Warning, buzz feed article. Which is to say, they appear to have been aiming for a word count and repeat the entire story over again. But regardless, the three things Denise Conroy is saying are worth talking about.
Her first piece of advice is to go ahead and jump jobs. One commentator mentioned managing a 125% pay increase over 3 jumps. It’s a sad fact of reality, companies have more budget for hiring than retention. And taking a counter offer when you’re on the way out the door is a dangerous game.
The second part to her advice was about company loyalty. I liked this one. You don’t owe loyalty to a company. “You owe your company respect, the services that you promise that you will provide in the course of your job, and all those duties. You owe them great performance. You owe them great attendance, but you do not owe them loyalty”. She says to save the loyalty for people you have personal relationships with.
And last but not least: “People don’t leave jobs. They leave bosses”. To which she attributes two types of bosses folks will leave. Toxic bosses and bosses that don’t see you.
The part about bosses is what I wanted to touch on today. In my career, I’ve been both a bad boss and what I’ve been told was a good boss. I’ve had both as well. But, this is part of what I had this blog for to begin with. It’s a hope that I can help folks be better leaders.
When I was a bad boss, it wasn’t because I wanted to be a bad boss. I just didn’t know how not to be bad in those situations. I had at least a couple employees leave my team on account of this.
I still feel bad about those times when I know I was not the leader or boss I want to be. But it’s key that you want to be a better boss, to be a better leader.
Be invested in your team members. Care about their development. Help them succeed. And DO NOT tie this to loyalty to the company. When you’re a leader of people, if you want to be one that people remember and considered a “good boss”, you have to care about the people over everything else.
Once you have this mindset, things like being able to celebrate when folks leave is more possible. And based on if Denise’s advice catches, you’ll see a lot of these chances to celebrate! You’ll be able to joke (appropriately, stay out of HR office folks) with your team. And you’ll be able to enjoy the opportunities when you get to teach them something new. (yes, this paragraph was to justify links to my own blog)
If you care about the people then your job isn’t done when they leave. I still keep in touch with a good chunk of the folks I’ve mentored and lead over the years. Primarily the ones that were from the time once I figured out all of the above and was invested in my people. I’d do the same for the others but time passed, we missed that train. Maybe someday I’ll track them down too.
So, what do you think about all this? Lemme know in comments.
Jeff of All Trades 