I am sure you have had this experience at one point in your career. You have the best boss ever, you love your job and everything is going well. Your review was awesome and you are just amazed at how lucky you are that you found the best company ever to work for. Then one Monday morning you show up at work (or if you work in retail it could be any day of the week) and your manger shares that (he or she) has got a promotion and will be transferring. You are so happy for them because you know that they deserve it.
After you congratulate them it all of a sudden hits you that you will have a new boss. Within the next couple of days, your new boss shows up and seems pretty pleasant so you feel ok about the change, but in the upcoming weeks and months something things are just not the same. The new boss demands more which is ok, you don’t mind working harder but the demands are not necessarily the right priorities in your mind so you are getting slightly frustrated.
These demands continue and actually get worse and you begin to feel that the once perfect job you had, has turned into your worst nightmare. Your friends and family are sick of listening to you complain and they want you to quit.Sound familiar to anyone? If this has never happened to you then you are one of the lucky few that have had the opportunity to work for the top leaders out there. But most likely this may have happened or will happen to you in your career at one point, and I am sure if this has already been a scenario that you have experienced, you most likely have already left the company.
Research shows that 75% of employees leave their leader and not the company itself. Now while I can’t offer a magic cure that will change those leaders I think we can all learn from this statistic and think about how we act as leaders when being in charge of a team. It is a privilege to lead a team of people and the highest form of service there is.When you are having a bad day or someone on the team is annoying the hell out of you, when results are tough or that merch flip didn’t go as you had wanted it to.
The goal of any leader is to inspire and motivate their team to deliver their best. Sometimes the best may not cut it in terms of the results but this doesn’t mean that you change your strategy and manage the wrong way. Most employee s will work 10% more hours, and even do more in terms of outside of the office work when they feel appreciated, valued and respected by their boss. Knowing this being a boss is a huge responsibility and your leadership will determine the effectiveness of each team member. And especially when results are tough its even more important to remember this.
So here is my advice: Be realistic, fair and demanding but don’t only be demanding because it just doesn’t work. Remember you hold a massive responsibility to the company you work for too and that your leadership or lack of will determine the happiness and therefore the results of your team and your company.
Ask yourself, at the end of every day, what would your employees tell their friends and family tonight at the dinner table about their day. If 75% of employees quit their job because of their boss then you better believe 50% of their friends and family are the ones that support and encourage them to leave their job. This is great advice for managers to be leaders. And make sure you are not the reason why employees leave the company that they once loved.