How Bad Managers Drive Turnover

The Employee Turnover Blame Game

Is it just a coincidence that the worst managers usually blame their employee turnover on pay? Not enough staff? HR recruits ineffective workers? That leaders with bad management styles see employees’ reasons for leaving as every possible one but themselves?

I think not. Our studies match those of other respected organizations, that the number one reason employees stay or leave…or engage or disengage…is how much they trust their boss. “Boss” in this case means immediate supervisor, the next level up, and the impact of these first-line leaders is so strong that leaders on each level above them can do little to overcome their shortcomings. Or for that matter, improve on their strengths. These leaders’ day-to-day behaviors result in either good management styles or bad management styles.

Savvy managers move their retention and engagement compass away from most companies’ knee-jerk solutions, mainly one-size-fits-all programs, and instead aim this responsibility squarely upon themselves. These managers empirically know that their ability to build trustworthy relationships with each member of their teams brings out the best in each of their employees. And their employees feel such a resulting emotional connection that they work their hardest and smartest, while searching out ways to contribute more. And they also want to stay. Contrast this with bad management behavior where leader-employee connections hardly happen at all.

This connect-the-dots combination of “You have built trust with me so I will give my best and stay here for a long time” is the backbone of the holy grail all organizations seek, better employee engagement and retention.

Bad Managers Break Trust which Drives Turnover

How do bad managers break trust? The obvious ways are by commission, things they actively do such as tell lies, break confidences, and unjustly favor one employee over another. But many bad managers also break trust by omission, by failing to do things good managers do. And too often these managers fail to do these behaviors unintentionally, with no knowledge they are losing their team’s trust in the process. Here are the top 3 ways we see bad managers unintentionally break trust:

1. Provide the daily silent treatment.

These managers provide little informal, voluntary interaction, and instead focus their energies on their own work instead the work of their teams. Their core belief of “I do mine, you do yours” sets a bad leadership example. They become present for required meetings and expected interactions but for little else. And seeing employees as replaceable parts becomes natural to them because they never see their teams as humans. Trading their teams for robots would be terrific for them.

For employees, the silent manager is just a mystery. So his employees consult their imaginations to fill in the blanks on what their communication-absent manager thinks of them. And they see no evidence to believe it’s good. So the result of this bad management style is suspicion at best, turnover at worst.

2. Micromanage to get the precise outcomes they want.

Ultimately, managers who coach others too closely are simply saying “I don’t trust you to get it right yourself” which is a bad manager behavior. Regardless if their employees have 10 years of experience or 10 months, the micromanager wants full control of strategies, tactics, outcomes, and usually credit, too. Employees become their tools for their own success, and those employees never become quite good enough because the micromanager cannot release the employee from his over-reaching grasp. Instead, the micromanager’s ego whispers to himself, “Good thing I’m so effective because other people never are”.

The micromanager’s ways produce the opposite environment for employee engagement and retention. Which qualified employees would want to work under strict tactical management every hour, with little chance of growth and no chance of achievement?

3. Giving “feedback” to help you grow.

“Feedback” has grown to encompass many forms of communication in our society, but for the non-trustworthy manager feedback has only one meaning: Telling others what they did wrong. Missing is telling them what they did right.

At best, the “feedback” manager’s employees develop a “No-news-is-good-news” approach, again resulting from their leader’s bad management style.  But at worst they wear down over time from the broad-sided or subtle hits to their self-esteem, when going to work becomes a completely eclipsed, dark spot in their lives. Work harder? Give more? Stay longer? Instead these employees have been tossed into an emotional survival mode, and they seek the freshness of new opportunities as soon as they can, causing even more employee turnover.

Good Managers Build Trust and Improve Turnover

What makes a good manager? The full list of trust-building behaviors is long, but these 3 ways leap out as core, as getting these methods right builds the foundation for deep-seated, engagement- and retention-building relationships. This list represents good management skills.

1. Listen intently and patiently.

Let’s first acknowledge that managers cannot always drop what they are doing to lend a fully-focused ear, but they can always say “Can we continue this conversation at 2 PM?” And, yes, some employees will talk that ear off, as they say, with non-work chit-chat. But savvy leaders know how to re-direct those conversations into meaningful ones.

