By Sherif Attar
In a world of ever-changing ambiguity and uncertainty, executives have to face two challenges: excellent performance and people development. Where many managers think those endeavours are “competing”, this author believes they are “completing”. GET DOWN TO BUSINESS argues.
How to keep valued team members?
Which members of your team would you miss most if they left tomorrow? And what makes them so valuable? Chances are, they have experience regarding how the organisation works, highly competent, efficient, organised and with excellent soft skills.
But what if you notice signs that some of your leading people feel their futures lie elsewhere? Consequences are loss of knowledge, disruption, low morale, and the time and effort wasted recruiting and training replacements.
Understanding how to avoid that happening is critical to keeping valued team members happy, effective and engaged.
This is a step-by-step approach to help avoid that situation.
Step 1: Identify the warning signs
The sooner that you detect that someone might be thinking of leaving, the better chance you have of changing their mind. Always be on the look-out for these significant changes in the behaviour of your team:
• Impatience, with people or tasks.
• Disengagement from the team.
• Venting of negative feelings.
There are particular times in the calendar year when you need to be especially alert to changes in people’s attitudes. During summer vacations, they may be prompted to rethink their situation.
Step 2: Understand possible problems
Of course, it can often be difficult to link the symptoms of unhappiness with their underlying causes. However, there are several tools that can help you understand why someone might want to leave a job.
• According to influential researcher, Frederick Herzberg, people become dissatisfied with their jobs when certain “hygiene factors” are not provided.
• Salary is traditionally given as an example of a job hygiene factor. However, relationships with supervisors – will often be more important.
• Lack of “motivating factors” need to be in place. Typical motivators are the content of work itself, recognition of effort, and the availability of growth opportunities.
• People are motivated to work harder when they feel that the effort they put in will lead to a certain performance level, and in turn, lead to a desirable outcome.
• So, look for situations in which that link between effort and outcome has been broken.
Step 3: Talk to your team member
Time to have a friendly chat with your team member. Use informal, open questions, in a private, one-to-one session.
Step 4: Fixing the issue
Work on a plan to improve the situation together. Try to find a solution which plays to your valued team member’s particular strengths. This can often be more profitable for both the person and the organisation than focusing on eradicating weaknesses in performance. Help team members define exactly what their strengths are, helping them to go even further with their current job.
Prevention is better than cure
In the long term, remember that there are a number of things you should be doing on an ongoing basis to keep people engaged, productive and happy:
• Build trust in the team.
• Create job satisfaction.
• Reward your team!
Understanding that these kinds of factor do exist, and that you can’t do anything about them, will help you manage these departures so that they minimise the impact on other key players. Explain the situation to your team to keep the rest of your valued team members on board.
For questions or suggestions, please send your comments.
Sherif Attar, an independent management consultant/trainer and organisation development authority, delivers seminars in the US, Europe, Middle East and the Far East.
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