Why Do People Quit Their Jobs, Exactly?

Changing the face of management today

If you are an executive concerned about low morale, employee satisfaction or engagement, or — at worst — a revolving door at your company, start by looking at who your current managers are. You have a choice to make: Develop their leadership skills or filter them out of their leadership roles.

In the past several decades, management experts have undergone a revolution in how they define leadership and what their attitudes are toward it. Historically, organizations have gone from a preference for a very classical directive or even autocratic approach to a very creative, participative approach conducive for transforming organizations to enhance their ability to survive in a profoundly changing marketplace. Somewhere along the line, it was determined that not everything old was wrong and not everything new was good. Instead, different styles were needed for different situations and each leader are necessary to know when to exhibit a particular approach.

Today we require Learning Leaders who can stay flexible, grow from mistakes, and handle a magnitude and diverse range of challenges. These Agile Leaders possess the ability to sense an organization’s needs for significant change and responds to opportunities or obstacles through planning, swift execution without losing momentum or alignment.

Agile leadership is inclusive, democratic, and exhibit a greater openness to ideas and innovations. With a passion for learning, a focus on developing people, and a keen ability to define and communicate. At the core, Agile leaders not just survive in the midst of chaos but quickly adapt and create a new future by demonstrating imaginative and insightful leadership when the status quo is challenged.

They demonstrate these behavioural competencies:

• Sustains profits - Seeking profitability and personal wealth with a keen sense of risk to achieve financial success.
• Seeks Innovation - Thinking expansively and demonstrating profound imaginative insight to identify wise but innovative solutions.
• Embraces Change - Being responsive and open-minded in unpredictable times with a willingness to adapt to rapid change.
• Thrives In Chaos - Enthusiastically thriving under seemingly a chaotic demand and overlapping priorities. Shows a preference for multi-tasking.
• Focus on Results - Making personal sacrifices and expending extraordinary dedication and work ethic for one’s career.
• Drives Achievement - Desiring to achieve exceptional results under competitive scenarios for high ambition’s sake.

You need to use a tool that can measure these traits reliability and the expertise to interpret the results and coach employees to address the gaps — and we all have gaps!

Take a Wholistic View to Leadership

Leadership is about behaviour, regardless of a person’s title or where they fall in the company hierarchy. As organizations face new and unfamiliar challenges, success depends on increasing the frequency of leadership behaviour from individuals and teams across the organization to ensure that the organization can deploy the right leadership at the right moment for the proper context. So instead of redefining criteria and isolating a small group of “stars,” the challenge is to understand and unleash the largest source of potential: The entire workforce.

We take a holistic view of potential — beyond merely identifying leadership potential among individuals. Instead, we aim to surface, activate, and accelerate potential in every individual, within teams, and across the full force of your organization.

Setting your leadership development as part of your succession planning process is an excellent way to move forward.

Using our model, you have something to shoot for as you identify current and future leaders.

Here are four traits of managers that Marcel Schwantes suggest will lead your employees to perform at the highest level.

They are radically honest.

When you're authentic and vulnerable with your employees, they are more than likely to reciprocate and gain your trust.

If you see hard times in the company, tell your employees. Let them know ahead of time that they will not be receiving Christmas bonuses, pay raises, or time off. However, compensate for that by ensuring that if they perform and sales go up, they will see those things reenter the picture in the coming year. It holds everyone accountable and makes them feel like a team.

Radical honesty is about being transparent. The best leaders leverage this approach to influence and develop trust. It's always the best policy.

They are supportive.

Great leaders support their people by showing an interest in their people's jobs and career aspirations. They look into the future to create learning and development opportunities. They find out what motivates their best people by getting to know each tribe member's desires that will drive them. This is about emotional engagement.

This means being supportive of employees who are up for promotions or job changes, or going through transitions or difficult circumstances in their personal lives.

People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." — John C. Maxwell

When leaders show that they care about their employees as human beings and support their employees' future career choices, it helps employees feel more confident in their position and career path, whether it means moving up or moving on.

They recognize the talents and strengths of their tribe.

Employees' strengths never stop growing throughout their career--particularly when they have talented managers who build unique development strategies around their individual, innate talents, and who make sure they are always in roles where they get to use those strengths every day." — Jim Clifton

People love to use their unique talents and gifts. The best leaders will leverage close relationships with employees by finding out what their strengths are and bringing out the best in their employees.

When managers help employees develop their strengths and natural talents, they are more than twice as likely to engage their team members.

They display empathy.

Global training giant Development Dimensions International (DDI) has studied leadership for 46 years. The firm assessed over 15,000 leaders from more than 300 organizations across 20 industries and 18 countries to determine which conversational skills have the most significant impact on overall performance.

The findings, published in DDI's "High-Resolution Leadership" report, are revealing. While skills such as "encouraging involvement of others" and "recognizing accomplishments" are essential, empathy--yes, empathy--rose to the top as the most critical driver of overall performance: individually, the ability to listen and respond with empathy.

Unfortunately, the DDI report also revealed a dire need for leaders with the skill of empathy. Only four out of 10 frontline leaders assessed were proficient in or strong on empathy.

A leader displaying empathy is your secret weapon. It cannot be fake — leaders who will naturally foster strong personal relationships and promote productive collaboration. They think about their team's circumstances, understand their challenges and frustrations, and know that those emotions are every bit as real as their own. This helps develop perspective and opens team members to help one another.

Leadership is Complex

We measure the above four traits along with 81 more to give you the full picture. Our process captures the characteristics of top performers in an assigned role. Using behavioural traits can achieve the best-fit staffing. However, it is essential for hiring managers, who in turn care for, develop and maximize the strengths of every single employee. Their impact is multiplied by the number of people reporting to them. The more critical the position— the deeper we go.

With artificial intelligence, automation, and robotics looming in the distance, the most significant human capital gains businesses will witness in the future will stem from the same smart practices we see today: hiring and training the right managers. Research has repeatedly confirmed will transform companies now and in the future