Listening builds trust because it shows that the listener cares. Make time, delivering attention via eye contact, taking notes, and asking probing questions all convey the same message, that your thinking is important to me. Good listeners separate their own needs from the moment by resisting pulling the conversation to themselves, for example saying, “That happened to me once so let me tell you about it”. They instead hear the speaker’s words but listen for the speaker’s emotions, as those emotions are always the most important message for the speaker. Responding by addressing those emotions such as, “You seem really happy/sad/angry about that” sends the clear, unfiltered message back that I am with you…and I care. Any listing of how to be a great manager must start with good listening skills.

2. Show professional and personal interest, from the heart.

Employees bring one hundred percent of their lives to work, not just the work part. Even though some employees express the non-work part more than others, all of those parts are with them each day. Smart managers understand this so they draw careful but loving lines between work and non-work topics. Because they care, they listen to all parts of their employees’ lives but rarely cross the line of giving advice.

Likewise, caring managers give feedback in ways that honor the full person instead of just the work one. They include phrases like, “I am telling you this because I care about you, and I want you to succeed”, rather than delivering cold, uncomfortable declarations of improvement instructions. Best management styles must include caring for the whole person instead of just the “work” one.

3. Credit good work, no exceptions.

Trustworthy managers look for good performance so they can co-celebrate it with their teams, both with individuals and groups. They intuitively know the difference between a common, expected achievement and a substantial one, realizing that making a small achievement large will hurt their credibility rather than grow it.

They have usually caught on early that the greatest of all motivators is achievement, so giving feedback that is specific, timely, and with smiles/handshakes and other proper non-verbal behaviors go far to make their teams want to stay and work harder.

Great Managers Shift to Meet Employees’ Individual Needs and Cut Turnover

So what makes a great manager? And how do managers develop good management skills? Stay Interviews provide these savvy managers with the pathway to learn precisely what their individual employees need…and how effectively those managers are fulfilling those needs…and help each leader develop the very best management style. For example, one employee might crave public recognition in front of peers, whereas another believes she gets no recognition whatsoever. Or another employee defines caring as his manager delivering solid career guidance while his peer who works beside him just wants to work each day and go home. Employees come in all shapes and sizes, physically and emotionally, and the very best managers must stretch their own levels of understanding to learn, adapt, and accommodate to those various employee needs.

Our company consistently helps client companies cut turnover by 20% and more, and our solution training first-line managers to conduct Stay Interviews, plus costing turnover, establishing retention goals, and forecasting how long each employee will stay…and then holding them accountable for retention outcomes. The key to improving managers who ultimately improve turnover is the scripting and training related to the five specific Stay Interview questions:

1. When you travel to work each day, what things do you look forward to? To begin with a positive question that brings the employee’s thinking into the present hour here and now.
2. What are you learning here? Helping employees learn is an easy gift to give, whereas career talk should be reserved for those employees who might actually have a career with your company.
3. Why do you stay here? My favorite, in part because many employees don’t immediately know the answer and therefore must discover it and announce it to themselves. And knowing this answer along with the answer to Q1 tells us how to make employees happy.
4. When was the last time you thought about leaving our team? And what prompted it? “When” signifies that everyone thinks about leaving so it’s OK to say you think about it, too. And responding to Q3 above means you have now presented a balanced position of why you stay and could leave.
5. What can I do as your manager to make working here better for you? We close by addressing the relationship between us.

By applying skills like listening, probing, and taking notes, about 90% of employees tell the truth.

The Stay Interview manager uses these precise skills for learning and providing for each employee’s unique needs. And when managers acknowledge, respond, and even make a few changes to day-to-day work, magic happens and employees stay longer. The result is the highest level of achievement for managers to retain and further engage their teams to meet and achieve all of their operational goals.

You Can Cut Turnover by 20% or More, No Matter Your Industry

There is an established solution for employee turnover…start here to learn our comprehensive turnover solution, and watch the 2-minute video to open your eyes to fresh thinking for cutting turnover 20% and more. Then schedule a conversation with me at DFinnegan@C-SuiteAnalytics.com.