Chris Peila, Founder/CEO MetamorphosBiz

With the hybrid workplace firmly established as the next evolution of the office, we’re seeing a lot of focus on wellness strategies for virtual teams. But I’d like to back the conversation up, because the challenges that undermined employee morale in the pre-pandemic workplace haven’t gone away, and if anything, these deeply-entrenched issues are even more damaging in the complex environment of “the new normal.”

Talent bleed creates risks to business stability and solvency, and impedes the ability to make good on company commitments. So it’s no surprise that much of my consulting work has been focused on helping organizations maintain and grow their human capital.

When talking with workers leaving their organization, I often hear them say “the spell is broken.” Whether it wore off over time, or was the reverb of poorly conducted workforce reductions, the positivity, pride, and project investment I refer to as employee ‘stickiness’ is lost. Reflect on your own work experiences:

“Talent bleed creates risks to business stability and solvency, and impedes the ability to make good on company commitments. ”

When have you felt valued?
When were you treated like you were truly part of a team?
What efforts from leadership have landed?
What instances felt like a big miss?

Too often, employees at every level report feeling at least partially marginalized in their own departments. They feel they are kept in the dark, and that their potential contributions to growth and change are undervalued or even rejected.

Now, think about the lengths companies go to in recruiting, interviewing, hiring, training, and getting team members like you up to a full rate of productivity…

One firm I belonged to for many years sized each hire at $70K.

Each. One.

Yet, despite those deep and broad investments; once hired, leaders can be timid about being open and honest with their reports.

In the desire to present the parent company as successful, streamlined and strong, many leaders behave as if the organization is a neat, tidy package to be bestowed from on high to lesser team members.

By resisting transparency about the challenges and weaknesses their organization is addressing, they limit the ability of their own carefully-selected teams to offer solutions.

Not only is this approach highly vulnerable to disruption, it is also dismissive of the experience, insights, and potential problem-solving skills of the very people that the company went to great lengths and expense to bring aboard.

Despite all the evidence that a “command-and-control” mentality undermines success, otherwise highly talented, perceptive, and experienced leaders continue to make this huge mistake. It’s a mistake we literally can’t afford to make.

A 2017 Innosight study projected that nearly 50% of the current S&P 500 will be replaced by 2027 - and that the average company will last just 12 years on the list. There’s a reason that companies are finding it harder and harder to remain part of this distinguished consortium.

Add in the evolution of agile approaches to leadership and productivity, and it’s clear that now is the time to make a step-change towards transparency, inclusivity, and above all;

Trust.

Trusting in the skills of our team members, supporting their agency, and rewarding their innovative input will be key to not only surmounting the challenges we’re collectively facing - but also the specific ones that will define YOUR organization’s next horizon of growth.

Be the leader of the future, now.

Unlock the hidden potential of your organization by leveraging the tremendous power of trust.

Give the people who “bring it” day in and day out - the ones that “make it happen” and are the lifeblood of your business - the respect and trust they deserve for their intelligence, creativity, and capabilities, and let them remind you why you hired them in the first place.

“None of us is as smart as all of us.” - Ken Blanchard

DON’T FIRE - INSPIRE!