Enticing Talent to Stay

You've heard it said: "People join organizations, but quit their bosses." It's true. A recent study by global analytics firm Gallup found that a whopping 75 percent of those who left their job voluntarily in 2024 did so because of a "bad boss." Talented people have options, and they take advantage of those options when they do not feel valued in their workplaces. Managers who don't invest in and develop their talented people suddenly find themselves left with less talented employees and are still held responsible for meeting and/or exceeding their performance standards for organizational success. With this in mind, it is imperative that mangers also become leaders (or "leading managers") who inspire their people to engaged results while enticing them to stay and thrive in their roles.

Compliance vs. Engagement

Managers of all sorts gain compliance from their employees as long as those employees wish to keep their jobs. Often, however, their employees do the minimum to check their tasks off as "completed." Minimal investment not only breeds minimal results, but it also leads to turnover, as uninspired employees seek engagement somewhere else. Those who stay continue to do the minimum, creating a vicious cycle of weak results from disenfranchised employees. 

Today's leading managers need to develop their talented people and unlock what inspires and engages them. And not in the Theory Y, "A happy worker is a productive worker" way, either. Happiness is a wonderful by-product of engagement but there are people who are happy to do as little as possible to remain employed. Engagement, true engagement, means striving for one's best even when the tasks is significantly challenging. 

While some people say running, "They took the worst part of practice and made it a sport," tens of thousands of people run marathons every year around the globe. Marathon runners will often talk about the moment they hit the proverbial wall (somewhere between mile 18 and 20 are common answers). When asked if they finished, most exclaim, "Of course!" So, what got them from mile 18 to 26.2 (especially when many of us wouldn't even run the remaining 8.2 miles)? Engagement! Pushing through the difficulty because the end goal is so important. When leading managers find ways to engage their people in the same way, it's amazing what people are able to accomplish. 

Motivation—It Must Be More Than Just Money 

Managers often think that money is the best motivator, and it is under one of two conditions: 

1. The employee doesn't have enough money to get by. 
2. The employee views the amount of money as worth the effort in the short term. 

People will always take more, if offered, but employers can't keep upping the ante as raises and bonuses quickly become the new normal after only a few weeks (not to mention that it's an unsustainable endeavor). Paying people enough to match their talent levels and outcomes simply becomes a satisfier for them. Engagement requires more. 

Unlocking Engagement

So, what is a leading manager to do to engage employees and convince them to stay and thrive? It's complicated. There isn't a silver bullet that kills every werewolf, as each employee has his or her own individual drives and ambitions. 

The following ideas are often successful: 

• Immediately recognize a job well done, specifically providing why. 
• Ask employees what they would do in given situations—people bring the most energy to their own ideas. (When you go with their ideas, they own the outcomes.)
• Periodically hold stay interviews. Tell them how important they are to the organization and ask what can be done (other than more money) to retain them and their talents. 
• Provide opportunities to shine beyond their job description duties (through delegation or challenging opportunities).
• Offer training to grow their skills and learn new ones. 
• Help them realize their career goals (career conversations about what they would like to do and where they would like to go focuses on a future they wish to attain). 

Enticing talented people to stay is a difficult but rewarding experience for leading managers. Helping people grow and expand their talents can create engagement that often leads to outstanding results. We know the number one reason people quit a job is because of a bad boss. Managers who lead their people by unlocking what engages them inspires employees to stay and to thrive.