I’ll say it now…

Loyalty isn’t a one way street.

And because you’re in a leadership position, in order to reduce employee turnover, you’re actually in the spot where you have to move first on this one…

What you sell to your employees is what they return to you. That’s how it works. And if you want your employees to care about your dream then you’ve got to show them that you care about theirs too.

When I joined the Navy I remember the commercials on television inviting me to get valuable technical knowledge and experience, see the world, and save money for college. By all measures I was a good sailor always receiving 4.0 marks.

After finishing school I was offered a position as an instructor at a nuclear power plant and advanced quickly…

At about the six year mark (I had previously extended to an eight year enlistment) I was asked by the Chief of the Boat when I was going to re-enlist…

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that he didn’t like that I was sold on getting out of the Navy to get my degree. My dream didn’t match up with his dream or the Navy’s retention goals.

My plans didn’t include a career in the Navy…

The submarine force has a very high divorce rate and it’s extremely challenging to be a father when you’re under water. For me, my future was outside the Navy. I was going to be an excellent sailor while I was in, and change jobs when my contract ended…

The COB didn’t like hearing that…

Develop True Relationships with Your Employees

I have always remembered that moment and from that experience grew one of the main tenants of my leadership style.

Since that day it has always been acceptable for my employees to talk about their dreams for their futures with me, even if those dreams didn’t include working in my company for the rest of their lives. I welcome employee turnover when a person is moving on to pursue their true passion.

One of the ironies that I continue to find in the minds of business owners is that it’s perfectly acceptable for them to have and work toward their dreams and goals, but for some inexplicable reason business owners expect their employees to leave their dreams and goals at home when they come to work each day…

It’s as if the business owner would prefer to have a team of automatons working for them. This perspective is a driver for high employee turnover. When you hire an employee, the whole person walks through the door every day when they come to work.

I’ve had employees tell me straight to my face that they wanted to own a company in my industry, and I’ve never let that concern me. I’ve long known that unfortunately very few employees will put in the work that’s necessary to become my competitor.

Quite frankly, this observation is why you hear so many business leaders say that they don’t worry about whether or not someone knows their strategy. The real secret is in the culture and execution and both take real work.

By being interested in my employees’ personal dreams and goals I’m able to develop a relationship with them that shows them they’re safe with me. An employee that feels safe at a company doesn’t hate their boss, and doesn’t quit for that specific reason.

That feeling of safety is key to reducing employee turnover. And that’s all I’m going to say about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

My interest in my employee’s dreams and plans for their careers stems from other interests, and not just personal experience. I’ve found that employees who feel safe, valued, and aligned with a company stay much longer. Longer tenured employees are much more knowledgeable and efficient, and therefore – profitable.

As a business owner, I’m very interested in employee alignment and profit.

Your interests in your employees’ dreams and goals must be a genuine part of your leadership style. When you genuinely care about people they tend to be far more receptive to listening to your ideas because you have rapport. Employees become more open to listening to you and aligning with your thinking when they feel they’re accepted for who they are. This is straight out of How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Think about the number of times a person has handed you, or one of your managers, a resignation letter and said, “I’ve been offered another job.”

Offered?

Really?

Just out of the blue? Especially over the last few years?

Don’t get me wrong. It does happen. But it doesn’t happen 50% of the time!

As a leader, when you genuinely invest in your employees’ dreams and goals, they reciprocate by investing in your dreams and goals through their performance in their jobs. It’s called the law of reciprocity…

You gave to them, so they feel compelled to give to you. When you care about your employees they’ll follow you and do just about anything you ask, within reason. When a person feels safe and valued, they don’t go job hunting.

When a person says they were “offered” a job at another company what they really mean to say is that they no longer feel aligned, safe, or valued by you or your company…

And when you dig up the rest of the truth, they tell you they responded to a job posting on the internet. They were job hunting because they were looking for a better cultural fit.

You’ve heard it said many times, but just to be sure, here it is again. People don’t leave companies, they leave managers.

I’ve had employees work for me at half their industry peer’s wages for almost two years in a company that was fighting every day to pay its bills. They did this because we had an authentic relationship. I knew what their real dreams were, personally and professionally.

During that time my employees certainly had enough financial incentive to quit, but my leadership style allowed them to feel a strong cultural fit and so I enjoyed very low employee turnover.

I’m not the only one who’s crazy…

How should you go about developing this sort of rapport with your employees?

Previously when I’ve given this advice to business owners they’ve responded that it’s not their job to become their employees’ friends. And I’m not suggesting that you should be having beers with them over the weekend. However, you should develop your employees, and the best way to enable that is to develop a relationship with them.

