September 9, 2021
It’s inevitable we’ll have churn at the executive levels over the next several months, but what’s our *bigger* opportunity in this? Though the Forbes article below is about retention, my heart tells me that – whether we’re planning to stay or go – all leaders who care about their employees, customers and partners (btw, that’s all of us!) should be thinking in the direction articulated in the article.
** Social responsibility is becoming as much of a measure of a company’s success as profitability – it’s a differentiator for talent, and it’s a differentiator for consumers. **
More than ever, stakeholders look to leaders in the business for guidance on values and ethics. That includes an expectation that we create sustainable work environments and clearly message (and walk the talk) of our core values.
The Forbes article cites Trust, Transparency, and Empathy as three variables senior leaders must authentically create in their organizations to be successful at retaining their teams. Team members will still move on to new opportunities. I support that; it’s healthy. But the time has come where our teams want and expect to align to something that’s more than a paycheck and a gold watch after 30 years. They want meaning… and they want to feel (generally) aligned with the values their companies support. This gets tricky when employees disagree, for instance, when a company develops technology that supports activities of war. But if we keep the conversations focused on the core ideologies of how we treat our teams and our suppliers — our VALUES — we’ll soon see that profits don’t have suffer deeply (if at all)… and even if employee growth results in employees growing into roles in other companies, then we’ve still created a Winning Culture with higher productivity, stronger ambassadors when employees move out of the company, and higher referral rates for strong talent joining our team.
Moving on? Staying for the long haul? Doesn’t matter… you still want to do right by your teams and your business partners. Working every day to make your company’s value systems more transparent brings meaning to the work your people do (with or without you in six months). Show them we’re all here for something bigger – with or without the gold watch. #futureofwork
Article: How The CEOs Can Keep Their People Through The Great Resignation