Are your managers leading talent through the door or out the door? If you are struggling with retention, it’s time to make sure that your managers are trained in the most critical 3-C skills!
For generations our work was process-driven. We created policies and procedures to guide us; if this happens then…that is how to handle it. The outcomes felt structured; inevitable even. The pandemic however, has shown us that there was a whole lot of gray that we didn’t create contingencies for.
In business just like in the rest of our life, we have had to grapple with an emergency situation these past 23 months and while some people have the capacity to take a breath and respond, most human beings are wired to go into their limbic brain that tells us to run, freeze or attack. NOW!
Toll of Pandemic Fatigue on HR and Employee Retention
The truth that we, as a collective (mostly) acknowledge is that we are struggling with the lack of processes that deal with pandemic fatigue or the great resignation.
People are screaming for HR attention. We are exhausted. We are trying to manage up and down while falling apart ourselves. We need help trying to keep our families and our sanity together. But the response has been consistently ‘just give us another two weeks’. HR is not our priority right now. We don’t have time or resources for it. And so retention kept decreasing.
In this race of survival, we forgot about the human beings that are running our businesses. We kept losing people and promoting others from within who were not ready to lead a team, nor were they ever trained or set up for success and so they too left. Or worse, they stayed and people on their team left. And new people came and then they left… ☹️ hmmm
The great resignation is here and it is showing us the consequences of businesses that prioritized profit and product over people. Now what?
Three C’s of Retention
1. Compassion
Compassion says: I see you. I believe in you. I feel for you and for us. I don’t know what’s next but I will do my best. Smart leaders elevate their team members that care. The ones that have a natural ability to experience compassion and empathy (if you need help identifying those people please reach out to us and we can run a talent diagnostic for you).
Ever wonder what does compassion look like in a business setting?
- Listening
- Seeing people for who they are not who you need them to be
- Getting curious and learning what your people need and want right now
- Not making assumptions and decisions based on your own unconscious bias
- Including and practicing equity
2. Courage
New leaders of tomorrow also must develop the muscle of courage. Real talk: nobody is born courageous and this is why you must teach the skill of courage to care enough to speak the truth and to be vulnerable enough to admit when you don’t know but still willing to stand up and support your people in the best way you can with the most information you have.
3. Championing
Finally, championing. It may sound like: I believe you can do this. I have seen you do this before. You are capable of doing this. I trust you will do your best.
Smart leaders champion their people to engage in tasks that play off their strengths vs developing their weaknesses. Finding out what turns them on and brings aliveness and a sense of fun back into teamwork. What we need is more passion in workplaces and identifying what people are really good at, then helping them see it for themselves and creating opportunities for them to do what they love!
You might think it’s just business, but it’s always personal. Because businesses are built by people and for people, not machines. This is why compassion, courage and championing are the three C’s of retention and engagement that will help your people to not only walk through the door but stay!
In truly effective leadership, these three skills are delivered in a coaching leadership style.
Coaching is a critical skill for all managers, especially new team leads.
We must stop fixing and solving problems, but rather empower our people to think for themselves and collectively build solutions.
