I suspect we’ve all gotten a little tired of hearing about the Great Resignation.
But it’s still happening – and there are still important questions that need to be asked, even as you scramble to hire replacements.
WHY are they leaving you?
And WHY should they stay?
There’s an old old saying that “people leave managers, not jobs.” You can probably find proof of that in your own career.
What’s often not stated is that the reverse is also true: people stay because of their managers.
Your first-line and mid-level managers interact every day with the people on their teams. Which means they’re the ones who create the work experience for those individuals.
Will they stay or will they go? It’s up to those managers.
And if you’re an SMB – a small or mid-sized company – every one of your managers has an outsized and significant impact on the entire company’s culture – a much bigger impact than a manager in a larger organization.
The gap between being an individual team member and being a manager and leader is huge, as in, really, really big. Simply put, the skillset required for managing and leading is vastly different from the skillset required for being an individual team member.
Your first-line and mid-level managers need training right away. Not later, when they’ve moved up the corporate ladder and need remedial help to break bad leadership habits. Not when it’s too late and they’re already struggling and failing, and driving your best people to quit (hello, Great Resignation) and find work elsewhere with better leadership.
Early leadership training and support saves time and money and improves outcomes. It’s that simple.
Free resources!
First, a spreadsheet to calculate the actual cost of replacing a failing manager, which you can get here.
Second, a checklist of free or very-low-cost things you can do to develop leadership capacity right now, either for your managers or for yourself, which is here.