Crushing the Retention Crisis: Leading Your Team to Unprecedented Success | Scott McCarthy | Episode 289

Scott McCarthy [00:00:02]:
Let me

Scott McCarthy [00:00:02]:
know if this sounds familiar to you.

Scott McCarthy [00:00:04]:
When your employees pops in, sees you on a Monday morning after the weekend, walks in, and drops a piece of paper on your desk. What’s this, you wonder? No. Not again. Not another one. That’s right. It’s another of the 50,600,000 2 week notices that your employee is quitting. And perhaps it’s not just the first one that week, that month, definitely not that year. As I said, you’re in good company.

Scott McCarthy [00:00:40]:
50.6000000 US workers quit their jobs in 2022. It is causing a retention crisis unbeknownst to leaders since ever, really, if you think about it. And so many people just feel so frustrated and so disconnected, unsure what to do. So today, we’re gonna address that. Today, we’re gonna talk about why these people end up quitting and ways that you can help mitigate, yes, mitigate the problem. But I’m gonna tell you something right up front. And this is a hard pill for you to swallow. You can’t stop it all.

Scott McCarthy [00:01:34]:
Not everybody who comes into your organization will stay indefinitely. People will leave. That is a fact, but let’s talk about how we can keep key people as long as possible. Are you ready for this? Alright. Let’s do it.

Scott McCarthy [00:02:05]:
Welcome 1, welcome all to the Peak Performance Leadership Podcast, a weekly podcast series dedicated to helping you hit peak performance across the 3 domains of leadership. Those being leading yourself, leading your team, and leading your organization. This podcast couples my 20 years of military experience as a senior Canadian army officer with world class guests, bringing you the most complete podcast of leadership going. And for more, feel free to check out our website at movingforwardleadership.com.

Scott McCarthy [00:02:39]:
And with that, let’s get to the show. Though you heard me in the intro there, in 2022, 50.6000000 US workers quit their jobs, and no doubt you were feeling it. Most likely, you’re running short staffed right now. You’re feeling the crunch and as a leader, this is a very uncomfortable place. Why? Because you’re walking on egg shells, no doubt. You’re wondering how can you keep your employees happy so those ones that were around don’t quit as well. But at the same time, expectations have not been managed, and the senior leaders of your organization, you know, the people that you report to, heck, maybe you’re a c suite executive, but the shareholders are still expecting. Right? Everyone’s got a boss.

Scott McCarthy [00:03:44]:
And end of the day, they’re expecting results. And that’s what us as leaders, we motivate people to get results. But it’s hard. It’s hard when you’re missing so many people, and guess what? I feel you. I understand because I am feeling the same crunch. Right? If you’ve been following the show for a while, and if not, welcome. But I do this on the side, and by day, I’m a senior Canadian army officer, and we are feeling the exact same thing as people get out, less people are coming in. There’s a retention crisis along with a recruiting crisis, and that is making up towards what they say right now a 10% basically delta in the amount of people we should have compared to the amount of people that we do have to conduct the various tasks that we have.

Scott McCarthy [00:04:39]:
So I understand you, understand where you’re coming from. But I went on some research on this topic in preparation for this episode, and I wanted to throw some statistics at you because, you know, statistics are just great. And I wanna use this to kind of set the framework for the podcast episode today. So of the survey so keep in mind, over 50,000,000, almost 51,000,000 people in the US quit their jobs in 2022. 35% of them quit without having something lined up. And of that almost 51,000,000, that 50,600,000, do you know how many people actually regret it, quitting their job? 22%. That’s it. Just 22% of 50.6.

Scott McCarthy [00:05:42]:
I’m gonna break out my calculator real quick here just to give you the exact number on that. I wanna say that’s around 11,000,000 or so, but let’s, let’s do it up.

Scott McCarthy [00:05:51]:
It is yep. 11.132000000

Scott McCarthy [00:05:55]:
people regret that decision. That’s it. That is not a lot of people. Right? So keep these things in mind. And we have to understand, okay, in order to mitigate this problem, you have to understand it from the point of view of the person who’s basically causing it. Right? And the people who are causing it are those employees who are leaving. But are they actually the cause? They’re not the actual cause. This is a symptom.

Scott McCarthy [00:06:33]:
This is a symptom of absolute poor leadership, and that may be on your shoulders, might be on senior leadership shoulders, but end of the day, it’s poor leadership which is causing this retention crisis. People are they don’t quit jobs. They quit bad bosses. Now don’t get me wrong. There’s gonna be exceptions to the rules. There always are. There are some people who will quit and move on to move up their career ladder per se, and the opportunities are not there for them at your current organization. But, again, you can go back to that being a problem of leadership for not 1, identifying this person to be someone who should move up or 2, not creating the opportunity or involving them in the process to show them that that plan is there for them.

