{"id":399,"date":"2022-01-19T10:46:32","date_gmt":"2022-01-19T10:46:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mikefisher.co\/blog\/?p=399"},"modified":"2022-02-15T07:29:09","modified_gmt":"2022-02-15T07:29:09","slug":"stop-the-exodus-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikefisher.co\/blog\/stop-the-exodus-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop the Exodus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Over the past several months, an alarming number of leaders have shared with me about the challenges they are facing with attrition<\/strong>.  Some are particularly disheartened saying, \u201cWhat can I do?  I can only control so much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no doubt that employee engagement and retention<\/strong> connect to a host of factors that are out of our control.  But even if you feel like a managerial cog in a gargantuan corporate wheel, there still are a number of things within your control that you can do to have an impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has been said that people join companies but leave bosses.  There\u2019s no doubt that\u2019s true.  Fundamentally, if we\u2019re a pain to work with, when the market is flooded with demand, folks are going to walk in a hurry.  Obviously, if we\u2019re an over-demanding, self-adulating, credit-stealing, unrealistic, legalistic, out-of-emotional-control narcissist, \u201cour\u201d people won\u2019t be \u201cour\u201d people for long!  But the purpose of this article is not to talk about those reasons for attrition at all.  I want to take a few moments to talk about what you can do when you are a good boss and your people are still leaving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To begin, let\u2019s again set aside all of the things that are out of your control – things like unfavourable decisions by executive leadership, limited salary or promotion structures defined by the company, promotion \u201cbell curves\u201d which limit your ability to promote despite the fact that you have more than your \u201callotted percentage\u201d worthy of a hike and so on.  Beyond these obvious ones, your organisational ecosystem may be laden with (many) other conditions which act as deterrents to retention.  In fact, it is possible that your executive leadership may tom-tom \u201cretention\u201d and \u201cengagement\u201d but simultaneously clip your wings to solve the very problem they are asking you to fix.  Let\u2019s put all of that aside!  Beyond all of these things which are largely out of your control, what is within your control?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most valuable tools within your control is to leverage behavioural science to better understand the unique motivators of each of your employees<\/strong> so that you can connect with them at a level beyond the commercials.  A great place to begin is to familiarise yourself with any of the many four-quadrant psychometric tools (e.g., Social Styles, DISC, etc.) and create a customised engagement strategy for each employee.  While this approach is incredibly effective with any stakeholder (supervisors, clients, direct reports, etc.), I\u2019d like to focus our attention in this article on how to apply one of these tools specifically to heightening employee engagement for the purpose of retention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s begin by just understanding the basics.  If you are unfamiliar, four-quadrant psychometrics<\/strong> essentially classify people into four categories.  Since Social Styles<\/strong> and DISC<\/strong> are the most prevalent, I\u2019ll use that nomenclature for explanation.  The four basic types are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Driver \/ D
\u2022 Expressive \/ I
\u2022 Amiable \/ S
\u2022 Analytical \/ C<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of us are a mix of at least two of these types and many are a blend of three.  When we\u2019re talking of focusing on leveraging this science for retention, we particularly want to focus on the one or two personality types that are most prevalent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obviously, it is beyond the scope of this small article to get into the minutia and nuances of these models. But, here are a few thoughts to help get you started<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n