Blind Leadership and Employee Turnover

Today, I received my fifth resignation letter in as many weeks from an employee in a 2nd level executive leadership position. Two VPs in sales kicked it off, then a VP of Service, an IT Director, and now a VP of Sales Operations.

Reasons for leaving an organization are often personal for each individual, such as more money, a return to the office, or career progression. However, besides a more attractive choice, there is almost always a common thread that can be tied back to what I call blind leadership.

Blind leadership occurs when there is a significant gap between how leaders perceive their own performance and how their team members and colleagues view their performance. It impacts employee turnover.

Why don't we hear more about blind leadership as a driver for employee turnover? When employees participate in exit interviews, they often don't like to "burn bridges," so they choose reasons for leaving that do not address this uncomfortable topic about a leader. They prefer to cite reasons such as better job opportunities or more compensation. This response is more acceptable for their leader to understand why the employee chose to leave, rationalizing that the guardrails within the organization may not support providing the type of compensation they were seeking or the speed at which they desired to be promoted.

Blind leadership contributes to employee turnover in several ways, including a lack of self-awareness, poor communication, and failure to set clear expectations. Let's examine each one.

Leaders who lack self-awareness often fail to recognize their weaknesses and the impact of their actions on employees. This can lead to underestimating the negative effects their behavior has on team morale and failing to address personal shortcomings that may be driving employees away.

Blind leaders who demonstrate poor communication, like failing to provide regular feedback on performance and ignoring opinions and ideas, leave employees feeling undervalued and uncertain about their future in the organization.

Leaders with blind spots often struggle to set clear expectations, which drives confusion about roles and responsibilities, frustration among team members, and sets up the foundation for workplace conflicts resulting in a toxic work environment.

What is remarkable about each of these competencies is that they are fundamental core leadership skills, yet only 29% of companies train for the five critical leadership skills identified as most important: effective communication, self-awareness, adaptability, empathy, and decision-making. [i]

83% of businesses agree on the importance of leadership development.[ii] This suggests that a significant majority of organizations recognize the critical role of leadership. However, there's a gap between recognizing importance and actual implementation.

There are three main reasons for the disjointed state of leadership development.

• The first is a gap in motivation. Organizations invest in executive development for their own long-term good, but individuals participate to enhance their skills and advance their careers, and they don't necessarily remain with the employers who've paid for their training.
• The second is the gap between the skills that executive development programs build and those that firms require—particularly the interpersonal skills essential to thriving in today's flat, networked, increasingly collaborative organizations. Traditional providers bring deep expertise in teaching cognitive skills and measuring their development, but they are far less experienced in teaching people how to communicate and work with one another effectively.
• The third reason is the skills transfer gap. Simply put, few executives seem to take what they learn in the classroom and apply it to their jobs—and the farther removed the locus of learning is from the locus of application, the larger this gap becomes. To develop essential leadership and managerial talent, organizations must bridge these three gaps.[iii]

My Talent & Culture team will partner with business leaders to bridge these gaps by implementing programs that simultaneously benefit the company and advance individual careers, enhance leaders' ability to communicate effectively and build trust, and emphasize practical, on-the-job learning experiences that allow leaders to immediately apply newly acquired skills. This approach can help ensure that leadership development translates into tangible and measurable improvements in the workplace.

It is safe to say that the loss of key talent has sufficiently motivated the company to close the gap as a result of the recent resignations. Conversations between executive leaders and employees also affirm executive leaders' motivations to close the gap. The action for implementation is to conduct regular career development discussions with high-potential employees and tailor leadership training to specific roles and career paths within the organization.

Given the importance of interpersonal skills in modern and collaborative work environments, incorporating experiential learning and role-playing exercises to practice interpersonal skills like emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, effective communication, and empathy will enable leaders to safely learn and work through their discomfort with these newly used muscles.

Finally, although our leaders will have many opportunities to apply these skills in their day to day, we will bridge the skills gap with practical, on-the-job learning experiences that allow leaders to immediately practice their newly acquired skills through designed action learning projects and implement a system of regular coaching to support skill application.

By introducing these recommendations, I believe we will create a more effective leadership bench that not only closes the skill gap but also enhances employee engagement and reduces turnover. And we will no longer be counted in turnover statistics unless it is to collect data on best practices.

Gratefully,????

Nancy Adams, CPC

Please feel free to reach out with questions or feedback.

[i] HBR: What Makes Leadership Development Programs Succeed? by Ayse Yemiscigil, Dana Born and Horace Ling

[ii] Human Performance Technology: 20+ Statistics on Leadership Development

[iii] HBR: The Future of Leadership Development by Mihnea Moldoveanu and Das Narayandas

Leadership Forum

We proudly released the first Leadership Forum Whitepaper: LEADING WITH BRAVERY: How Strategic Leaders Demonstrate Courage in Challenging Times.?This whitepaper is a compilation of Think Tank Strategies from the 2024 18th PSPS Leadership Forum. On September 26th, 2024, visionary Human Resources executive, human capital strategist, and bestselling author, Steve Pemberton ,offered a framework for navigating through turbulent and uncertain times.