Scott McCarthy [00:07:31]:
So they move on. They don’t see the sunlight anymore in your organization, so they move on. People leave bad bosses, and I would go to say bad organizations because there are some good leaders in there, but unfortunately, their hands are tied and they can’t change things to the point where their their people are still happy. Right? There’s only so much you can do. So that’s probably tip number 1 here is for you to accept what it is that you can do and what you can control, And what you can control is how you interact with your people on a day to day basis. You see, the great resignation is cause one of the primary causes of it is simple. It’s a lack of recognition. Gone are the days that people just expect to show up, do a job, get a paycheck, and that be enough recognition.

Scott McCarthy [00:08:42]:
The paycheck is the common denominator. Your best employees and your absolute worst employees get a paycheck. And if you look at your as the paycheck as recognition enough, then what is that doing to your best employees? It means that to you that they are no better than their worst and we all know who the worst are. So they feel like you look at them just like you look like at the worst employees, and that doesn’t feel good. I know how that feels. I’ve been there. Right? I look at a day to day basis just by the way that the forces pay structure is done, and I’m not criticizing it, but I get paid regardless the same amount, regardless of the job I’m doing. So I know some people who have nice easy cushy jobs, no stress.

Scott McCarthy [00:09:48]:
And meanwhile, here I was for a couple years not knowing if I was going home at the end of the night, running a large team, yet at the same time, these other people are getting paid just as much as I am. So I understand what you’re talking about. Understand their pain points. Lack of recognition is one of the number one reasons why people move on. They don’t feel valued within their organization, and you don’t have to do anything super difficult or large to recognize. You have to know your people and going about, hey, saying, okay. Why is it or how do they need to be recognized? Now I’m going to talk a little bit about something, and please, you know, stick with me here. Stick with me so you can lead and be confident with how you’re leading.

Scott McCarthy [00:10:55]:
And what I’m gonna say is that look at your employees’ love languages. There’s a great book called The 5 Love Languages. Now don’t get me wrong. This book is geared towards couples to reconnect, restore intimacy, and basically avoid divorce. Okay? Very well known book in that domain, but we can take the overlay of the 5 love languages and see how we can apply it to our employees and recognizing them. So 5 love languages, words of affirmation saying, hey. Thanks. Great work.

Scott McCarthy [00:11:39]:
Gifts, here. Here’s some money. Physical touch, here’s a pat on the back. Handshake, well done. K? Words of words of affirmation, well done. Great work. Anyway, there’s 5 of them. I’m not going to keep going down the rabbit hole, but if you learn the 5 love languages of your people and you recognize them within that context.

Scott McCarthy [00:12:13]:
Some people just need to be said thank you. That’s it. That’s enough. Meanwhile, others need a, you know, award or certificate, something along those lines to make them feel special, to make them feel like they matter. Others need that pat on the back, the handshake, to be in front of the crowd. The moral of the story is if you’re not recognizing your people in the language in which they accept recognition, then no matter what type of recognition you do falter. So that means you have to know your people. You have to tailor things towards them specifically.

Scott McCarthy [00:13:07]:
Okay, so that is another one of the main reasons why people leave. The second reason why people leave is due to inadequate career development opportunities. Like, I kind of talked about this earlier, and there’s only so much you can do here. But do what you can. Give them opportunities to develop, to cross train, to move up the ladder, support them in their ventures. Maybe they want to become the next CTO or CEO. Great. K? How can we get you there? That should be a conversation that you’re having, and if you’re not having that with your people, then drop your ego because that’s what’s standing in the way between your employees and you achieving this, and therefore, hence why they’re leaving because too many people out there go, well, I don’t wanna lose them.

Scott McCarthy [00:14:20]:
I don’t wanna go without. Think I’ve promoted, then they won’t work for me anymore. K? Yes. That’ll happen. Yes. You’ll have to go through the hiring process. But guess what? If you don’t support them, guess what you’re still gonna have to do? You’re still gonna have to go through the hiring process. You’re still because they’re gonna leave.

Scott McCarthy [00:14:39]:
They’re gonna find opportunities elsewhere. Everybody’s missing people right now. So guess what? It is in favor of the employee to go job hunting, to move along, to move up the chain because most likely, the job that they’re looking for or a job similar to it is vacant, or they have ability to bring someone on. They’re looking to expand. To keep that in mind, if you’re not supporting the people through their career development opportunities, they will find it elsewhere. So enable it. The next reason why employees leave is because they feel undervalued. I talk about psychological safety on this podcast, I don’t know how many times, and this is how you make people feel valued.

Scott McCarthy [00:15:42]:
You make them a part of the decision making process. You enable them to feel like they belong, to make mistakes, to contribute, and to challenge. Those are the 4 stages of psychological safety. You enable that, people feel valued because you’re saying that their words, their opinion, their thoughts matter. Their experiences matter. They matter. That is how you make people feel valued. They’re not just simply a paycheck that is going out.

Scott McCarthy [00:16:18]:
Someone to slave for you. No. They’re a person whose thoughts, ideas, whose abilities, and contributions to the organization matter, but yet so many leaders out there have this ego again that think they know it all, don’t want to hear from their employees, and never engage them. And we wonder why so few employees are actually engaged because you as the leader don’t enable them to engage with you and the organization.

