Retaining your Followers as a Leader

We are fond of saying, “Unless you’ve got followers, you’re probably not a leader.” Given the challenges of hiring talented employees in today’s highly competitive labor market, keeping your “followers” becomes essential to your success.

Many managers truly believe that people stay with a company, or leave, based on their salary. This is not the case. Employees tell us what matters most is the ability to:

• learn and grow in their jobs
• do work that is challenging and meaningful
• work with good people
• feel like they are a valued team member
• work with good bosses
• be recognized for their contributions
• be autonomous and feel in control of the work
• have flexibility in their hours and dress

Consistently coming in towards the bottom of employee-ranked lists is “fair pay and benefits.” What’s exciting about the employee list of what’s important is that, while we have little control over their pay, we have a high degree of control over what employees say really matters and will keep them on the job.

These tips will help you become a retention expert with a loyal “following.”

1. Make Retention an Organizational Commitment – Employee retention is critical to your organization’s success. Know your employees and their values. Don’t assume you know. Ask and listen carefully to the responses. If you’re not sure, conduct a survey. Once you’ve identified important retention factors, take actions as a management team that support your employees, both professionally and personally.
2. Create an Exciting Environment – Focus on keeping the tempo up. Get to know what work excites your employees. Give people more opportunities to do challenging work. Let go and delegate something meaningful. Support your people by providing training. Get people involved in determining the team’s vision and setting goals. Play the role of both the coach and cheerleader!
3. Remember, People Come First – Today’s workforce values a balance between work and life. Acknowledge people as unique contributors and value their time away from work. Entertain flex schedules,  telecommuting and hybrid schedules. When possible, provide comp time after an extensive project. Do all that you can to promote a happy, productive, stress free environment that acknowledges people have a life outside of work.
4. Spend More Time Leading and Less Time Managing – Demonstrate your trust by giving your employees more opportunities to direct their own time and work. Be open to creative approaches for accomplishing the work. Listen to your team and use their input. Serve as a mentor. Model what you want to see. Praise and recognize work and behavior that you want.
5. Involve Employees in Decisions and Future Plans – Especially those that affect them. We’ve found that employees don’t so much resent organizational change, but do resent being changed. Get them involved early on by asking for their input in areas where they have knowledge or will be impacted by the change.
6. Recognize Excellent Performance and Celebrate Success – Not just with formal organizational incentives. On a daily basis, look for things that are going well and provide meaningful feedback to those responsible for the success.
7. Provide Growth Opportunities Through Training and Education – Employees understand that promotion opportunities may be limited, but still want the opportunity to gain new skills and grow professionally.
8. Select The Right People for The Job – We once heard that there are very few wrongful terminations, but a great number of wrongful hires. Take the time to get it right so you can focus your efforts on the right business, not the business of getting rid of a bad hire.
9. Coach And Counsel Poor Performers – Nothing demotivates a top performer more than seeing a poor performer float off their efforts. It is important to meet with poor performers to clarify the goals and expectations. Then, hold them to meeting expectations. If that does not work, move them on and share your poor performers with a competitor where they undermine someone else’s strategic plan.

Most leaders know what to do, but often become too busy to focus on what employees say matters. But…if you are too busy now to focus on creating an environment that keeps employees, how will you find the time to replace people when they leave?