I’m Outta Here
What do you think is the most popular reason folks leave their current employer for another company?
If you said “compensation”, nice swing. “Greener pastures”, swing again. Health reasons, relocation, early retirement or personal reasons… keep on swinging.
The most popular reason folks leave is because of you. That’s right – “you” the business owner or “you” the manager or supervisor. Didn’t see that one coming, eh?
A recent Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) report suggested one of the best ways you can mitigate turnover is to simply get connected with your staff, not as employees, but as human beings. Meetings, deadlines, projects, financials, clients, vendors, competition, industry and a myriad of other circumstances have us completely distracted from simply engaging one another in conversation and learning who we are inside AND outside the workplace.
Now please don’t take this as a demand to stop the presses. Creating authentic relationships takes time and will likely not respond well to a “let’s get ‘er fixed today” mentality.
Rather, consider some of the following ideas:
- Create scheduled and consistent time to visit with your employees / team, and grab a cup of coffee with each person.
- Schedule a monthly gathering as a small team or business unit.
- Be interested, not interesting. This is one of the first rules of successful networking – why not use it everywhere. The more questions you ask of your team member, the better.
- Be seen. If you’ve put yourself in the exclusive “C” suite, consider moving to a regular office within proximity of your team. Or, at the very least, make it a point to take a daily walk around and say “hello” to everyone. Eat lunch in the company cafeteria / lunchroom.
- Individually acknowledge your teammates for a job well done. Sometimes nothing can go further to forming an authentic relationship than an acknowledgement from you.
Leadership Practices:
- Practice some or all of the above.
- Make a list of: a) who you feel most connected to, and b) who you feel least connected to. Make it a daily routine to visit with the folks on list “b”.
- Ask your management / leadership team to point out where they feel you’re doing a good job in relating. Also ask them to tell you where you can improve.
- Consider creating a “connection” program that allows one of your staff to visit with you on a weekly basis – check in on business/personal life.
One of the most frustrating business challenges can be reversed without having to invest an arm and a leg. Simply connecting and relating to your staff can be one of the best investments you could ever make.
Now, go get connected.
-Coach Preston
