Don't Be Resigned To The Great Resignation

The article, "Don't Be Resigned To The Great Resignation" is part of LinkedIn's Newsletter Series. To get weekly insights hit the "subscribe" button above. This article was first published in HR.com . By: Julie Winkle Giulioni and Marti Konstant

3 Conversations to Inspire Retention

It’s Not Too Late

The past 18 months have ushered in some of the most profound business shifts and stressors experienced in our generation. The effects on employees and the workplace are equally profound. The global pandemic has forced people to deal with life and death decisions. Many have gained a new appreciation for the value of family. We’ve found a new pace and ways of working that don’t demand in-person interactions. In the process, many employees are finding that long-standing priorities around work and careers are shifting.

The result? Businesses globally are beginning to see evidence of what researchers have been predicting for some time: a pronounced shift in the power dynamic related to staffing and employment. Between the number of employees who are choosing not to return to their previous jobs (a large portion of which are women) and those who are considering leaving (up to?40% , depending on the research), employers are finding themselves scrambling to attract and retain the talent they need.

Retention has become a key strategic priority for many businesses. Organizations are exploring and implementing remarkable programs and initiatives to avoid unwanted turnover and recruit the best and the brightest. Significant signing and staying bonuses. Flexible working arrangements. Rich relocation packages. Extravagant gifts and teambuilding experiences. They all acknowledge that business continuity and success rest with their people.

The Power of Conversations?

While it’s easy to look to organizational programs as the solution, leaders and managers possess the most powerful tool for addressing this problem. It’s the relationships they build with others; and those relationships play out through conversation. While any positive, constructive conversation can ultimately build that important human connection, there are three conversations that can inspire employee confidence, motivation, and loyalty.??

That’s why leaders need to facilitate:

• The ‘What About the Future?’ Conversation?which helps employees envision their positive future within the organization.
• The ‘Mentorship and Development’ Conversation?which addresses the reality that development remains a top priority for most employees and endeavors to identify ways to make it happen.?
• The ‘Purpose at Work’ Conversation?which focuses on the pressing need for employees to do work that matters, that is in alignment with a set of personal values, made more visible due to the pandemic challenges of the past year.

These conversations provide an opportunity to connect deeply with others – around meaningful issues. They allow leaders to demonstrate their humanity and concern for employees. They surface important information that can be used to craft a more satisfying employee experience. And they create the conditions that allow organizations to retain their only sustainable competitive advantage: their people.

Conversation #1 – The ‘What About the Future?’ Conversation

"Make your future bigger than your past."

—Dan Sullivan

Study after study confirms the fundamental importance of career development. Simply stated, the ability to learn and grow is a key factor driving people’s employment decisions. Employees who can envision a positive future for themselves in an organization are inclined to stay and see those possibilities through. Those who can’t make very different choices.?

As a result, leaders who want to retain, engage, and develop talent work to paint an ever-evolving – and exciting – picture of what tomorrow may bring, with the employee right in the center of it. And the artistic medium through which they accomplish this is conversation.

Conversations that Matter

Ongoing dialogue is a powerful tool for sparking reflection, connection, and insights. Open, honest conversations with employees surface important information about their hopes, dreams, and vision of the future. Digging beyond ‘where do you see yourself in 3-5 years?’ to explore more fundamental questions around what kind of work employees want to be doing helps leaders understand what an enticing future looks like for the individual.

Of course, this personal snapshot must be considered within the context of the broader business landscape. Profound internal and external forces are at play, defining the space within which productive career development is possible. As a result, a regular cadence of ‘big picture’ conversations is critical as well. An understanding of the organization’s strategies and challenges, changing market conditions, economic and other pressures lay a breadcrumb trail to the future, allowing employees to envision and prepare for what’s to come. Or, in the words of ice hockey star Wayne Gretzky, to “…skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been.”

Balance the Big Picture and Closeup Views

With a shared picture of the future – both from a personal and business perspective – leaders and employees are well-suited to co-create concrete yet flexible plans to bridge the gap between today and tomorrow. Collaborative plans that are owned by the employee and supported by the leader are key to success. Additional keys include frequent check-ins to ensure ongoing attention and progress, help with challenges that arise, and prompt recalibration when conditions or interests change – to ensure that the future continues to be (and feel) bright.

Want to launch a ‘What About the Future?’ conversation with your employees? Consider these starter prompts:

• Where do you see yourself contributing most when you envision our organization’s future?
• What kind of work do you look forward to doing?
• In what ways would you like to grow and develop to prepare for your vision of the future?

Conversation #2 – The Mentorship and Development Conversation

"A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself."

—Oprah Winfrey

If you reach out and tell one person you believe in them, you can change your world; you might even change their world. Employees who feel seen and heard are more likely to stay at an organization than those who feel lost in the shadows of irrelevance.?

The definition of a mentor is a ‘trusted counselor or guide.’ Many people think of Yoda from the Star Wars movies when yearning for the sage advice of someone who cares for your success.?

Mentorship is the Great Equalizer?

Equal access to moments of inquiry and interest will help organizations identify additional pockets of human potential in their ranks. When you express interest or tap someone on the shoulder for a strategic project, you enable individuals to flourish on a playing field that is inclusive, rather than exclusive.?

However, managers don’t know how to get started. They wait for an official program with a formal mentor/mentee assignment structure. They miss the idea of informal mentor conversations and the different types of mentors.

