest first pass. Rung 2 is a real two-week observation — counts replace recall; rung 3 is four or five colleagues observing and averaging — the figure you can take to a board. Climbing the rungs is what turns an estimate into evidence.
Everyone in the group you're measuring — your whole organisation, or a single team or division
Used only for the independent Gallup disengagement comparison — it does not drive the defensive behaviour estimate
Anyone who leads, manages, or influences others — across all tiers
Not sure? A typical organisation has one people leader for every 3–5 employees. For 1,000 people that's roughly 200–333.
Estimated annual cost of defensive behaviour
—
Estimated annual recoverable cost — what changing these patterns is worth
—
Estimated annual return — per reactive leader
—
Every assumption behind this number is shown below — and every one is yours to change. We are not asking you to accept our figures. We are asking whether the case still holds when you set them to your own. Change any value and the numbers above update instantly. If it still stands when the dials are yours, there is something here worth doing together.
Scales your two-week observation to a full year. ×22 assumes the rate you observed holds across all 220 working days. Lower it if the fortnight you watched ran hotter than a normal one. SSC default: ×22.
The share of the estimated cost a pattern-level intervention removes. SSC recodes the one keystone behaviour driving the pattern; the downstream behaviours quieten once it stops being triggered. The session does the recoding; integration with your existing executive coaching and diagnostics does the embedding. SSC's planning assumption: 70%, deliberately conservative — under live T0/T2/T6 validation.
The share of your leaders who operate reactively. Leadership Circle's published research puts this at 70–80% of leaders. Default: 75%, the midpoint (Anderson & Adams).
What one stalled or avoided conversation costs you. The default is the earlier of two published VitalSmarts averages — their 2016 study (n=1,025) puts it at $7,500. SSC default: $1,500 at today's live rate.
Your observation — what the data shows
Each of those moments is a conversation that did not happen — and will not happen tomorrow unless something changes at the pattern level.
The independent floor — Gallup disengagement method, across your whole workforce
—
The honest range — four ways to price the same problem (annual)
Want a more precise estimate?
If you have completed the observation scorecard, photograph it and send it to calculations@singlesession.online
We will come back within three working days with a more precise estimate based on your per-behaviour data.
How we calculate this estimate
Let's find your savings together.
Most organisations have cut costs to the bone. Travel. Overheads. Headcount. The one cost they have never seriously explored is the cost of human behaviour — because until now, no one had a way to see it.
This number is an estimate, based on solid published research across thousands of organisations. It will not be precise. But if it is even half right, it represents a saving worth exploring — and a conversation worth having.
Thanks — we will be in touch within 3 working days.
This calculator runs entirely in your browser. No data is collected, stored, or seen by anyone unless you choose to submit the form above. If you do submit, your details are processed securely by Formspark (EU-based, GDPR compliant) and received by Single Session Coaching Global BV (Netherlands) only. SSC will not share your information with third parties. By submitting you confirm you have read our Privacy Policy and agree to our Terms & Conditions. Our Data Processing Agreement is available for download.