Research shows that top employees don’t quit a job, they often quit their boss. With the economy on a hot streak, employees have more choices. Are you doing enough to keep them happy?
By CSD Staff
Why do employees leave their jobs? Study after study shows the main reason employees jump ship is a bad manager. And while you might think of a “bad boss” as one who has a hair-trigger temper, it’s rarely that extreme, said James Manktelow, coauthor along with Julian Birkinshaw of Mind Tools for Managers.
Bad and mediocre bosses usually have good intentions; they’re just poorly trained. But in times like these, they can’t afford to stay that way.
“Unemployment rates are incredibly low right now,” Manktelow said. “In a tight job market, you must do everything possible to create a company where employees want to stay. And you as a manager really do have a hand in almost every aspect of how your employees perceive their job—from how meaningful the work is to how stressed out they are to how supported and appreciated they feel.”
In other words, being a good boss is a tall order. Manktelow said management is an “unnatural act” because it requires us to behave in a way that goes against our innate desire to be in control and the center of attention. Doing a good job of it requires good training, the right tools and lots of feedback—and very few managers get these things.
Furthermore, Manktelow makes it clear that there’s no quick fix. Becoming a great boss requires lots of hard work and a vast and diverse array of skills.
Here are a few tips for what convenience stores can do to create the kind of workplace culture that will attract the best and brightest—and just as important, keep them from leaving.
Work effectively with people from different generations. While you shouldn’t overemphasize the differences between baby boomers, Generation X and Millennials neither is it a good idea to ignore them. For instance, if you are a baby boomer managing a group of Millennials, don’t resist their preference for working virtually or through microblogging sites (they think email is very old school), and be more proactive in giving recognition and praise.
Learn to listen carefully and intensely to employees. In their survey of more than 15,000 managers and professionals worldwide, the authors found that 65.9% of managers think careful listening is one of the most important methods you can use to understand and motivate people. It helps you understand what upsets the people who work for you so you can help clear these things away. It also helps you appreciate what excites and energizes them so you can help them shape their work in this direction.
Active listening—where you make a conscious effort to hear not only the words another person is saying, but to understand the complete message being sent—helps make employees feel heard. “Being a good listener to your employees doesn’t just happen,” Birkinshaw said. “You have to structure opportunities for this into the day.”
Give effective praise and recognition. The authors discovered that 54.8% of survey responders see giving praise as one of the most important ways of getting the best from their people. They also point out that research firm Gallup has identified significant increases in helpfulness, cooperation, punctuality, attendance and length of service associated with receiving regular praise.
Visit stores looking for opportunities to give praise. Be specific about what you’re praising and do it in an appropriate way—some people love public praise while others are embarrassed by it. And be sure that praise is honest and proportionate. Insincere praise will weaken trust.
Help people develop self-confidence. People want to feel good about themselves and their abilities, and they want to be successful at work. When you build your employees’ self-confidence, you’ll help them achieve both goals. “One good strategy is to create ‘mastery experiences’ for them.” Birkinshaw said. “You set small goals for employees that allow them to demonstrate to you and themselves that they have mastered a skill—then you can move on to set progressively harder challenges.
Learn how to give good feedback. In the authors’ survey, they found that 66.9% of respondents believe giving high-quality feedback is the most important thing you can do to develop good people. Yet it’s very easy to give feedback badly. If you do, it can backfire and damage your relationship with the people you are managing. The authors say you need to give feedback often—vastly preferable to saving it all for an annual review—and give more positive feedback than negative. With negative feedback, stick to hard facts and don’t generalize or you can leave an employee feeling aggrieved and angry.
Engage employee passion with transformational leadership. To get the very best work from someone, you must engage their passion and sense of meaning in life. This is what truly keeps people at their jobs. Birkinshaw cites the concept of transformational leadership, first introduced by James MacGregor Burns in his 1978 book, “Leadership.” He defined transformational leadership as a process where “leaders and their followers raise one another to higher levels of morality and motivation.”
Manktelow and Birkinshaw recommended four main directives for becoming a transformational leader: lead by example, stimulate people intellectually, help your people grow as individuals and inspire them with a compelling vision of the future.
Handle poor performance right away. Don’t let it fester. When you don’t deal with poor performers, it puts a lot of pressure on other team members. This can cause high performers to leave. No wonder the authors’ survey found that 57.7% of managers see dealing with poor performance effectively as a highly important management skill. Poor performance has two basic sources: low motivation and low ability. There are many ways to deal with the former, including smart job structuring, support, feedback and coaching.
“The same skills that collectively make a person a great boss also create a deeply engaging culture that nurtures and excites employees,” Manktelow said. “You might even call it an unquittable culture. This is the Holy Grail for any company and not just during times when a talent war is heating up. No company can outperform competitors if its employees just don’t want to be there.”
