Don’t Lose Your Top Talent

As the economy begins its slow recovery and the market begins to open up again, some business owners and CEOs are concerned about losing top talent to better positions in other companies. What motivates employees not only to stay in a company, but to really contribute to the company’s success? The answer has little to do with financial compensation and varies for each top performer. As the leader of your business, one way to retain staff is to take the time to learn and understand what motivates each person. Knowing they are appreciated and feeling that their individual needs are being met is a strong motivator for top performing employees.

1:1s are for Top Performers
The goal is to retain top performers, not mediocre employees. Mediocre employees suck the life right out of the company, and they directly and negatively affect top performers. Ask yourself, “What am I doing to avoid perpetuating mediocrity in my company?” Part of the answer is to concentrate your time and effort on retaining top performers and schedule “one-to-ones” (1:1s) with these employees. 1:1s are meetings with individual employees that provide a forum for them to tell you about their working experience, their job satisfaction, and their needs and goals. By initiating 1:1 conversations with your employees on a regular basis, you can find out what means the most to them. This can be anything from flexible hours and telecommuting, to opportunities to work on different projects.

Structure of the 1:1
To get the 1:1 started, ask a few open-ended questions. The goal is to really discover who this person is and what the person needs. Examples include:

-What do you admire or value most here?
-What do you value least in this company?
-What really motivates you to perform at your best?
-What demotivates you?
-What personal goals do you want to fulfill by working here?
-What do you wish you could spend more time doing?
-What is the question you’re hoping I won’t ask you?
-What are we doing that helps you get work done?
-What stands in your way? What can we do about it?
-What impact do you feel you have here and what other kind of impact would you like to have?
-What are you learning and how are you growing here?
-How can we help you do more of that?
-How can I help you be successful?

The goal of this conversation is to get the employee to talk and to reveal things that you didn’t know before. The conversation should result in you discovering what this employee needs from you, what he or she wants to achieve personally, what’s standing in  his or her way, and what you can do about it. You will learn how to help this person be successful and how to retain him or her. Especially when you can’t give employees traditional benefit or compensation increases, the 1:1 gives you another way to show your support.

The information you glean from 1:1s will also help you regularly challenge your top performers. Statistics show that as long as 5% of what they are doing is a big challenge, employees can tolerate the rest of their workload. The information revealed in the 1:1 should also be used to establish the specific performance results that you expect from your employee. These expected results should change as the marketplace changes.

Increase the Effectiveness of the 1:1
As business leaders, we are used to giving instructions but we’re not used to asking questions. However, the 1:1 is a time for listening and not talking. It’s okay to ask a question and just let there be silence while the employee thinks. Managers have a tendency to rush in and clarify the question or probe for an answer to fill an uncomfortable silence. But silence can help the other person think and come out with things that would otherwise be left unsaid. Silence can change the whole conversation.

Keep in mind that you don’t have to have all the answers immediately. You should reserve time once a month to meet individually with your direct reports and make the 1:1s an ongoing process. You can give more thought to what your employee has said, then work it through at your next meeting. In addition to listening and addressing the needs of your top performers, it is also important to make it clear that you really value their contribution. Let them know that you want to help them succeed.