People Leave Bad Managers

Dateline: December 25, 2015

Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend.

Happy Holidays!  If today is one of your holidays, we wish you a Merry Christmas.  Today’s thought is about gifts.

Recently I found a thought provoking blog by Dr. Greg Alston, educator, entrepreneur and pharmacist.  “People don’t leave good companies,” Dr. Alston wrote, “They leave bad managers.”  In his blog, People Join Good Companies, but Quit Bad Managers, Dr Alston nicely summarized three things we can do to keep people in our organization from moving on.

If somebody can double their pay, they may consider other employment. But with that exception aside, the reality is that there are really only three important reasons why employees either love their job or dislike it enough to make them want to leave:

1. People want to work for a company they believe is doing good work: Good work means it’s something they are proud to tell their neighbors they do. It means that the work is needed by society and is of benefit to the community.

2. People want to feel they are good at what they do: Nobody likes going to work every day and doing a job they know they don’t do well. Despite all the pop psych pabulum being dispensed today, people still generate a sense of accomplishment when they know they are able to do something useful to help the company achieve its goals. As long as those goals are worth doing.

3. People want to know their company appreciates what they do: Certainly the rate of pay is one indicator of how much a company appreciates an employee, but it is only a minor part in the eyes of most people. It is more important that the leadership of the organization recognizes the contributions being made and shows genuine appreciation through personal contact with the employee. This can be a simple thank you, or it can be a more detailed conversation.

In my experience, a gift of kind words, a short note you write to your co-workers or subordinates to express your personal appreciation of their work, goes a long way towards creating this type of environment.

How do you treat your team?  What gift of kind words can you give them this holiday season to both show how much you value them?

That’s a WRAP!  Have a happy holidays and a wonderful new year!

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