Here are examples of different kinds of mentors: peer, reverse, situational, a guide on the side, teacher-student, and a boss who believes. A mentor conversation can start with a situational question by the mentee, ‘How can I run a program like you did last year?’ Or it can be with a peer who helps you sort through a problem with your boss.

Similar to the tap on the shoulder, the conversation can be prompted by an invitation, ‘I think you will make a significant contribution to this project.’

The Call for Inclusive Mentorship

Leaders often cater to the chosen ones, known as the high potentials. What about the people not on the list who will flourish when a manager notices their contribution and asks what’s important to them? What about the gifted thinkers and doers who will benefit from some belief elixir??

The velvet rope of attention discrimination can loom large when some employees earn the coveted spots for coaching or professional development and others feel the pain of being left out.

How to Get Started

Mentor conversations will result in an ‘I believe in you’ culture. Here are the steps:

• Recognize your own mentorship and moments when others helped you.
• Understand what it means to be a mentor; start with one question.
• Notice the people around you and answer the following questions. Who managed a great project? Who is struggling? Who is ready for a growth spurt?

You can fine-tune your observation skills by noticing people within your department or across the organization. Some sample questions to incorporate:

• How are you doing?
• What was your favorite project?
• How can I help?

These important moments of mentorship and learning can change lives and ensure the success of an organization. Employees stay with a company when they are noticed, are given encouragement, and receive feedback.

Conversation #3 – The Purpose at Work Conversation

"Find out who you are and do it on purpose." —Dolly Parton

The quote from Dolly Parton is a play on words for the purpose conversation. Yet her admonition to “know who you are” is a highly relevant element of purpose and personal brand.

Aaron Hurst, the author of the?Purpose Economy, suggests purpose is the foundation for organizational growth and is dependent on people finding their personal and professional purpose. He believes the information economy is holding the door open for the purpose economy, as an avenue toward meaning and connection.?

Much like the ‘future conversation’ mentioned earlier, purpose conversations find their balance in matching employee roles with individual needs and goals. Personal branding exercises uncover your purpose, the intersection of natural talents and personal preferences. These are not visible on an organizational chart.?

Purpose is Beyond Your Title

The goal is to move beyond the titles, as they are a disservice to understanding what people are good at AND what they like doing. Employees who have defined their personal brand can elevate the corporate cause while increasing motivation. People make effective contributions in an organization when their values and talents are aligned with their career path.?

Branding exercises and the purpose conversations include five basic questions:

• Who are you?
• What matters to you?
• What problem do you solve?
• How are you different? (Include your signature strengths or superpowers)
• What difference are you making?

A Purpose Story

By asking questions you can capture individual stories within an organization. Here is one woman’s purpose story about a flight from Chicago to Denver. She waited with 300 passengers to board a delayed flight. The flight was in danger of being canceled because they were missing a flight attendant. There were 300 reasons why people wanted to make it to Denver.

She informed the gate agent she was an off-duty flight attendant for the airline, accompanying her elderly wheelchair-bound mother to Denver. She navigated through several layers of red tape, as the clock was ticking, before being allowed to work. Her uniform was fortunately packed in her travel bag. Her values of ‘always be prepared,’ ‘resourceful in the face of uncertainty,’ and commitment to passenger travel schedules enabled the flight to depart one hour later. She juggled the dual duty of caring for her mother and the rest of us during the flight. Her smile shone brightly on a planeload of grateful travelers.?

The flight attendant’s resourceful actions smartly reflected the airline values of following safety procedures and dedication to passenger plans. Her individual efforts made a big difference.

Curious about her efforts, I asked a question about her career. She responded, “I love helping people during times of uncertainty and stress.” Purpose in action. As a 20-year employee, she advocates for the corporate mission every day. Wouldn’t it be great if her manager also knew her values and was able to cultivate this mindset due to constructive conversations? She would be a tremendous resignation loss to an airline that needs devoted frontline employees.

To Keep Them, Prepare Them to Leave

As the title of the article states, you don’t have to be resigned to the great resignation. You can retain people by investing in them so:

• They can see their future.?
• They can be mentored and offer mentorship to others.
• They feel a sense of purpose.

One of the recurring responses when you ask people about how they advanced in their careers is a reference to mentorship conversations like, “she saw something in me I did not see in myself.” Another’s belief in you has the power of multiplying the impact of your work and fortifying your motivation.

When you invest in employees, they are vested in their roles. As recruiter Jeff Hyman says, “You need to help them advance in their career, master new skills, and help them build their confidence.” Given the shift in personal employee values over the last 18 months, now is the time to listen and learn and engage in regular thoughtful conversations. This will result in an increase in employee staying power, rather than resignations.

Author Bios

Marti Konstant?is a Workplace Futurist, Job Search Strategist, and best-selling Author of?Activate your Agile Career. She is a keynote speaker and trainer on the future of work and career agility, a phrase she coined ten years ago.?Visit?www.martikonstant.com ? Connect?Marti Konstant

Julie Winkle Giulioni?is an Author, Consultant, and Speaker on leadership and career matters. She co-authored the international bestseller,?Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go?and is the author of?Promotions Are So Yesterday?(to be released March 2022.)?Visit?www.juliewinklegiulioni.com Connect?Julie Winkle Giulioni

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