The Great Retention Intention

At AchieveUnite, we are helping companies turn The Great Resignation into The Great Retention.

From our experience, we know The Great Retention starts with intentional leadership across all levels of your organization.

Did you know that managers account for 70% of the variance in employee and team engagement and employee satisfaction?

What’s more: It’s estimated that 63% of employees who are dissatisfied with leadership leave their companies within 12 months.?

Poor leadership accelerates turnover, which significantly impacts the profitability, culture, and overall success of our companies and ecosystems. ???

Through our research and interactions with leaders, we know the following: ?

• The cost of hiring and onboarding employees has never been higher.?
• Hiring in the tech industry is beginning to slow, and the conversations about a pending recession are increasing. However, there are still a significant number of entry-level and mid-level jobs available on LinkedIn and Indeed.
• Culture, talent development, mission, work-life balance, and compensation are significant factors for role selection and retention. All factors require strong leadership and management.??
• Getting new hires up to speed takes time and investment. On average, it takes 3-12 months for new employees to become fully productive, so we don’t want to make mistakes in hiring, and we don’t want to lose these employees once they are in the door.
• Succession planning is critical and hard to do well, especially when an organization is marked by turnover.

The bottom line is studies show that highly engaged teams see a 41% reduction in absenteeism and 59% less turnover. As a leader, this is what we want to achieve. To do that, we must set the tone for our teams. By adopting five simple habits, we can build dynamic, long-lasting teams that drive value for organizations.

Here are Five Habits of Intentional and Successful Leaders

1. Understand Your Why

A study of frontline managers revealed that only 15% believe they are living their purpose at work. Though a shockingly low number, it’s really not surprising when we consider that few leaders truly understand their why.?

To lead others effectively, we must understand why we do what we do, what fuels us, and what our core values are. Our ACE: Leadership by Influence program is an intimate and interactive experience that takes individuals on a journey of self-discovery to help them learn to apply their strengths, find their voice, and uncover their why.

Once we’re clear on our why, we’ll want to go through the same exercise with our teams. It’s important for our organizations to know its why and for our leaders, employees, and partners to understand their cascading whys.?

2. Lead Authentically

Employees who are led by authentic leaders have a greater emotional connection with their organizations and display higher levels of productivity and engagement. Authenticity begins with self-awareness and is essential to a high-trust culture. The deeper we understand our values and behaviors – the more authentic we become.?

It’s important to spend time daily reflecting on our values and behaviors. Here are a few guiding questions:

• What are my strengths??
• What are NOT my strengths?
• Do my workplace behaviors align with my values??
• What changes do I need to make to align my values?
• How well do I build trust?

3. Build Trust

Trust is foundational to the long-term retention and success of our employees. Employees who don’t trust their leaders are more likely to leave and have lower levels of productivity. In contrast, employees at companies where trust is high report 76% greater engagement and 50% more productivity. To intentionally cultivate trust within our teams, practice the following:

• Be Available: We’ve established our whys and now it’s time to build collaborative plans to jointly achieve our goals. Set aside time for team and individual huddles. These authentic conversations and interactions are invaluable when building trusting relationships.?
• Be Open: Set clear project/role expectations with employees and give them the autonomy to execute.?
• Be Supportive: Leaders who leave room for failure make room for growth. Supportive leaders encourage innovative and collaborative learning environments.
• Lean into difficult conversations. Conflict is hard and we must learn how to handle these conversations productively and depersonalize them as much as possible.

4. Practice Inclusivity

Employees today are sending loud and clear messages that they want – and expect – inclusion to be honored and practiced in their organizations. They want to belong to a company that offers psychological safety and promotes diversity in all forms. And these employees are throwing their support behind relatable, fallible leaders who admit when they’re wrong, are open about their values, and care about all people.

We know it’s hard to know where to begin, and our ACE: Inclusive Leadership by Influence program and interactive workshops are specifically designed to help leaders and their teams along this journey.

5. Lead Through Change

Change is the new constant, and as leaders, we are responsible for being change champions within our teams and organizations. As people managers, we must translate the meaning behind the change and help our teams thrive within what often feels like chaos.?

At AchieveUnite, we are actively helping vendor, distributor, and partner teams navigate change with our?ACE: Leadership by Influence - Change Management program. This program helps leaders understand the art and science of change management and equips them with actionable tools and best practices to manage change across their team and organization.?

Are you ready to shift from The Great Resignation to The Great Retention by building intentional trusted leadership teams? Let’s connect!