What if you could retain your top talent and buck the 'Great Resignation' trend?
While the most obvious symptom of this latest phase is a swathe of resignations, the cause is pretty clear.
What I see is a Great Realignment.
People are clearly saying they're no longer satisfied, engaged or aligned with the work they're doing.
People (and their leaders) are exhausted and losing passion for what they do. They're operating in silos, teams are out of alignment, delivery is missing the 'surprise & delight' mark and value is being left on the table.
It's a symptom of focussing on what we do and not who we are - as individuals & teams. When we focus exclusively on task and activity and continue to expect already depleted people to ‘dig deeper’, the only option we give our most valuable resource is to walk away.
And if we haven’t noticed, they’re running…
And it’s expensive, in terms of dollars, productivity, commercial knowledge and stakeholder relationships, not to mention the impact of fractured teams on the quality and consistency of performance.
Keeping our people, especially our top talent, needs a shift in our approach to engagement, alignment and delivery.
There has already been so much churn, so much attrition and renewal that we no longer know the people we work with.
Take a moment and think about the quality of your work relationships – how ‘healthy’ are they right now? My guess is that you’ve spent an abundance of time with your team on Zoom (or Teams) calls and that you’re really dialled in to what they do for you.
Here’s the real question – When was the last time you spoke with your team about what it is they’re great at, and why it is that they’re great at what they do?
My experience is that our teams are running on autopilot and the fuel supply is running low.
Our people are in roles that they’re already masters of, and they’re bored. Development has been a second order priority as wellness and survival took precedence over the last couple of years.
Our teams want to know that there’s MORE than, well, this.
Our people want to work in teams again.
⇢ They want interaction.
⇢ They want to be engaged and stretched – not by volume, but by their roles, responsibility, accountability.
⇢ They want to feel like they’re high performers again and they want to be part of a high-performing team.
⇢ They want to feel like they belong and are a part of something worthwhile.
⇢ They want to feel appreciated, respected, recognised.
⇢ They want to feel valued.
⇢ They want to be challenged by what they’re doing and empowered to do it to the best of their ability – which means less prescription & checkboxes and more trust, discussion and autonomy.
It sounds like a lot, yet the answer lies in knowing who we are, and who each person in our team is.
The answer lies in our strengths.
It’s surprising how many people really haven’t thought about what it is that drives their performance and success – their own, or their team’s.
It’s also surprising how rapidly you can improve engagement, performance, and return by investing in the strengths of your people.
Our traditional approach to development has been a one-size-fits-all focus on what our people should be doing. It was a check-a-box exercise. More for the benefit of the organisation than for the benefit of the individual. We’ve talked diversity yet developed homogeneity (controversial, I know!). We’ve asked our people to do the same things, the same way and to use the same approach in their development.
Now is the time to change that!
When we understand our strengths and the strengths of our people, we focus on how we do what we do. We give people the opportunity to be the best they can be and work in a way that maximises their performance. We give our people the tools to work to the best of their ability in teams that recognise, reward, and leverage the strengths of every person in those teams.
The team’s success is the individual’s success, and vice-versa.
If you’re looking to turn over your team – hey, keep doing the same things.
If you’re looking to retain your talent, optimise the opportunity for your new talent, build high-performing teams and drive sustainable performance to get an edge – then it’s time to do things differently.
It’s time to welcome the person into work.
Sandy