It’s easier to compete when you’re attracting great people instead of searching for good people.
Listen to the voices of leaders who are losing the labor shortage battle…
- We just can’t find any good people. (As if there aren’t any good or great people anywhere. They are everywhere, but they tend to avoid poorly led companies.)
- Due to the low unemployment rate, there just aren’t any good people left. (As if the only people looking for a job are those without a job. People leave one company to work at another company every day.)
- In today’s labor market, those who want to work are already working. (As if those who are working have no interest in working for a better company.)
- When we do get good people, they don’t stay. (As if there’s always something wrong with the good people, and there’s never anything wrong with the leaders within the organization.)
“The world is suffering from leadership malpractice.” ~ Bob Chapman
Stop Searching for Good People; Start Attracting Great People
It’s a fact. Great people want to work at great, well-led organizations.
Common sense reveals it’s much easier to win the labor shortage battle when you’re attracting great people instead of searching for good people.
However, to do what is commonly understood often requires a higher level of intellectual ability. In other words…
What’s common sense isn’t always common practice. Often, it takes uncommon sense to act on things that are commonly understood.
Creating an organizational culture that will attract and retain great people requires leaders with UNCOMMON SENSE.
The best led companies aren’t impacted by labor shortages because they’re constantly and consistently attracting the best and the brightest people to their organizations. Many people often wait years for an opportunity to join these companies. Few of those who are attracted to these great organizations are unemployed. They’re usually working someplace, but would prefer to be working at a better place if given a chance.
There are 2 key ways to attract great people to your organization…
The shorter answer…
- Become a Sought after Employer: Your culture causes people who don’t work there to want to work there.
- Become an Employer of Choice: Your culture causes people who are already working there to want to continue working there.
The longer answer…
1. Becoming a Sought after Employer
To become a sought after employer, the top leader must first raise the level of awareness of all leaders at every level within the organization. They must understand they are not only responsible for attracting great people, but they are also responsible for repelling both good and great people. The leaders must be willing to accept the responsibility of learning how to become leaders who attract and retain great people.
Top leaders at sought after employers value growing and developing the character of not only every leader at every level, but also the character of all of the people at all of the levels.
“Imagine the personal and organizational cost of failing to fully engage the passion, talent, and intelligence of the workforce. It is far greater than all taxes, interest charges, and labor costs put together.” ~ Stephen R. Covey
The same leadership development and personal growth initiatives that will position your organization as a sought after employer will also allow those in your organization to easily become highly effective at recruiting, retaining, and maintaining the truly great people, top talent, that you want on your team. Your top talent will be the catalyst that takes your organization to the next level and beyond.
“Bringing out the best in a person is often a catalyst for bringing out the best in the team.” ~ John C. Maxwell
Sought after employers understand there are 2 Types of Competition:
- Those who want to steal your customers; they’re in the same industry. Everyone easily recognizes these competitors.
- Those who want to steal your people; they may or may not be in the same industry. Many fail to recognize these competitors.
Leaders who are searching for “good” people aren’t competing well with those who are stealing their people. That’s why they’re searching for good people instead of attracting and retaining great people. These leaders don’t intentionally develop a strategy to compete for the great people and are constantly losing the labor shortage battle as they contend with high turnover, low engagement, low morale, and low retention.
Who we are is who we attract, personally, professionally, and organizationally. If leaders want to attract and retain the best people, they must actively be striving to become the best leader they can be.
A few thoughts on the impact of Word of Mouth advertising…
Consistent and continuous positive “Word of Mouth” advertising (what current and past employees are saying to others about their boss and the organization) is the competitive advantage that allows sought after employers to attract and retain top talent.
People who work in organizations are constantly providing positive or negative word of mouth throughout your community and within your industry. People are always talking, and they’re either saying good things or bad things about their leaders and the people they work with.
Leaders can’t buy authentic, positive word of mouth advertisement. They must create it by creating an organizational culture that supports and inspires it. The best leaders do just that by investing in the development of all of the people because they are people who matter to them, not because they are human resources being used to generate revenue for stakeholders.
Organizations where many of the people are disengaged do not attract great people. These are the organizations that are searching and struggling to find good people. They attract a lot of people who don’t have many employment choices, so they must settle and hire those who do show up.
These organizations have dysfunctional, disengaged leaders who are leading dysfunctional, disengaged team members. The result: low morale, frustration, low productivity, poor communication, anxiety, confusion, resistance, finger pointing, lack of responsibility, high conflict, high turnover, low retention, and stagnation.
The key to engaging the workforce is to engage the leaders.
Disengagement below is not the problem. It’s simply a symptom of the real problem, the root cause: disengaged leaders above.
Leaders must be highly engaged when it comes to managing things and processes, or they will likely lose their job. Being able to manage effectively, which includes ensuring their team has the competency to do their jobs, is also a requirement for leaders.
However, in most organizations, being highly engaged in the character development of people is a choice. It’s usually not a requirement. So, character development doesn’t happen.
