Are you about to lose your best leader to The Great Resignation? Here’s how to prepare

Recent media reports about the United States’ Great Resignation started me thinking about what effect it will have on leaders and leadership roles in our private and public sectors.

If the numbers in the US are anything to go by, Australia will soon be facing its own Great Resignation and it could be catastrophic.

Many people now recognise that there can be a better, different way to earn a living, and actually live — instead of battling with a thankless 9-5 job, a massive dull commute, hours spent away from family, pets and friends, and so many other positives that working from home awakened them to.

But it’s not just about COVID-19.

Part of the responsibility for The Great Resignation is with employers, who have created an increasingly stressed and exhausted workforce that they either don’t recognise or understand. This is exacerbated by continuing to use industrial age work practices in a digitally connected world.

For those in senior executive roles the dilemma is two-fold: how do you retain the projected 40% of staff that just want a change, and how do you identify and maintain a leadership cohort and pipeline that could be decimated?

Over-promoting to under-deliver

A mass exodus would see businesses lose great talent and expertise, and to fill that void, people are often ‘over-promoted’ into positions they aren’t ready for. These same people then either buckle under the pressure, or slide straight into survival mode at the expense of everyone around them.

Authentic leaders are among an organisation’s greatest strengths, but they can be scarce at times like this. And let’s not forget what happens to intellectual capital and the bottom line as the competition for good leaders increases — the extent of the loss has an exponential impact and can’t be measured in numbers alone.

Let’s face it, losing a poor leader may actually be a good thing, whereas losing a good one isn’t. In doing so, we lose knowledge, expertise and experience that isn’t easily or quickly replaceable.

Good leaders find it easier to switch roles, change organisations and switch careers as they’re inherently capable and more attractive workforce assets. This means businesses lose the cream every time there is an exodus, and I don’t think the actual impact is truly understood as it often gets dumbed down to merely a numbers game.

Organisations need to understand the broader impact of losing good leaders — on morale, service delivery, and the bottom line — and what to do about it.

If The Great Resignation is here, how do we keep our best leaders, or grow them to fill the void? A healthy work reformation is always a good thing, but will this alleged tsunami break things when it lands?

There are four key ways to ride this wave

1. Creating leaders at every level

   Organisations need to identify, train, and build their future leaders by actively nurturing and developing leadership in every single person, at every single level. To do this you need good senior leaders to mentor junior leaders.

   In addition to offering courses with “leadership” in the title, offer opportunities, events or courses in mindset; resilience; creative writing and thinking; mindfulness; problem solving; staff masterminds; ideas conferences; thinktanks; innovation hubs… The list goes on. This shouldn’t happen in addition to their current workload, nor only once or twice a year. Instead, the training should be implicit through the business every couple of months.

   Creating leaders at all levels will strengthen your talent pool, capability and agility and your people will have a solid grounding so they can step up when you need them to.

2. Wellbeing audits

   These have been around for a while in one form or another, but they’ve come a long way and we’re better at using them than we ever have been. Most importantly, they work if you use them and if you don’t want people walking out the door in droves.

   Use them as you see fit: either for your organisation, team or individual levels, but make sure you include yourself.

   Wellbeing audits are important tools to stem the resignation tide because they give you a perfect opportunity and the evidence to do something that you know matters to your leaders, which in itself improves productivity.

   And do something you must, because unless you demonstrate that you’re genuinely invested in your leaders as individuals, not just as numbers, they will become disenchanted. All you have to do is take notice and act.

3. Research and partnership

   An extension of a wellbeing audit is about finding out what your leaders want — whether it’s working from home or increased flexibility. It’s not about them asking and you giving; rather, it is a genuine partnership arrangement that always prompts an answer to ‘how can we solve this or achieve this together?’

   It only has to be one thing. And it doesn’t even have to be that big. Most people in your organisation understand that you can’t perform miracles — but they do expect you to perform.

   Do your homework. See what others do, read well-credentialed reports and understand best practice. Then ask your own people what they want and do your own thing and deliver — even one action goes a long way. Make sure whatever you do, you do it in a way that is genuine, a true partnership based on honesty, authenticity and reality.

   Of course, you won’t win over or create a partnership with everyone, but you will seed leadership, valuable relationships and understanding with those staff who are your leadership cohort now, at all levels, and your leaders of the future.

4. Do it now

   Take a step forward now. Tsunamis move fast and good leaders anticipate. If you wait until you can feel the icy waters around your feet, it’ll be far too late.