Josh's Weekly Insights - Dec. 3, 20205

“Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”

-Richard Branson

As many of my college football fans will be aware, today is the first day where new recruits can sign to join your team for the upcoming year. However, as modern day college fans know, just because someone signs with your team it doesn’t mean they will be there long term. People have all kinds of motivations for why they would choose one team over another: money, playing time, relationships with coaches, development, etc. However, once they get to campus sometimes those priorities change and they move on to other schools.

This is a great correlation to how businesses interact with their team members. Leaders often say, “We want to hire the best talent.” However, it is rarer to hear leaders talk about how they are developing that talent and fostering the growth of those players so they can become even more successful once they are on the team. This creates a paradox where we are hiring people, we expect to fit our team and drive success for our organization and then they are suddenly putting in their notice to pursue an opportunity with another organization.

What happened there? Are our recruiting efforts failing?

The simple answer is, we didn’t figure out their motivations and make sure we met those expectations. If we hire the best, those team members will want to grow their careers, develop their skills, be recognized/appreciated, and feel like they are making an impact. When we hire the best, we need to coach and train like we have the best. Too many leaders are not coaching be why they don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings. If you worry too much about hurt feelings, you miss the opportunity to create improvement.

Knowing the motivations of your team and helping them get better is a key step in sustained success for your organizations and teams.

Another issue I see leaders struggle with in this space is wanting the team members to to take ownership of their growth. While that is a very important component, I also want you to think back to when you first joined the workforce. Did you know exactly what skills and talents you brought to the table to help grow those skills? Did you know how you created more value for the people around you? Did you know exactly where you wanted to be in 5-10 years and what role you would be in? Most people would answer “no” to at least one of those questions which means they need help. They don’t know how to get further down the road until someone helps them see the path. So be that mentor and partner for your team members.

“How many of your team members do you have a growth plan with?” 

If you haven’t partnered with them to create growth plans for their future, I encourage you to do that now. You may be surprised at how that one step can help change your retention numbers.

Now get out there and crush your week!