Recently, I participated in a round table discussion with a group of 12 business owners and executives to talk about currently pressing business challenges. My first question was “What keeps you currently awake at night”? I expected to hear about issues like healthcare cost, the impact of tariffs, or something similar.
However, it was all about employee retention!
9 out of 12 participants stated either retaining the best people or finding and acquiring promising new talent.
My second question was “What do you consider the biggest challenge within your organization”? The top two answers were people engagement and communication! One can easily recognize the underlying connection and from my perspective, the common thread is effective leadership or lack thereof.
Unfortunately, I don’t know many people in leadership roles that would voluntarily admit that they may not be as effective as they could be. In my profession as a certified business coach, I work with leaders on different hierarchical levels. I often ask my (potential) clients how much time, effort, and money they have invested into becoming educated in their profession as an engineer, accountant, lawyer, or medical professional to name a few. As can be expected most can claim a 4-year college degree to start with and many have advanced and postgraduate degrees, too.
However…
…what have you done in any formal way to acquire your tools, skills, and habits to execute your leadership tasks? Leadership is a profession and highly effective leaders command an extensive leadership toolbox and the necessary skills to use these tools expertly. Add to it the right success habits and you are on your way. Even if one has invested in leadership development, the growing pressures of global competition and a fast-paced business environment fuel the demand for increasingly effective business leaders. These leaders bear the responsibility for setting the tone and culture of the organization, their teams, and any individual they interact with. They are also affecting cultural shifts to meet changing values and expectations, consequently, leaders themselves must change, and they must be prepared to continue to change.
I use a very simple definition:
Leadership is creating results THROUGH people. The keyword here is “through”!
In the context of talent acquisition, employee retention, people engagement and communication it would be highly advantageous for anyone to become the company’s favorite leader everyone respects and likes! When that becomes reality, the road becomes much easier to navigate and expected results will be met more often.
Truly effective leaders stimulate a highly engaged workforce to produce consistently tangible results. Effective Leadership is the most potent ticket for business success, and personal development makes the difference!
An organization’s success hinges on the personal effectiveness of its leaders. Increasing self-awareness, adaptive leadership, communication skills, and the ability to influence beyond formal authority enables the entire organization to reap the benefits.
Consider a much under-appreciated fact:
People hire into a company, but they perform for their leader!
What are the important contributors to a strong culture of engagement and performance?
-1- Benevolent leadership presence
An effective leader must master how to project mature self-confidence, poise under pressure, authenticity, empathy, warmth, and strength. It helps to acquire a blend of persuasive leadership competencies that inspire trust, enthusiasm and, most importantly, buy-in.
-2- Authentic communication & interaction
Whether it’s a high-stakes meeting, a hallway chat with a colleague or a town hall meeting with the entire organization, failure to get the right message across can be costly in many ways. Effective leaders need to communicate clearly and confidently at every level of the organization, from the boardroom to the water cooler. Consider that it is not important what one says, however, it is critically important what is understood!
-3- Proactive conflict resolution
Effective leaders recognize and manage conflict constructively, resolve disputes quickly, develop the skills that build collaboration and common purpose and maximize employee engagement, productivity, and retention.
-4- Maximizing emotional & social intelligence
Considering the accomplishment of shared objectives, EQ matters as much as IQ. Acquiring and implementing the skill sets that drive success like team leadership and collaboration, how to build trust, influencing skills, managing emotions, resilience and conflict management are essential in achieving organizational results in a sustainable fashion.
-5- Creating a result focused culture of accountability
Effective leaders use their skills to consistently challenge the status quo, establish meaningful objectives, define clear key results in a transparent format (i.e. utilizing OKR as a methodology) and follow through with the right conversations, feedback, and recognition (CFR).
When the leadership of an organization becomes consistently attentive to these five contributors, ideally on all hierarchical levels, and manages them well, everyone in the company wins! As indicated earlier, leadership is a profession like any other and requires the acquisition of an extensive toolbox supported by the right skills and habits. Employee retention is a result of effective leadership.
Lead2succeed, stay safe, and help your team to succeed! If you would like to explore additional ideas about strategy planning or business strategy let’s talk!
