Did you know that many people define themselves by how others see them? Or that the skills and abilities at which they are best—those that come most easily because there is a natural affinity—are often under-valued, whereas the ones that are marginal, or even poor, are valued more highly because they were extremely hard to acquire?

This is important information for managers looking to increase retention across their entire organization, not just their stars.

Knowing that your feedback—direct, indirect, subtle or not—will have an outsize effect should drive your awareness of what kind you’re really giving. As I keep telling managers, your people, on every level, are smart about feedback, just as kids are. They know when your words are empty; when your actions belie your words; and when you’re just plain lying.

As a manager, you have the opportunity to help all your people soar, or you can cripple them, often for life.

You need to recognize that your every word has an out-size effect; and that the higher your rank the greater the impact.

Look around you, think about running your organization without your stars and what would it cost to replace them; then think about keeping only them and what it would cost to replace everybody else.

Building all your people is in your job description; it’s what managers (should) do. 

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 16th, 2006 at 1:57 pm and is filed under Business info, Communication, Culture, Leadership, Motivation, Retention. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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