The Great Resignation: Part II

Motivators for Resigning: Perceived Indifference

Hello, and welcome to The Great Resignation Part Two. We’re talking about perceived indifference as a possible motivator for people saying goodbye to their jobs, which they are doing in record numbers right now.

Some 48% according to the latest Gallup polls. 48% of people with jobs are thinking about leaving their job. That’s pretty serious. We also mentioned in the last vlog that, well, we’re having record numbers of resignations. We had a record number in April, May, June, July, August, and September is yet to be seen.

We also noted that if the average is 48%, there are some companies with far more people thinking about leaving, and other companies with far fewer people thinking about leaving. And what we’d really like to do is explore what’s different about the companies where their workforce is happy, engaged, productive, and most importantly, right now, not quitting. So what is it?

We introduced two books by Gallup, and the one we’re going to concentrate on today is First Break All the Rules. This is a phenomenal book that basically used research, and literally hundreds of 1000s, if not millions, of interviews of managers and workers to understand what makes a great manager, and what differentiated them from those who were perceived as not good managers, by their workers.

Why Good Managers Matter

And in the midst of all this research, what they found was that great managers retained their employees, and they got far more good productive work out of them than their peers. And that’s consistent with what I’ve seen, in my 40 years of interacting with manufacturing companies, across the country, and around the globe.

People at all levels want to be successful, want to feel successful, they want to be good at what they do. And to the extent that you enable them as an organization and as a manager, to be good at what they do, that’s the extent to which they will be satisfied in their work, and work hard and productively and give you that ever-critical, discretionary effort that makes the difference, all the difference in the business.

How Good Managers Retain Employees

We’ve all heard of the golden rule that’s ‘Do unto others as you would have do unto you’. That’s very self-centered, right? It’s all about you, how do you want to be treated? Well, the reality is, that doesn’t work anymore. It’s not about you, particularly if you’re the manager, not about you. And so the platinum rule has been introduced, ‘Treat others as they would like to be treated’. It’s them-centric, right? This is true in how you communicate, this is true in how you motivate, this is true in how you manage people.

If you don’t understand how your workers want to be communicated to, then you’re not communicating effectively. If you don’t understand what motivates your individual employees, and they’re all different, then you don’t understand how to motivate your workers. And if you don’t understand how they need to be managed, then you don’t understand how to be a manager. This is what First Break All the Rules, lays out in great detail. How to become the manager that manages at the individual level.

What Great Managers Know and Do

It lays out four things that great managers know about. The first is that people don’t change much. You know, we all have our different talents. And if I’m not talented in a particular area that my work requires me to be talented, then I’m probably not a good fit. Because the second tenant is: don’t waste time trying to put things into me that were left out when I was created. If I don’t have an innate attention to detail, which I don’t, don’t put me in a job that requires intense, detailed work, that’s got to be absolutely correct. I would be a terrible fit for it. Don’t try to manage that into me. I’m not going to change. I am how My parents created me.

Alright, don’t try and put into me what was left out. And that’s, that’s really an interesting focus, because so often in our performance reviews, what we’re talking about is the deficiencies, and that’s just wrongheaded. But we should be talking about performance reviews is where you excel, and how to better match what we’re asking you to do in your work to what you’re actually talented at doing. So, rather than trying to put into me or your workers, what was left out, try and draw out what was left in!

What kind of talents do they have? Where am I a great fit in your organization? Right? Think about it from the other perspective, because folks, that’s hard enough to manage to figure out what people are good at, and match the work to them. And if you can do that, and your managers can do that, you will be extremely successful at motivating, communicating, and managing your workforce.

Which gets us to the four things that managers must be able to do. First of all, you must be able to select the person based on talents. That means you need to know people well enough to be able to identify – are they a fit for the needs of the jobs that I’m managing? Then you need to set expectations by defining the correct outcomes and putting them in a term that communicates what I need to be communicated to. And then motivate the individuals by focusing on their strengths and by focusing on what motivates them. If you’re trying to motivate somebody with money, who is actually theoretical and motivated by learning and education, you’re completely missing the boat, it’s not going to help them.

And fourth, learn how to help the person by getting them in the right job that fits their talents, and then develop and work with that person to bring out the best of them. Not try and force in what was never there to begin with. And if you can do that, you can get your managers focused on what’s good about individuals and build on what’s good about them, then you’ll have a motivated, engaged, productive workforce that’s not looking to exit the first opportunity they get.

Get Help Retaining Employees

And that in all of our business can make all the difference. My name is Rick Phelps, I can be reached at this email. My phone number is 216-523-1387 and this and all the other blogs can be found at Phelps ltd.com. Have a safe and prosperous week!