Almost half of employed Australians are considering applying for a new job each new year. While only 1 in 7 (15%) will actually leave, that’s still a lot of churn and burn for any company to bare. And what’s worse, it’s your best performing people who are leaving, the very people you most need to keep.
So, why are they leaving?
The most obvious reasons include a poor relationship with the boss, boredom and lack of challenge, no opportunity for promotion, a poor corporate culture, lack of recognition or dis-satisfaction with remuneration.
But the main reason your best people are leaving is none of these. They’re leaving because they’re desperate to do work that gives them meaning and Purpose. They want to work for a company that puts people and Purpose before profit and they want a job that truly matters to them and that makes a difference.
So, what can you do to give these people meaning to stop them leaving?
At my forthcoming Purpose @ Work Leadership events I’m going to share 4 ways to solve this problem Register here
But there’s one thing you can do right now to circumvent this problem. It’s a simple and powerful exercise I’ve shared with hundreds of people and it regularly results in a light-bulb, life-changing experience for participants.
It’s called the ‘What really matters?’ exercise. It’s a deep listening exercise that can be used in the following ways;
- At the beginning of team meetings
- At the start of performance reviews
- When having difficult conversations
- As a team-building exercise at strategy days
- At board and executive meetings
- At team or client dinners and celebrations.
But its most potent use is when you simply have a sense that one of your people is ready to walk out the door and even at the time they’re resigning (it’s never too late to try to keep your best people).
It’s the safest exercise you can do to create connection, caring and sharing and to get to the heart of what really matters to each person.
It’s just one of the powerful tools I’ve developed to dive deep into a Purpose conversation and I’m sharing it with you for free. Drop me an email and I’ll send it straight back to your in-box. It’s the type of tool you can use right now with profound effect.
And if you’d like more practical tools to unearth Purpose with your people don’t forget to register for one of my Purpose @ Work Leadership events. Register here