3 Times I Quit!

I have had a ton of jobs since I was just a wee-lad. I've been a gas station attendant, a bartender, a pool man, I sold cigars, and was a professional musician. My time in the trenches tee-ed me up for my post-graduate life. Unlike a lot of today's professionals, I have held just 4 jobs in the corporate world.

I have dedicated the last 6 years to creating culture, engaging employees, and developing tomorrow's leaders. In the forums I conduct we calculate the extraordinary cost of voluntary employee exodus.

Here are the top 6 reasons why employees leave companies:
1. Excessive Workloads
2. Doubts About Leadership's Ability to Manage the Company Successfully
3. Anxiety Over Job Security
4. Boredom and a Lack of Challenge in their Work
5. Belief That They Have No Place to Go in the Company
6. Lack of Recognition

We examine these disengagement factors obsessively. We conduct surveys, facilitate focus groups, interview executives, and conduct in-work process analysis.

Putting aside the well-studied workforce management statistics. I figured I would examine the reasons I have left companies in the past. I have never had a job I disliked but sometimes we get so caught up in the statistics that we forget the simplicity of human interaction....

Slow Down Buddy
I remember my first high school wrestling practice. A vocal member of the team explained to me that I didn't have to over-exert myself and that I should take it easy. Later that practice, I took his spot on the Varsity squad. I knew right away that the person who advised me to slow down was a loser, I don't keep company with losers.

Too many companies have a guard at the gates that tells the new person "how it's done around here". Advice to young professionals: take aim at those who try to slow you down, and take their job!

Far too many companies protect mediocre talent. This only drives away exceptional talent.

You're Not Ready
See reason number 5. Some companies are still naive enough  to believe that they still hold the cards. Especially in times of recession, great employees have options. The companies who have held the "you're lucky to have a job" ethos are experiencing mass exodus.

It's pretty simple, great talent should be developed and promoted! If you hire managers from outside your organization because you have no faith in the leadership capabilities of your individual contributors.....you are failing in your primary objective as an employer.

You should identify those with potential and help them grow (instead of squashing their motivation).

A Title Does Not Come With Entitlement
See reason number 2. If you are a manager and you are spending the majority of your time talking at your team...they are rolling their eyes, not nodding their heads.

Empathy and Genuine Interest are the 2 strongest principles of leadership. Denial and Pseudo-Confidence are the signs of those in over-their-head. If you think you are faking it well, you are not!

'Tis better to search for answers than to pretend to have an answer to every question.

Companies spend billions upon billions replacing employees. The answers are far less expensive:
1. Replace incompetent middle-mangers
2. Promote from within
3. ...and managers will lead instead of managing

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave