Bob Dylan’s famous lyrics could not be more apt. The times they are a-changin’. And don’t we know it. Zoom, Teams, remote working, everyone’s dining room tables, barking dogs and whining kids are now part of our working culture.
With this in mind, are you the kind of person that is clinging on with your fingernails to the old ways and waiting for things to go back to the way they were? Or are you embracing the opportunity to change for the better with open arms?
If you are resisting the inevitable changes that are coming, there is every possibility that you will lose talented people. And probably much sooner than you think. And the things that are driving people to look for jobs are:
- A lack of trust from management. You feel they will not do a fair day’s work if they are based at home, so you are forcing people into the office where you can see them.
- Not willing to try and fail. You are not embracing new technologies at pace that suits your team. They would rather try things and embrace failure. Learn from it and go again.
- Continuously pushing people to work at 110% every day. People have been happy to do this during the early and mid-part of the pandemic, but people are now tired. The utilisation of furlough to work people into the ground has pushed them beyond their physical and emotional limits.
- Not listening. People are coming to you with ideas but you’re not listening. You’re still in crisis mode and driving all the decisions for the business.
- Managers getting in the way. Everyone in the business has dropped down a layer and getting in everyone else’s way. People are feeling stifled and frustrated at too many people being in the detail and not leading the business.
- No opportunity for advancement. Your rising stars and future leaders of the business don’t see any opportunity for advancement. Nobody is communicating with them that you have a master plan for them.
- Not investing in people. Training and development has been put on hold because of the pandemic and has now become the norm. People don’t feel they are being valued and supported in their personal development.
It’s time to adapt and evolve as a business and establish a new working culture or lose your best talent. And right now, your best talent are your rising stars. The people in your team that are in team leader and middle management roles that make everything happen without making a fuss. Your rising stars will be the people with:
- Ability. People who are performing well in the roles they are in now and are also showing strong signs of progressing through the ranks. The ones with an openness to learning and developing themselves and have the ability to master new things quickly.
- Social Skills. People who are not only skilled at managing their own emotions and the pressures of work, but good at building relationships with others. High in emotional intelligence and able to connect with people at all levels in the organisation.
- Drive. People who are highly motivated and have a strong work ethic to achieve whatever it takes to get the job done. High levels of conscientiousness and eagerness to climb the ladder and take on more responsibility.
The new normal is what the rising talent in your business want to see. They are your leaders of the future and want to see progress. They want to see the utilisation of technology to improve efficiency. They want to see inside the lives of their colleagues. They want to see 21st century leadership that trusts people to work effectively from home.
Who would you least want to hand in their notice at the end of this week?
Don’t lose your best talent to a competitor. Invest in your rising stars and futureproof the business for the coming decades, with those that have the drive and want it.
