I took some of this past week with my wife to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We’ve been married 26 years. Or possibly 27. Could be 28. We’re not really sure. You know you have an old love when you aren’t really sure and neither of you really cares. Just so long as we get to be together and it’s a nice bed and the food is good.
Anyway, in one of our home check ins, my 3rd year university daughter (Ella) shared a story that I thought you should hear.
Struggling to find or retain employees? Read on.
Ella works for a multi site chain. She loves her student job, fulltime in summer, part time in winter. Her close friend works for the same chain at another store and is quitting to work at her other job (she has two). So, I asked,
Me: Why is she leaving? Better money at the other job?
Ella: No, it’s just that her manager doesn’t care about her or the rest of the staff so it’s not a very nice work environment.
Me: Is her manager just too young and lacks the maturity for the job?
Ella: No, she’s an older lady, like over 50. (Wow, ancient of days in fact!)
Me: So, what does her lack of care look like?
Ella: She knows there are mean girls working as shift leaders and doesn’t do anything about it. Also, she never takes time to get to know her team. She doesn’t care about them.
Me: And why is your store so great?
Ella: Because our manager is AWESOME!! Full stop.
Now connect the dots between that story (repeated across the country) with a recent Gallup poll about employee engagement:
Gallup reported that while engagement scores actually increased during COVID, still about 20% of employees say they are engaged in their jobs. However, that number jumps to 70% when a team has a leader that cares and works to inspire their people.
Here was Gallup’s final recommendation to companies wanting to build high engagement cultures:
“Managers need to be trained to have more frequent meaningful and individualized conversations with employees. The reality is that most employees rarely have conversations with their managers. Nearly half (47%) of employees say they receive feedback from their manager a few times a year or less. But frequent strengths-based conversations open the door for managers to establish trust and to understand each person’s situation so that they can direct them to the right resources, accommodate them, develop them, and improve their overall lives.”
So not to put too fine a point on it, but I’ve been pounding this drum for years. I have a course on how to be a coach that you can find here:
https://learning.professionalleadershipinstitute.com/courses/108-performance-reviews
And even free templates that you can download and use immediately here:
https://learning.professionalleadershipinstitute.com/courses/108-performance-reviews
And
https://www.professionalleadershipinstitute.com/templates/coach-and-connect/
So, if people are the problem, look in the mirror and ask yourself how good a coach you are. In business as in sports, best team wins!
Trevor Throness is a speaker, consultant, and author of “The Power of People Skills.” He is also co-founder and senior instructor at www.professionalleadershipinstitute.com https://www.professionalleadershipinstitute.com/
Find more about “The Power of People Skills” here: https://www.amazon.com/Power-People-Skills-Dramatically-Performance/dp/1632651068
