Throughout our career, it’s inevitable that we all have to work with people. The only difference is in the numbers of people we have to collaborate with. Hence, managers and supervisors have to be competent in certain skill sets to manage people who are working under them. A manager without these skill sets would not efficient as he or she has to spend most time trying to resolve conflicts such as misunderstanding, miscommunication, misinformation, and other interpersonal issues that might occur within the workplace.
As a result, employees would feel fed up and lose motivation to perform at work which can cause workplace laziness or job burnout in a long run.
No doubt that holding a job can be tiring and stressful at times even for the top performers. Given this, how can managers keep the high potential employees from quitting?
Firstly, let’s hear from Gino (35), a program manager of a nonprofit organization in Metro Manila:
Constant assurance and valuing of his team is a must
This does not just include his top performers but everyone else in his team. Gino stresses, “When I am confident that my team is good to work and puts less stress to the tasks on hands, I know we are on the right track.”
He values his team by ensuring they get the salary they deserve and their entitlement to must-have benefits that all employees in The Philippines. Gino also prioritizes both career and personal development as he invites a Zumba instructor once a month for a free session with his team.
“My team can be a bit stressed about the daily work. I have top performers who suggested a breather, and I tried working it out,” adds Gino.
Secondly, we hear from Cath (26), a visual artist and art teacher and owns an art workshop school:
Good understanding plays a vital role in keeping your top-performing employees
Cath shares that the top performing employee in her art school lives far from work and sometimes arrives late because of unwanted traffic experience. Instead of forcing her to follow the standard working hours, she chose to be more understanding and adjust her working hours accordingly. This is due to the fact that she sees the importance of putting yourself in the shoes of her employee and do what’s best for them.
Since her top employee brings a lot of business and performs very well, Cath thinks that she should being more understanding since she doesn’t want to risk losing her due to the lack of trust..
In addition, Mina (32) who is a business operations manager in a bank suggests that:
Promoting a good work-life balance is important in her team
Mina says she puts importance to this balance to keep her team members motivated. “When it’s work, it’s simply work. When it’s a weekend, I do not encourage my team to check on their emails as they work five times a week. Weekends are for relaxation, balancing personal life and needs”, she shares.
Mina finds it effective as two of her top-performing employees have been with her for over five years and still not considering moving out of their company and/or team.
Next, for Kevin (30), store manager of an international lifestyle brand thinks
Saying thank you and recognizing the efforts of his employees goes a long way
Kevin never fails to acknowledge his employees’ efforts as he often posts on their group conversations. Big or small, he never fails to cite their achievements specifically.
“I put great emphasis on recognizing their efforts and thanking them for doing a job well done each day. Without them, our store would earn less which is a no-no. My top-performing employees are mostly the ones who receive recognition — I give everyone equal attention,” he shares.
Kevin believes that, in this way, connecting to your employees through small emphatic ways can lead to greater success and would make them stay and forget about quitting.
Last but not least for Angela (28), a team leader in a multinational business processing outsource, believes in
Trusting the team at all costs
Accordingly to Angela, the only thing that she can be so sure about her team is the amount of trust she has on them. Even though each team member may has varying strengths and weaknesses, but she learned to trust them that they will do their best in every task given. She is also pretty sure that the team will no longer be with her if there is no trust between them.
Being a more open-minded boss, Angela sees trust as a foundation in her team and every staff should be trusted to be responsible for their respective role. Hence, we can conclude that Angela’s leadership explains why trust is vital and can be a good reason to retain the top-performing employees.
Through the above five case studies, it is evident that how bosses and managers treat their teammates affect on how the office environment would be like. There are many different types of bosses or managers, but one of the key traits that shines through in these case studies is empathy. Empathy and understanding of their (top) employees, in order to get the best out of them and ensure that they are happy enough not to quit.
Gino, Kath, Mina, Kevin, and Angela have given feasible and realistic advice for managers to follow, as they themselves practice in their offices. Case in point— if you notice their age groups, they are actually all millennials. Could these be indicators of how millennials deal with their bosses and careers these days? Now that is something to think about!
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