The Manager - 109 - Best employee on the market

Oct 12, 2020

Hi,

Hi,

Hope you are well and safe, and all is good in your world.

It’s busy here at Lambert Towers. We’ve just adopted two adorable kittens. Life is now even more chaotic.

I’ve been busy with my new online Communication Workshop course – thanks to those who took advantage of the discount code (see last week’s The Manager for the code) – hope the course is helping.

This week I’ve been helping people with employability. I don’t advertise my coaching services, but many people are still calling on this historical service to help them in their careers.

It got me thinking about the role of a manager in helping people to remain relevant and employable.

Best Employee on the market

When I was growing and leading a team, I used to say to every single one of my direct reports that I would “help them to be the most employable person in the market”.

My peers and leaders in the organisation tried to stop me saying that. They didn’t want people to be employable in the market – they wanted everyone to stay at our company.

Makes sense – why would we want to lose people?

But it’s crazy thinking by management – and it leads to stupid retention policies like having to pay back training costs if you leave within a year of the training, or employee engagement surveys (Yuck. I have a video coming this week on the problems with engagement surveys).

Here’s why helping people become the most employable person in the marketplace is so important:

If we nurture great talent, we have talented people in our teams and business.
It’s the right thing to do:
1. It’s a human thing to do as a manager – to teach other people.
2. In this week’s video I profiled 5 lessons from Coach John Wooden – one of the lessons was “call yourself a teacher”. Teach and help. It’s what we must do as leaders. As managers. As humans.
People will leave.
1. It’s naïve to think that people will stay at your company forever. So, why not help them with their careers? With their lives?
2. And if they choose to leave (which is outside of your control as a manager) – so be it. We did good. We helped. Now they can help others too.
Average people get average results.
1. Why would we want people working in our organisation that can’t find good work elsewhere? That doesn’t make sense.
2. How will we achieve success with average people?
This is retention.
1. If we help people become the best versions of themselves, learn new skills, take on challenging and meaningful work, stay relevant to the world of work, enjoy what they do, do work that leads them down their own career path – then you have the best retention policy in the world.
2. Who wouldn’t want to work in an environment like that?

And if you’re a manager – try applying this rule to everyone you hire. If you're not a manager - try to find a company that will help you do this, or apply the principles to your own lives. Learn and stay relevant.

Part of a manager's role is to help people become the most employable person in the marketplace. If they stay – you have great people. If they leave – you did your part and you will have helped someone else.

I’m very proud of the work many of my ex direct reports are now doing. Leading teams, writing books, consulting, helping others – I played some part in that.

This is the ultimate form of feedback for managers – seeing how you have helped other people with their lives and work. It takes years to see – but when you see it – treasure it.

After all, it’s our jobs as humans to help other people in any way we can. Managers have an important role in this – to help those under our supervision become the best version of themselves.

Until next time
Rob..

What's new on Cultivated Management?

1. 5 Lessons on leadership from Coach John Wooden.

FOOD FOR YOUR MANAGEMENT BRAIN

1. Pretty simple concept. Simple article. But taking breaks isn't natural to some people - https://www.fastcompany.com/90550785/how-to-intentionally-build-break-times-into-your-workday

2. How to make major decisions during the pandemic - https://www.thelily.com/your-guide-to-making-big-decisions-right-now/?

3. How to encourage employees to disconnect - https://lattice.com/library/how-to-encourage-employees-to-disconnect

4. In the tech world there are loads of companies that people "aspire" to work for - namely big brands with cool products - but as this post shows - the culture of many of these organisations is toxic. This article is important - how to tackle toxic cultures from Pinterests former COO - https://www.inc.com/sophie-downes/toxic-workplace-culture-pinterest-francoise-brougher.html

5. How to fix the tech industries empathy problem - https://www.inc.com/cameron-albert-deitch/tech-industry-empathy-problem-maelle-gavet.html

6. Very tech company heavy this list, but is Amazon spying on politicians? - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/oct/07/eu-lawmakers-ask-jeff-bezos-whether-amazon-spies-on-politicians?

7. Build diverse teams by nurturing junior talent - https://hbr.org/2020/10/want-more-diverse-senior-leadership-sponsor-junior-talent

8. Power your business through conscious leadership - https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/356723

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Thanks
Rob..

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