Most of us avoid conflict and difficult situations like the plague. Maybe it’s because we don’t know how to broach the subject, or haven’t had the training. Maybe we can’t separate the person from the behaviour, or perhaps as a leader we just want to be everybody’s friend? Whatever the reason, there are many performance conversations not being had in thousands of workplaces on a daily basis.
Revolving Doors, our latest insights paper, tells the story of what people expected going into an organisation and their feelings when they left. Between the beginning and the end of workers’ employment journey, employee perceptions fell dramatically. Key leadership findings in Revolving Doors relate to resourcing and support. For new employees, it’s important to receive regular feedback on performance. New systems, new ways of doing things…there’s a lot to take on board in those first few weeks and months.
As a leader your role is to set your team member up for success and help them get it right. Do they have the resources and support necessary to be effective? Interestingly, there was a 15% drop in the resourcing/support score between joining and exit, and a similar drop in the score for managerial support.
Rather than shying away from having coaching discussions, leaders should lean in and normalise them. Coaching should be a part of every 1:1 discussion, and there should be regular catch ups throughout an employee’s tenure, but especially in the early months. Acting early, means that corrections can be made easily. Letting things run on without letting your staff member know there is a problem, or finding out if there’s anything they need does a disservice to everyone; the employee, the team, and the leader. Failing to act can impact team culture, demotivate high performers, and erode leadership capital.
Rather than shying away from having coaching discussions, leaders should lean in and normalise them. Coaching should be a part of every 1:1 discussion, and there should be regular catch ups throughout an employee’s tenure, but especially in the early months.
Be constructive with your feedback and give examples wherever possible. Set expectations and monitor changes. If things aren’t happening as you’d like, follow up quickly and reset. And of course if positive change is being seen, acknowledge it and when appropriate offer praise.
Leaders owe it to their team members to give them the feedback they need to be successful. Luckily, employees are looking for their leaders to lead, to be firm and fair, to acknowledge when they’ve done well, and to course correct as and when required. Anything less will increase employee churn and the speed of the revolving door.
If you’d like to read our Revolving Doors insights paper in full, you can download a copy here.
