Leaders and Employees Share Equal Responsibility
How does it feel at your organization? Are you experiencing anxiety because you’ve received more resignations from employees than usual? If so, you are not alone.
You’ve probably heard the recent phrase “The Great Resignation.” Employees decided that if their needs and wants weren’t met, they’d find another company that would be a better fit. Over 4 million people quit their jobs in April alone. Some want more pay. Others want to choose the environment of remote, in-person, or hybrid. Many recognized they didn’t feel appreciated or included and realized that they weren't passionate about their daily work.
Whether you have or haven’t yet experienced this, I want to share some tools for you as an employee and a leader so you can be a part of a culture where you belong.
The Reality (there are other items to add to this list, so for starters):
Employees want, need, and expect:
Safe physical environment
Compensation that’s fair with advancement opportunity
Psychological safety to speak up, ask questions and make mistakes without fear of repercussion or losing their job
Diversity of experience, thought and demographics
A sense of belonging
Leaders want, need, and expect:
Profit
Production/Results
Satisfied employees
High performers who stay
Three tips to employees:
1. Be honest – your employer cannot make things better for you and your peers if they don’t have at least an idea of what’s making you (and/or your peers) unhappy. Let people know what you need. Maya Angelou taught us that people will treat us the way we train them to treat us…
2. Look in the mirror – if you’re being honest, what role might you, yes you, be playing in your state of discontent? How can you use your skills and your own power to shift?
3. Be a rubber band – STRETCH! – Yes, stretching hurts. When we allow ourselves to stretch, we discover our ability beyond previous limits. We feel better and we do better.
Three tips to leaders:
1. Lead with your heart first, then your head. In the book 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell (over one million copies sold) one law that I want to share today is The Law of Connection. A principal worth noting is that it’s the leader’s job to initiate connection with the people. The benefit? Loyalty, a strong work commitment and a feeling of value and belonging. Another reminder worth noting in the chapter is: You can’t move people into action unless you first move them with emotion.
2. Conduct consistent inclusive team meetings- Team meetings should include the following elements:
· Updates on production and activity
· Discussions on challenges (including collaborative brainstorming on solutions) and successes (not only what the success was but how it occurred so the success can be repeated)
· Skill development opportunity
Employees should leave meetings feeling that the time was well spent.
Guess what? You don’t have to have the sole responsibility to run the meeting. In fact, you can delegate some components of the meeting to others and rotate responsibility. The benefit? People feel included and valued.
3. Conduct consistent one to one meetings – Leaders indicate that they don’t have consistent one to one meetings not because they don’t want to, but they just…don’t have time. Please realize that your greatest asset is your people and if you don’t convey that by spending time with them, well…resignations and the pain and cost of hiring to replace becomes a reality. The benefit? Your team has a safe space to be real. They trust you.
· Schedule at least one 15 minute meeting/week with your direct reports weekly, consistently. Put it on both of your calendars.
· These conversations (rather than meetings) will allow you to discover not only what they are doing (productivity) but how they are doing-the emotion mentioned above. You will find out about their well-being. Listen! Listen to understand, not respond. And...don't judge. You don't have to agree, you only need to listen and understand.
· Share some information about you, too. Allow yourself to STRETCH and be vulnerable.
A great question for you to ask (not every week but occasionally), is “what makes you stay at our company” or “what do you like best about our company” and if you really want to get bold, ask “if you had to change one thing about our company to make it better, what would it be?”
Leaders and employees share equal responsibility. Lead forward, move forward, together!
Let me know how I can help you to increase connection with your team.
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Announcement:
I’m excited to let you know that I’m wrapping up an online course appropriate for you as a leader and your other leaders, as well as your employees “Journey to Growth to Understand Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI)”. This self paced course will eliminate confusion and clarify terminology, and provide tools to conduct inclusive conversations so that your employees feel that they belong and want to remain a part of your company.
More to come.
If you read through this letter it validates that we are on this journey together. Thank you!
Let me know how I can help you with tools to become an even more effective leader.
I'm looking for more individuals like you, who are committed to cross the bridge from where they are, and take the right steps to narrow gaps...at work, at home and in the community.
Connect with me on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/michellebeauchamp
Like our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/thechampgroup
Make today matter. Let's cross the bridge together to learn.grow.succeed.
