More About Me

I was the president of a 30+ person internet service provider. It was 7:30 pm and as usual I was the last one in the office. As I reflected on my workload, I suddenly panicked. I realized that I had four employees that, if any one of them left, my 55 hour weeks would turn into 60 or 70 hour weeks. And while I did my best to be a good human being towards them and paid them what I could afford, I really had no idea why they were staying. Or why they might be leaving.

 

(The only "tool" I had to gauge this was when one of the four would send her vacation requests in, typically 3-4 months ahead of time. Yes! At least she's thinking of staying another 3 months!)

 

Here's the thing. I was 90 percent of the way there but had no way to know that. I basically had the ingredients correct, but didn't have the recipe, so I just couldn't be sure why they were staying. Since we are dealing with humans and life and things change and can be messy, there is a way to understand where people are and what is driving their decisions -- sometimes understanding that decision making process earlier and better than the employee does.

 

It's about relationships, trust and conversations. And it doesn't take a lot of time (in fact, once you do it correctly it will take less of your time).  And for people with some level of empathy and emotional intelligence, the process is something that can be understood and implemented almost instantly, with immediate improvement and results.