The Great Resignation - Part 3: It’s All About The Leaders

Are you seeing what many of our clients are seeing -- a mass exodus within their organizations. People are swiftly leaving their jobs and moving to other companies. But why? In this 3-part series, we will be exploring this new movement. Part 1: What is it and why are people leaving | Part 2: You, as the Employee, what to consider | Part 3: You, as the Leader, how to retain talent

Transcript

Hey,

This is Lou with IONUS Whole Person Leadership Development and Coaching.

And thank you again for joining me for this episode of the Leader Manager podcast.

This is a special three-part series on the great resignation,

A movement that is spreading through the workforce.

This podcast is the final one in the series.

If you haven't yet listened to parts one and two,

I definitely encourage you to do so.

It explains the concept of the great resignation,

What it is,

What's going on,

And with the people and their jobs,

And ultimately you.

So I do encourage you to get started with those first.

Here in part three,

It's all about the leaders,

The ones at the root of it all,

The ones who so easily can create an environment that people want to be a part of or not.

Right now,

Employees are struggling with the current environment.

We're going to dive in and see what the leaders can do in this great resignation.

Okay,

Let's get started.

We all know what it feels like to be welcomed.

Our parents and our family welcomed us into this world,

Into their home,

Into their lives.

There's a lot of comfort that comes from feeling that we are welcomed,

Appreciated,

That people care about us.

There's a lot of strength within us that is created when we have this.

What about the workplace?

Many of us put more than eight hours of time each day at work.

Let's say you put in 10 extra emails after hours,

The weekends,

Your commute,

Powering through lunch,

All of that stuff.

Let's just assume 10 hours.

So maybe like 50 hours a week.

I know that might be actually less than what you're doing,

But let's go with this for right now.

With 50 hours and about nine hours of sleep,

This would leave you with only 55 hours of outside of work time.

This means that when you put in 50 hours,

You spend 48% of your waking hours at work.

You spend 48% of your life at work.

So let's say you're someone who actually puts in,

I don't know,

60 hours a week.

Then you're looking at 57% of your waking hours are spent at work.

More time than anywhere else in your life.

You're interacting with people at work.

The majority of your life you spend in the workplace and not at home with family or friends.

We all know what it feels like to not belong.

What it feels like when we feel no one cares about us.

When people don't care to take an interest in us.

When we feel left out.

What if you felt like this 48 to 50% of your waking life.

No wonder you would want out.

Why the hell would you want to put yourself through this?

When you have feelings like this,

The easiest option is to just get up and leave.

But it doesn't need to be like this.

You the one who's leading,

The one who manages people.

You can be the change that everyone around you so desperately is yearning for.

It truly is within reach to show up in a way that creates an environment of support.

An environment where people feel valued and appreciated.

And get this,

It costs no extra money.

The energy you put into this will pay back immeasurable amounts of dividends going forward.

Let me introduce you to Jason.

He's a senior director in a large global SaaS company and manages an organization of 230 employees across four different functional areas.

He's been at the company for four years and only eight months in this world.

The effects of COVID paired with the company's growth has prompted some organizational restructuring.

Ahead of this,

Jason is seeing so many people leave.

Both the company and his functional team.

He's doubting his abilities as a leader and can't help but feel that people are leaving because they feel he's not a competent leader.

As he looks at his peers,

He doubts he has the capabilities to be able to transition his teams through the organizational change.

Wrapped up into all of this,

Jason's feeling that he should also just leave his job.

The stress is just too much.

Many of the leaders we coach share Jason's same story.

Together with Jason,

This is what we did.

We took Jason through our leadership toolkit to help him identify how to build community and engagement with his employees and to halt the attrition.

Here are the focus areas of the leadership toolkit.

The first one is all about listening.

Learning how to listen.

For reals.

Listen with the goal of understanding what is being said.

The next one,

Developing empathy.

This isn't holding hands and crying together.

This is understanding other people's intentions and perspectives.

Valuing others' perspectives and approaching situations with an open mind.

The third one is creating a healthy workplace.

Making sure people have the knowledge,

Support,

And resources they need to do their jobs effectively.

Fourth one is understanding how your actions,

Behaviors affect the people around you.

Recognizing how your own limitations can help you see opportunities to leverage your team's strengths more clearly.

The next one is encouraging people to take action without exerting your authority.

The sixth one,

Creating a vision that looks beyond day-to-day realities and into the bigger picture.

The seventh one,

Tapping into your intuition and trusting your instincts to be able to lead confidently.

Next one is taking responsibility for your actions and performance of your team and being accountable for the role team members play in your organization.

The ninth one is committing to the personal and professional development of everyone on your team.

And ten,

Building a community via trust,

Camaraderie,

And fun.

At the onset of this tool,

Jason identified he needed to work on each and every one of these focus areas.

Together we invested the time and energy to be able to grow Jason to be a leader who can now confidently say he's creating a team of collaborative,

Engaged,

And motivated team members.

He's taken his leadership to the next level.

He sends weekly video messages.

He holds town halls with pertinent and value-added messages.

He taps into the needs of the team to bridge his vision and strategy to the pain it will solve for them.

He connects with each person in a way that demonstrates that he cares and he's invested in their well-being.

Now,

Feeling more capable,

More equipped,

More confident,

Jason is now able to see that he loves where he is and has no drive to leave his job.

All that people want is to have a sense of feeling welcomed and supported.

What if you had a manager who connected with you when listening?

They took an interest in what was important to you and how you ticked.

They understood what resources and tools you needed to be successful.

What if they tapped on you to use your strengths and actually knew what your strengths were?

What if they encouraged you to take risks and go for things?

What if they painted a picture of a vision that you actually wanted to be a part of and they were confident,

Not cocky?

They held people accountable.

They invested in your professional development and they created a team that you loved to be around and one that you would jump at the chance to help each other out.

It's possible you could be this manager.

You could be this leader.

How beautiful it would be to affect people's lives in this way.

And just a little sidebar,

A complimentary tool that helped Jason was the Change Curve tool.

You can find this one at ionuswpc.

Com forward slash change.

There are several golden nuggets in there to help employees through organizational changes.

The Great Resignation is a movement that has started and it will soon end.

But where will you be when it ends?

Will you be in a job that you love?

Will you have made the decision that was right for you?

For those of you who enlist a coach,

The chances of success and happiness become even more in reach.

And we are here to help.

Thank you for joining me for the series on the Great Resignation.

It's truly been an honor to share these thoughts and perspectives with you,

And I hope they help to provide you insight and reflections.

This is Lou with IONIS Whole Person Leadership Development and Coaching,

And thank you for joining me for this series on the Great Resignation within the Leader Manager podcast.

Thank you for listening.

Reach out to us.

Let us know how we can help you.

We're here to create leaders in your organization and within you.

Send us a note at coach at IONISWPC.

Com.

That's coach at IONISWPC.

Com.

Also check out our website,

IONISWPC.

Com.