How to make great employees stay at your organization
A few weeks ago, a client of mine shared this article: Warning: Even Your Committed Employees Are Being Recruited. Something that really resonated with me was that employees often leave an organization:
Knowing that the employer could've done something to keep them
Missing a conversation with their manager about their future
While I hesitate to pile another thing on the plate of overworked managers, this is spot on: the conversations have to happen. According to Gallup, employees who strongly agree they have had conversations with their manager in the last six months about their goals and successes are 2.8 times more likely than other employees to be engaged. The thing is, leaders and HR teams need to support managers in how to have these conversations.
So how can managers talk about goals and successes with their teams and drive engagement?
Integrate coaching communication techniques into their 1:1s
Integrating professional coaching communication techniques into everyday conversations like 1:1s centers the person being coached so managers can guide employees to define their barriers and formulate their own actionable solutions. This in turn makes employees feel both autonomous and supported. Why?
Asking good coaching questions can help managers do a pulse check on an employee’s experience
Not “let me know how I can help” or “tell me if you need anything” or “my door is always open.” Don’t leave it up to the employee to start the conversation—kick the door wide open for them to do so by asking good coaching questions.
In Commcoterie’s peer coaching workshop, we teach a simple framework of five questions that can turn any conversation into a coaching conversation
This is less of a script and more of an arc—the points you want to make sure you hit along the way throughout the coaching conversation.
Start off by asking — What did you want to talk about today? Just a simple question! What’s been going on?
After you listen to the answer, see if there’s anything else (because the first topic or problem a person shares is rarely the one they need the most help with OR it is what they need the most help with, but it could be more clearly defined) — Is there anything else or what’s the real or deeper subject? This is what you dig into by further questioning.
After you hear about what’s going on (they’re stressed because X, or they haven’t been able to move forward on a project because of Y), ask — What seems to be the real problem or barrier or what do you want to focus on? This is going to define the problem they want to solve. It’s what’s kept them from moving forward on their own.
After they say why they haven’t been able to move forward, get them to say what life could look like if they were able to. Ask — In an ideal world, what is the solution or what does success look like? This sets the stakes which makes them move toward an action.
Then finally, what can they do to make their ideal a reality. Ask — What’s an action you can take to get there? Because we always want to leave with an action, however small.
But those aren’t the only coaching questions we can ask!
Here are a few more great coaching questions (and when to use them)
When they unenthusiastically say everything is fine: What else is going on?
When they enthusiastically say everything is fine: In an ideal world, what would make things even better?
When they have a lot on their plate: What seems to be the biggest challenge?
When something on their to-do list has been stuck there for a while: What do you think the biggest roadblocks are for you here?
When they’re totally overloaded: What would be most helpful for me to take off your plate/put on the back burner/get you some support for?
At the end of the meeting: Between now and the next time we meet, what’s the most crucial thing you’re going to drive forward, what else do you need from me to make it happen, and how are you going to celebrate when you reach that goal?
Coaching an employee in 1:1s provides on-the-spot professional development and growth, something employees say is a top reason for leaving
People are sick of being micromanaged and given advice from someone who doesn’t understand exactly what’s going on with them. The days of traditional mentoring and managing are out and coaching is in.
What’s the difference? Mentoring implies that there is some sort of advice being imparted from a person who knows more about a subject to a person who knows less about that subject. This isn’t always true when things are moving fast, and employees value being trusted as subject matter experts.
Managing, loosely, is overseeing a person or team or organization doing something that ideally you have done or know something about and hopefully finding ways to support them so they can do it better. Often, managers get in the weeds and try to solve employees’ problems for them rather than supporting them in doing their own best work.
Coaching is a structure that helps someone else identify and eliminate roadblocks and find a path to a solution through questioning and self-exploration. We need a slightly different mindset when we talk about using coaching techniques because they’re not as directive as traditional managing or mentoring. You are not telling anyone what to do—you’re providing them the support they need to solve their own problems and develop professionally.
Coaching techniques like active listening mean leaders won’t be blindsided when a good employee leaves (and if you’ve already implemented points one and two, this will happen less often)
Active listening is one of the most important communication tools we have. It is even more important than asking good questions—if you ask questions but don’t listen to the answers, the questions never mattered anyway.
So what is active listening? It’s a practice of listening that keeps you engaged in your conversation. It is the process of truly listening while someone speaks, paraphrasing and validating what they’ve said, withholding judgment and advice, continuing to ask good questions, and making a conscious effort to understand the complete message. Really, it should just be called listening, because if you’re not actively listening, you’re not really listening at all.
So many high performers tell me that they ended up jumping ship because no one listened to them, even though they tried to ask for support and give feedback. Don’t be that leader!
Commcoterie helps leaders of mission-driven companies like B Corps and other values-centered organizations drive restorative organizational change for sustainable impact.
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