Scott McCarthy [00:17:00]:
So that’s it, ladies

Scott McCarthy [00:17:01]:
and gentlemen. Those are the three main reasons why you are facing an employee crisis right now. You’re facing it because, again, your people are lacking recognition. They’re lacking career development and or they’re feeling unvalued. Right? And as I said, people don’t look at work as simply just a paycheck anymore. That just getting their paycheck is good enough. Because as I said earlier, that is the common denominator. From your best people to your worst people, the paycheck, it’s the same.

Scott McCarthy [00:17:40]:
Like, sure, there may be different pay bands and performance bonuses and all that, but that’s not what I’m talking about. People show up to work to get paid, That is the common denominator. So if I can get paid here and feel like crap or I can walk across the street and get treated what I believe to be fairly and feel valued and still get paid, then why would I stay here? Again, think about it from their perspective. So we talked about those pain points that your employees are feeling right now, and I hinted at a number of different ways to mitigate it. Right? So let’s talk about the recognition again. So recognition in recognizing your people in the way that they want to be recognized and that is simple like during your talks with them 1 on ones with them why don’t you ask them? Just ask them straight up like, hey, if you were to get recognized for doing outstanding work, how would you like that to be done? Someone it publicly, others want it privately, someone the pat on the back, others want the shiny star or reward or whatever done at the gala, what have you. Okay? But do it in their way that they want to be have it done. Career development, you have to enable that.

Scott McCarthy [00:19:14]:
Right? Allow people to develop, and that means dropping your ego and realizing that if you don’t do it because you’re scared you’re going to lose somebody is that you’re going to lose them anyway. So enable their career development. Allow them go on training. Allow them increase their skill set. Allow them to take on acting opportunities. Allow them to go on different projects to get experience. The more you feed this, the more they’re actually going want to stay because they actually want these opportunities and they’re scared that they won’t get them if they go elsewhere. That’s as I said earlier in this podcast, people don’t leave organizations or jobs.

Scott McCarthy [00:20:00]:
They leave bad bosses. But if you were seen as a leader within your organization to your team, they will stay because they love it. They love what you give them. They love the the autonomy that you give them, how you support them, and this is what makes them feel valued. Valued as an employee, as a key member of the team. I forget which president it was, but he visit I think it was Nixon. Don’t quote me on this, but he visited NASA and he saw a janitor mopping the floor. And he looked at the janitor and goes, what? Hey.

Scott McCarthy [00:20:43]:
What are you doing? I’m helping get a man on the moon, sir. The janitor who was mopping the floor felt so valued, believed in the mission so much that he linked mopping the floor to getting a man on the moon. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a tight team. So how do you fix this problem? First and foremost, you need to start reflecting. Reflect on your actions day in day out. Are you enabling peoples to stay or are you enabling and fueling their fire to leave? After that or even as you do that because that’s not just a one and done thing, you need to consistently do this over a long period of time, at least a month, maybe more. Talk to your people. Talk to them in a safe environment, and I don’t really enjoy using that whole safe environment.

Scott McCarthy [00:21:53]:
But what I mean by that is it’s a say psychological safe space for them to say, hey, there’s no, I’m not going to judge you here. And this is the biggest thing is if people don’t feel like they’re gonna be judged or held accountable or retribution against them for what they’re going to say, they will actually tell you. So enable that safe space. Tell them up front. You’re just here to pick their brain, understand what it is, how they’re feeling, what they’re thinking so that you can lead them better, so that you can help them to understand how it is that they want to be led. And that, ladies and gentlemen, will make people feel valued instantly because you’re asking them vice making assumptions or doing whatever it is that you’ve done in the past. So keep these things in mind, ladies and gentlemen. That is how you get through this crisis.

Scott McCarthy [00:22:56]:
That is how you retain people. And retain people tell their friends that the great place it is to work at your company, And then suddenly, more people, more great people will come and want to join you. This is how we lead and not boss. This is how we inspire, motivate, and ultimately achieve peak performance. Till next time. Remember as always, lead, don’t boss. Take care now.

Scott McCarthy [00:23:41]:
And that’s a wrap for this episode, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for listening. Thank you for supporting the Peak Performance Leadership podcast. But you know what you could do to truly support the podcast and know that’s not leaving a rating and review? It’s simply helping a friend, and that is helping a friend by sharing this episode with them if you think this would resonate with them and help them elevate their performance level, whether that’s within themselves, their teams, or their organization. So do that. Help me, help a friend win win all around, and hey, you look like a great friend at the same time. So just hit that little share button on your app and then feel free to fire this episode to anyone that you feel would benefit from it. Finally, there’s always more.

Scott McCarthy [00:24:33]:
There’s always more lessons around being the highest performing leader that you can possibly be, whether that’s for yourself, your team, or your organization. So why don’t you subscribe? Subscribe to the show via moving forward leadership.comforward/subscribe. And until next time, lead, don’t boss, and thanks for coming out. Take care now.