Organizations that struggle to find good people and that are searching for good peoplemay be poorly-managed, well-managed, or over-managed, but they are absolutely always poorly led. Low impact, poor leadership creates a culture that generates negative word of mouth advertisement.
A constant flow of negative word of mouth makes it difficult to find good people.
Organizations that are attracting great people are always well managed, and most importantly, always well-led. High impact leadership creates a culture that generates positive word of mouth advertisement.
A constant flow of positive word of mouth makes it easy to attract great people.
Organizations that aren’t attracting great people are always over-managed and under-led.
Before your organization can become a sought after employer, it must first become an employer of choice.
2. Becoming an Employer of Choice
High impact leaders know the key to recruiting and retaining top talent is being highly effective at developing all of their employees at every level within the organization, regardless of title or position.
Employers of choice know there is always room for improvement, not only related to their products and services, but also related to their people. As a result, they are always investing in the character development of the people who are expected to not only sustain the culture, but also to enhance and improve the culture.
Thoughts on culture…
The culture of an organization will always impact the lives of those working within it, personally and professionally, regardless of their position or title. If the cultural impact is positive, recruiting and retaining top talent will be easy. If the cultural impact is negative, recruiting top talent will be difficult at best and retaining that top talent will be impossible.
The culture within an employer of choice feels different. Here’s a great example that I’m sure you’ll feel:
“Companies routinely refer to people as their most important assets. In most cases, what that really means is that they focus on people so that people will produce for them…Most businesses use people to build products and make money; we use our products to build people…We are building an organization and a culture in which people can discover their gifts, grow, and thrive. I was once interviewed by a professor of organizational development. After two hours, he exclaimed, ‘I have never interviewed a CEO who didn’t talk about his company’s products.’ I replied, ‘We have been talking about our products for two hours. It’s our people.'” ~ Bob Chapman, CEO Barry-Wehmiller
Consider the previous words from Bob Chapman. It’s not fluff. It’s real. It’s an example of how a CEO of an “employer of choice” speaks and feels. And most importantly, Bob’s actions are aligned with his words. Conduct a google search on Bob Chapman or check out the Barry-Wehmiller website and/or look up the related social media profiles. When you’re an “employer of choice,” everyone will know it because they will see it, sense it, and feel it.
Bob’s organization Barry-Wehmiller is the best example I’m aware of when it comes to being an “employer of choice.” You’ll be blown away by what they’re doing not only for their team members but also for people in all types of industries around the world.
Are they perfect? No. No one is. No organization is.
Do they truly value the growth and development of the people inside and outside their organization? Absolutely! Few truly do. But those few are “employer of choice” and “sought after employers.”
The Impact of Culture…culture determines who you attract, who you retain, and if/how you maintain and support employees.
The impact of the top leader…
Any organization with leaders who are truly helping all of their employees have a better life at work and at home, regardless of their rank, title, or position, will become an employer of choice. Ultimately, it is the character of the top leader that determines the culture within the organization. The character of the top leader determines the type of leaders he/she will attract and retain. The top leader’s character also determines how those leaders are expected to interact and lead their teams.
Leaders who care about their people will attract people who care about each other and the organization.
When top leaders help their employees and lower level leaders improve their lives and the organization gets better, they will all feel better. When they feel better, they (and their families) will provide positive word of mouth in the community and within the industry.
Great people who feel good about their leaders, their co-workers, and their organization find it difficult to leave because being valued, recognized, supported, and appreciated ranks high on the list of what great people expect from their employer.
Values Determine Culture…values at the top impact values at the bottom. You can’t improve the culture of an organization, without improving the character of the people within the organization.
The Goal: To become an employer of choice, move beyond management and supervision toward high impact leadership
People who are managed become disengaged. The result: low morale, conflict, frustration, high turnover, and negative “word of mouth” for the organization.
People who are led become highly engaged. The result: high morale, teamwork, satisfaction, high retention, and positive “word of mouth” for the organization.
A few thoughts about Hiring/Firing…
People at all levels are typically hired for what they know (competency: talent, skills, knowledge) and typically fired for who they are (character).
Leaders can fire their employees; everyone knows that. It’s called termination. The result: turnover and bad word of mouth for the leader and the organization.
Employees can also fire their leaders; few understand that. It’s called quitting. The result: turnover and bad word of mouth for the leader and the organization.
Unfortunately, some people don’t fire their leader when they’re unhappy. Instead, the employee remains on the job and chooses to quit but stay. And, their leader doesn’t fire them but rather allows it. It’s called disengagement. The result: low productivity, low morale, conflict, poor communication, poor results, stagnation, resistance, lack of execution, lack of buy-in, and bad word of mouth for the leader and the organization.
Research has repeatedly revealed for decades that the #1 reason people leave a company is their direct relationship with their boss. The word of mouth people provide about their organization is also primarily based on their direct relationship with their boss.
I help leaders ENGAGE THE FRONT LINE to IMPROVE THE BOTTOM LINE by developing high performance team players and leaders, from top to bottom.
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