Leadership Know How Reduces Turnover

When a star performer give notice it can have a shocking effect on and organization. Today, more than ever organizations, it is important that your leadership throughout your organization understand how to engage their people. When someone leaves often leaders do not look at themselves and yet often they are the reason a high performing person leaved. It is important to find ways to ensure their employee’s needs are met. Much of this turnover can be avoided if your managers understand the main reasons their star performers are leaving.

1. Big Picture: A key for employees is to understand their value and contribution of their work. When people do not know how their work contributes to the organization’s success they often become disengaged and look for another organization which will meet their needs. The big picture is important for all employees but extremely important for your star performers, as they must know their work must have a purpose.
2. Leadership development: Do your managers know how to help their employees feel cared for? Smart companies develop their managers by helping them to understand how to interact with their employees. It is shocking how many organizations put good employees in management roles without any leadership development. A good employee does not a good supervisor make! This is especially true if the employee is now going to be supervising their peers. An investment in leadership development will dramatically reduce turnover and increase productivity.
3. Feedback: Do your managers know how to recognize their employees? Too often the only feedback that an employee receives is when something is wrong. This bore true while conducting leadership development around NY state. The response to the question “I feel respected when …,” resulted in the same responses regardless of the level or organization. In every instance two of the top responses were, “I feel respected when I am listened to and acknowledged for the work I do.” Managers need to be given the skills to understand what make them tick because different people respond to diverse motivators. For some people it is money, for some public recognition, and for others a small incentive.
4. Listening: Too often managers spend too much time talking and little time listening to their people. A plant manager asked me to help increase communication with their people. While conducting a cultural assessment it became clear the leadership team felt the plant manager could care less about what they had to say. They said as soon as they started bringing something up the manager started talking. Tom Peters compared managers to a study done with doctors in which they only listen for 18 seconds before they start diagnosing. Are you an 18 second manager? If you listen carefully to your people, they will communicate more often and the content of their communication will give you the information you need to run the organization. On the other hand, if you treat your top performers well, pay them a competitive wage, reward them for their contributions, and create a great work-life balance, they will find little incentive in leaving your organization.
5. Empower Your People: In order to hang on to your star performers you need not only give them the responsibility to do their work but also the authority to do it. In speaking with a fellow consultant he said one of the organizations with whom he worked required the okay of 23 different managers! No wonder nothing gets done. Give your people the tools and skills they need to do their work, communicate periodically to ensure understanding and get out of their way!!

A good manager understands how to harness their employees’ passions and gives them to be creative and pursue them. If you want your best people to stay, you need to pay attention to how they are being treated. How often do you speak with them about their needs? If you don’t there is a good chance they will find someone who will know how you treat them.