Gary Vaynerchuk embraces this concept so completely that he starts working on it in the interview before the person ever starts working for him…

His goal during an interview is to get the candidate so comfortable that they’ll give him an authentic answer when he asks about where they see themselves in two or three years. Gary may spend 2 or 3 hours talking to the candidate before he gets to this question. VaynerMedia has quickly grown from zero to over 500 employees and counting.

“I don’t care if you want to be the CEO of VaynerMedia, if you just want to move a couple levels up and have great work life balance. I don’t care if you even wanna come here and even work here for two years, suck out my IP, and then go start your own agency. I don’t care what your agenda is. I just wanna know what it is so I can help us get there, because the truth is I wanna keep people in my ecosystem forever and the best way to do that is to deliver to them what they want. So the quicker I can get into that insight: are you work-life balance; are you money hungry; are you title hungry; are you entrepreneurial and just coming in here for learnings? I don’t care. I just need to know, and the quicker I know, the quicker it’s the truth, the quicker we can do things together forever.” Gary Vaynerchuk, #AskGaryVee

Gary is seeking an authentic relationship with his team from the start. An authentic relationship with your employees is the granite foundation that has the greatest impact on your staff turnover, and upon which you’ll build a successful business.

Think for a minute about the show Undercover Boss. The show is enjoyed by millions. Many people tune in because their favorite part is when the CEO sits down and makes investments and commitments to the dreams of his or her employees at the end of the show…

Something special happens when a leader takes that step. And if you’ve watched the show even a handful of times you know CEOs often help their employees pursue dreams that don’t have anything to do with their job or the business they’re in at that moment…

I’m not suggesting that you go out and fund a different employee’s college education every other month or even that you give overly large one-time bonuses. But ask yourself what things you could do.

Get creative.

Could you introduce them to a mentor in their dream career? How about introducing flex time to accommodate their college schedule? What about writing a letter of recommendation for them to get into college? Is there a well-deserved, long overdue raise that would help? What if you brought in a life coach to give training to your employees to help them learn how to manage and save money?

Value the Whole Person

Chances are you know a lady who’s purchased a pair of shoes from Zappos. This is another fine example of a company that embraces the whole employee regardless of their long-term professional vision for themselves as a way of reducing staff turnover.

As part of its employee benefits program Zappos provides an on-site life coach that employees can schedule time with. This coach helps the employee set and work on goals whether they’re related to Zappos’ business or they’re personal goals…

They’ve actually had employees leave to pursue other careers as a result of this coaching.

The core value at Zappos that makes this a possibility is that the company accepts and wants their employees to fulfill their higher purpose. And they want their employees to be able to be themselves when they’re at work. They have found that being open about personal dreams and goals ensures a good cultural fit.

I encourage you; I dare you, to add this approach to your leadership style and elevate your level of interest in your employees. Don’t worry, not all of your employees will want this sort of connection with you. Reserve any one-to-one attention for only those employees who perform at a level that justifies it, even if their dream is to leave your company.

As you’re walking around in your business, touching base with your various employees over the next year, what if you found one person every couple of months that could benefit from your personal coaching? And what if you gave them 30 minutes of coaching every four to six weeks? What would the return on your investment look like for that time?

First of all, you’d be a more fulfilled human being. The energy that you’d get out of those sessions and results would be incredible.

Second, you’d get a damned good employee out of it for no matter how long they stay with you. Their attitude would be uplifting. Their alignment and investment in your business would be top shelf. You’d have an evangelist who would tell all of the other employees how much Mrs. Business Leader loves and cares about her employees.

Third, it’s much easier to move your business toward its goals when you have alignment at this level. Your team will be truly invested in achieving goals. In fact, going after goals will be a lot more fun and feel a whole lot less like work.

Fourth, that 30 minutes you spend with those employees will come back to you in the form of a more smoothly run business with better quality and customer satisfaction. Your employees should never think that they’re less valuable to you than your clients. This approach will address that.

Fifth, by elevating yourself to a mentor-like level no employee that you’re connected with in this manner will leave by surprise. They’d never dream of doing such a thing to you. You’ll have plenty of notice so that when they do leave, you’ll be able to select and groom their replacement. Your business won’t skip a beat because you’ll have the ability to plan for employee turnover.

There isn’t anybody walking that doesn’t want to work for a leader that cares about their people. Employees that work for those kinds of managers don’t get “offered” better jobs. This isn’t a carrot and stick leadership style. This is a very hands-on approach to employee turnover and motivation.

And from a financial perspective, you can’t go wrong. This approach will show up on your bottom line in all sorts of ways including efficiencies and reduced training costs.

Leave a comment here

comments