3 Things You Need to Do to Keep Your Best Employees From Quitting

People don’t necessarily quit their bosses — they quit their jobs. While people may be likely to jump ship if they’re working for a micromanaging tyrant, most employees exit because of the work.

Either they’re not empowered, their job wasn’t meaningful, or they didn’t see the potential for growth in their role.

Your workforce, your best people are not pursuing job satisfaction — they are pursuing Professional and Personal Growth and not in the traditional sense.

I know this because I manage the Validation and Regulatory Compliance Professionals LinkedIn group, which has over 9,500 members.? Our members are life science professionals who have the responsibility of ensuring their company's life-saving products meet FDA requirements for safety, toxicity and efficacy.

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Through the polling that has been in the group over the years, our members don’t care about the bells and whistles found in many workplaces today — the ping pong tables, fancy latte machines and free food that companies offer to try to create job satisfaction.

Poll after poll indicates that purpose and development drive employee retention.?In our latest June 2021 poll, our members voted overwhelmingly that the lack of potential for growth will cause them to quit their jobs!?

Giving out toys and entitlements is a leadership mistake, and worse, it’s condescending. ?

This begs the question, “how do managers and leaders coach a professional workforce for growth”. ?How do you as a company leader help them understand and build their strengths so that the High Performing employee will stay with your company?

?I really want to know! ?I struggle with the same issues.?

If I were to build a house, I would begin with a blueprint. This blueprint proves useful because it contains more than directions on how to build a house. It also describes the finished house.

?So, what does this have to do with leadership?

For years, I’ve been asking the members of the Validation and Regulatory Compliance Professionals LinkedIn group, which is comprised of thousands of life science professionals, team leaders, managers and C-level executives, to tell me the characteristics of an ideal leader.

?Their answers serve as a BLUEPRINT for LEADERSHIP

?A good listener, enthusiasm, passion, shows appreciation, a visionary, role model, trusting, integrity, organized, knowledgeable, credibility, persuasive, charisma, team building, clarity of purpose, problem solver, attitude of service, leads by example, patience, willing to act without complete knowledge, understands followers, consistent, empowers other people, and adapts to change.

?To be perfectly honest, I don’t possess a third of these traits.?I’m a work in progress and I write about what I need to learn.?

Although on-the-job professional development opportunities are helpful, the online series that CoursWorx (my company) will be offering - FREE ONLINE LEADERSHIP SERIES that starts in July 2021 - will enable you, no matter where you’re at in your career to pick up the skills you may need to lead yourself and your team in the future.

The series is YOUR

BLUEPRINT for LEADERSHIP!

This high-production value series dives deep into what it takes to be a leader in today’s workplace.

Emphasis is placed on developing current leaders as well as cultivating this trait in your workforce overall.

?If, like me, you’re feeling less than confident in your current abilities to “maximize human potential”, these skills can be learned and refined over time.?Sometimes all I want is for the people I work with is to just do their job.?

According to a recent leadership study, 85 percent of executives who participated in leadership programs—including classroom learning, online training, one-on-one mentoring, and hands-on job training—were able to improve their leadership effectiveness dramatically in just three years.

I'll add that this is essentially the same list that I receive from other audiences when I ask this question. From this comes some useful insights.

?1) Notice what the list contains. All of these characteristics relate to the human side of leadership. That's interesting because I often hear people minimize this side of leadership with terms like "soft" or "touchy-feely."

?Actually, applying these characteristics requires more strength than not.

?2) Notice what the list excludes. Absent from this list (and all lists from other programs) are characteristics such as stern, mean, serious, short-tempered, vindictive, tough, angry, harsh, punitive, controlling, violent, or ruthless.

?And that's interesting because many popular representations of leadership emphasize at least one of these "hard" characteristics.

?In fact, these characteristics are the refuge of those who lack the strength (or the skills) to apply the human side of leadership.

?3) How about you? How would you rate yourself as a leader compared to the list of positive characteristics? If you were to survey the people who report to you, how would they describe your leadership?

?Would they list characteristics from the "soft" list or from the "hard" list? Could you become more effective by improving upon any of the "soft" characteristics?

Who knows, right.?You’ve got deadlines to meet, an organization to run and sales quotas that have to be realized by next month. ?And how about the other leaders in your organization? Do they truly maximize human potential?

Your people want you to treat them as if they have intelligence and with courtesy and respect. ?I’ll be honest, I don’t do that all the time.?That’s why I think it’s important to be continually engaged in new learning to lead yourself and keep your best people.

Click Here to Receive More Information on CoursWorx FREE ONLINE LEADERSHIP SERIES that starts on July 12, 2021.

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