10 Reasons Your Top Talent Will Leave You

An article written by Mike Myatt at Forbes.com inspired the article below.  You can see the article in its entirety here.

Managers tend to blame their turnover problems on everything under the sun, while ignoring the crux of the matter: people don't leave jobs; they leave managers.  “Employees don’t quit working for companies, they quit working for their bosses.” Regardless of tenure, position, title, etc., employees who voluntarily leave, generally do so out of some type of perceived disconnect with leadership.

Here’s the thing – employees who are challenged, engaged, valued, and rewarded (emotionally, intellectually & financially) rarely leave, and more importantly, they perform at very high levels. 

Below are Myatt’s top 10 reasons talented people leave their organizations.  Below each reason, I have reworded it to match athletics and being a part of a team.

1. You Failed To Unleash Their Passions: Smart coaches align employee passions with the team’s pursuits.  Don’t stymie a kids work ethic or dreams of playing college or pro sports by making him fit into a system that doesn’t suite them.  Find ways to highlight their abilities within the team concept.

2. You Failed To Challenge Their Intellect: Great athletes don’t like to live in a dimly lit world of boredom. If you don’t challenge them, they’ll leave you for someone/someplace that will.

3. You Failed To Engage Their Creativity: Great talent is wired to improve, enhance, and add value. They are built to change and innovate. They NEED to contribute by putting their fingerprints on design. Smart coaches don’t place people in boxes – they free them from boxes. What’s the use in having a racehorse if you don’t let them run?

4. You Failed To Develop Their Skills: Coaching and leadership isn’t a destination – it’s a continuum. No matter how smart or talented an athlete is, there’s always room for growth, development, and continued maturation. If you place restrictions on a person’s ability to grow, they’ll leave you for someone who won’t.

5. You Failed To Give Them A Voice: Talented people have good thoughts, ideas, insights, and observations. If you don’t listen to them, I can guarantee you someone else will.

6. You Failed To Care: If you fail to care about people at a human level, at an emotional level, they’ll eventually leave you regardless of how much success they have as an individual or you have as a team. 

7. You Failed to Lead: Teams don’t fail – leaders fail. The best testament to the value of leadership is what happens in its absence – very little. If you fail to lead, your talent will seek leadership elsewhere.

8. You Failed To Recognize Their Contributions: The best coaches/leaders don’t take credit – they give it. Failing to recognize the contributions of others is not only arrogant and disingenuous, but it’s as also just as good as asking them to leave.

9. You Failed To Increase Their Responsibility: You cannot confine talent – try to do so and you’ll either devolve into mediocrity, or force your talent seek more fertile ground. People will gladly accept a huge workload as long as an increase in responsibility comes along with the performance and execution of said workload.

10. You Failed To Keep Your Commitments: Promises made are worthless, but promises kept are invaluable. If you break trust with those you lead you will pay a very steep price. Leaders not accountable to their people, will eventually be held accountable by their people.

Bottom line, if leaders (coaches) spent less time trying to retain people, and more time trying to understand them, care for them, invest in them, and lead them well, the retention thing would take care of itself.

If these thoughts resonate with you, I’d encourage you to pick up a copy of his upcoming book Hacking Leadership (Wiley) as he unpacks several more thoughts about talent, team building, leadership and culture.