Following Steve's keynote, 250 talented participants built and leveraged connections, brainstormed together and shared their collective wisdom to apply the framework. As a result, they developed implementable strategies addressing pressing issues facing leaders today, like navigating work from home, DEI, burnout, reskilling, and taking a stand. The whitepaper compiled and captured the thoughtful, expert contributions of those discussions and was distributed to attendees via email this week.

This value-added resource was created through the thoughtful and diligent work of Morgan Dumont, MBA , Joanne Spilsbury, PGDIP, SHRM-CP , Amna Shoro , Robyn Pollack, Esquire , and Meredith E. Friedman, SPHR , who volunteered many hours to integrate participant contributions into a comprehensive work product. We'd also like to thank the Leadership Forum participants for sharing their knowledge and ideas, the table facilitators and notetakers who helped capture this input, the Leadership Forum committee, and our Association Administrator, Alison Lenox , for planning and executing a flawless event.

?? Thank you to our Leadership Forum sponsors - Firstrust Bank , Dayforce, WorkStep, Deloitte, Workday, and The Power of Professional Women.

?? Thanks to our annual sponsors - Careerminds, Phenom, Top Stack , Dayforce, DoubleStar, Inc., CCI, Juno Search Partners, The Judge Group, LOUTEL, PeopleShare, Paycor, JP Douglas, CYTO | PHL, Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., and Villanova University.

We hope to see you next year!

Programming Committee Update

The 2025 Programming Committee is busy at work, and we can always use more volunteers, especially to serve as liaisons between Membership, Sponsorship, Marketing, and Community Connections.? Marcelo Godinho , Maureen Horstmann Becker, SPHR, SHRM-SCP , and Sally Solis-Cohen will serve as the liaisons to our VP of Finance, Lindsay Evans, SPHR .? Please reach out if you are interested in getting active, making strong connections with your peers, and helping to produce an outstanding year of learning.?

Our theme?for next year is?Generation Transformation: When everything is changing in a high-tech, high-touch working world.

We've divided this broad topic into four segments to explore throughout?the year. Stay tuned to hear more about how we will deliver this content over the coming months.

Please get in touch with any of our co-leaders below if you want to get involved in identifying?the best speakers and producing the live and/or virtual events.? ?We are working hard right now to pull it all together, and we can't do it without you.? You can contact us directly or via [email protected], and we will match your willingness to roll up your sleeves with the work that needs to be done.?Thank you!?

Our Four Key Topic Areas and Key Points of Contact:

1. Navigating New Career Paths in a High-Tech Economy:?Integrating advanced technologies into the workplace is changing the nature of jobs and how they are performed. Lifelong learning and continuous skill development are becoming necessary to stay relevant in the job market. Sonia Hardaway , Amanda Bezon, MILR
2. Leadership in a Transforming World: Despite the rise of technology, there is an increasing emphasis on human skills such as emotional intelligence, creativity, and interpersonal communication. The human touch remains essential in a tech-driven world, especially in roles that require empathy, ethical judgment, and complex problem-solving. Leaders of all generations are required to adapt to new tools and workflows. Beth Cranston Sinkus , ? Joanne Spilsbury, PGDIP, SHRM-CP , and Christopher Jacobs
3. Generational Diversity:?The workforce now spans multiple generations, each with its values, work habits, and technological proficiency. If managed effectively, this diversity can lead to a rich exchange of ideas and innovation, fostering a culture of belonging and enhancing the employee experience.? Helen Cooke , Milissa Ronayne, SHRM SCP, MA , and Thomas DePaolo ODCP, MBA .
4. Mental Health and Wellbeing as a strategic imperative to support cultural shifts: Organizations are rethinking their cultures to accommodate the changes brought about by technology, including more flexible work arrangements, remote working, and a focus on employee well-being.? Anthony Matejczyk , Stef Kuonen , Dana Scarcella

Volunteer Spotlight

Thanks to Staci Bender Epstein for her volunteer contributions to PSPS. Here's a bit more about her:

• Where she lives: Holland, PA
• Professional role and organization: Founder & CEO Be Group https://www.begroupconnects.com/
• PSPS Volunteer role(s): Membership Committee, Ambassador, Community Connections Committee
• Why she decided to volunteer: “Nancy Adams...ha! In all honesty, that is part of it, but we also work with a lot of Talent Acquisition and HR leaders in our everyday interactions. Learning about the challenges, sharing ideas, and networking amongst the HR community is super insightful, and it feels good.”
• What’s been most rewarding about being a PSPS volunteer: “Meeting incredible humans, sharing laughs, learning, and having a voice.”
• One thing you’re looking forward to in 2024 (personal or professional): “Business growth professionally, potentially being in a commercial and reading more, personally.”
• Fun fact(s): “I have fairy hair (glitter strands), I am 10 years old when it comes to my birthday, dance every day, obsessed with music, the color yellow, smiley faces + glitter”.

Thank you, Staci Bender Epstein for all you do to support PSPS!

Did You Know?

For our PSPS members only...

• Have you joined our LinkedIn Group? Here’s the link to join. Join us today!

Upcoming Events

December 4: 2024 Winter Social

December 10: PSPS Transition Group

Our website provides additional information about joining PSPS or becoming a sponsor.

Thank you to all of our annual sponsors.