Why Good Employees Leave

It’s impor­tant to under­stand why good employ­ees leave your company.

After our client lost a key exec­u­tive, we dug deep­er into the ini­tial sto­ry. Did she real­ly leave because she was offered more mon­ey some­where else? She was a per­fec­tion­ist and a high-per­former. Some­one you would dream of hav­ing on your team — and over-con­sumed with work. She did­n’t want to drop the qual­i­ty of her work or rep­u­ta­tion and, ulti­mate­ly, left because of the stress she felt being a Rock­star at work. She was try­ing to take care of her­self while tak­ing on the chal­lenge of being an amaz­ing moth­er. Leav­ing was the only way she could save face.

And her man­ag­er did­n’t pick up the clues when she could­n’t keep up the pace.

So, how is your envi­ron­ment set up for high per­form­ers? Does it allow them enough space to talk about what they need to be successful?

Why Good Employ­ees Leave and How to Pre­vent It

In Your Oxy­gen Mask First (Chap­ter 3), I talk about the impor­tance of resilience and how man­agers should guide and sup­port their peo­ple to be strong and healthy, and to per­form at their best.

One of our rec­om­men­da­tions is to encour­age each team mem­ber to set quar­ter­ly and annu­al goals. Set three or four relat­ed to work, one or two about their own resilience and growth and, in some cas­es, one or two that relate to their life.

You can take it a step fur­ther by includ­ing impor­tant life goals for each team mem­ber. It’s a way of get­ting peo­ple to ful­ly under­stand and sup­port what’s impor­tant in each other’s world. This puts the mes­sage on the table that you want them to suc­ceed in all facets of life: to thrive at work, be healthy, strong and resilient and to enjoy the fruits of their labour.

You might even improve their performance.

The Chal­lenge

• How can you help peo­ple in your orga­ni­za­tion to be more resilient and thrive?
• How can you help your high per­form­ers who want to stay?
• Do you allow enough time to real­ly be curi­ous and hear what they need to sus­tain their suc­cess? 

Hear more on this episode of The Growth Whis­per­ers pod­cast.

Lawrence & Co’s work focus­es on sus­tain­able and enhanced growth for you and your busi­ness. Our diverse and expe­ri­enced group of advi­sors can help your lead­ers and exec­u­tive teams stay com­pet­i­tive through the use of var­i­ous learn­ing tools includ­ing work­shops, webi­na­rs, exec­u­tive retreats, or one-to-one coaching.

We help high-achiev­ing lead­ers to have it all – a great busi­ness and a reward­ing life. Con­tact us for sim­ple and impact­ful advice. No BS. No fluff.