We’re all wondering why good employees leave. The cost of recruiting and retraining, combined with the loss of knowledge, can be devastating to any organization.
Thanks to the internet, key resources find other positions with relative ease. But it’s not just the easy access to other roles that compels your employees leave. That’s a bias we’ve created to rationalize key losses.
It’s more likely to be the company, its leadership and the culture itself.
Why Good Employees Leave
Here’s a hint. It’s because they see the truth
I’m always amazed at the great divide between executives and employees. Sure, execs may be friendly with their teams, even popular. Since when is popularity in a leaders’ job description?
Whenever I go into a new client, the first thing I do is to chat with the leaders. Then, I chat with the customers. Then, I chat with a broad sample of employees. Those 3 groups give me quite the insights and perceptions of the business.
In most cases, what the execs see and believe is very different from what the customers and employees see and believe. Welcome to bias. It is insidious!
The employees are usually in sync with the customers. The difference is that the employees also see and understand more of the business’ internal issues. Especially when it comes to leadership. And that’s why good employees leave.
Leaders Have No Secrets
That’s the real reason why good employees leave. They may not say it in their exit interviews (they’re biased to not rock the boat), but they know the truth. They see the underbellies of their leaders. The infighting and the lack of alignment, the self promotion and the ego. The lack of communication and caring.
From the CEO who changes his mind every day to the senior VP that is all about bullying to get ahead. The VPs and Directors that are stuck in their own ways, scattered, pushing their own personal agendas and just plain flying in, poking holes in everything and then heading out to that dinner with the big customer as they slap themselves on the back for their great achievements.
The reason why good employees leave is that they see and know the truth. They just don’t let you know they see it. They chat about it in the lunchroom and in their offices, shake their heads and wonder what’s to become of them and their colleagues. Then they quietly leave, without rocking the boat and telling you what they really know.
All the fuss about benefits and pay grades, fair evaluations and work spaces. Sure, those things are important. But as important as our bias says they are.
If you want to keep your employees, focus on giving them great leaders. Not just the person who has been there the longest, showed the most loyalty or been by your side forever. Those aren’t the qualities of great leaders.
The Bottom Line
Great leaders understand what makes humans excel and use that knowledge to lead.
Sure, employees like recognition and raises. But that’s not the key reason they stay, or go.
They stay because they see a team of leaders who are focused, aligned and who are more concerned about their people than they are their own popularity.
