Open, Honest, and Direct: A Guide to Unlocking Your Team's Potential

Introduction

ATTRACT AND RETAIN TOP TALENT

Think of the last time you tried to roll out a new process to your team. You delivered a clean presentation that was simple and easy to digest. You gave your team time to ask questions and gain clarity. You even followed up with an email recapping what was expected of them. You did everything you could to provide the knowledge, believing it would lead to a smooth and intuitive rollout.

But why, only a few days later, are only a handful of people following the new process? Generating a change in the behavior of your people requires more than just telling them what to do and how to do it; it requires them to take action. It’s the same reason only 20% of people ever accomplish their New Year’s resolutions.¹ Why, when people know better, do they not do better? It’s not that people don’t know what to do; the problem is that they don’t take action.

We tend to believe knowledge leads directly to action; that is, someone knows what to do, then they do it. I find this to be a fallacy in our understanding of human behavior—and the reasons for this are fascinating.

WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO

To better understand the knowledge-to-action gap, I took a deep dive into the science of human behavior some years ago. I wanted to find out why people do what they do and what triggers some people to take action in their lives while others do not. I looked back to the history of Homo sapiens, trying to understand where our instincts originated. I read philosophy to better appreciate the perspective on the human condition from generations past. I researched the perplexities of the human brain and cognitive biases from behavioral economists like Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky and looked at the importance of intrinsic motivation in driving human behavior from the likes of Ed Deci and Richard Ryan. I explored how social constructs nudge our decision making in one direction or another. And I even looked at casinos and grocery stores to understand how space design—the environment you’re surrounded by—can influence your decisions.

All of this research helped paint a picture of why we do what we do. But it wasn’t enough. I really wanted to know how this worked in real life, with real people. I was fortunate to be the first employee at a health and well-being coaching and education organization right out of college, led by two physicians who viewed medicine from a whole new perspective. Instead of seeking to fix the sick, they wanted to see how we could look upstream at the problem; they dove into the question of human behavior with the very same curiosity I had. As the director of education and delivery at that organization, I had the perfect opportunity to test out these theories in real life.

Our client base gave me the chance to work with thousands of leaders from all over the country, across varied socioeconomic backgrounds, generations, and denominations. It became my playground to explore behavior change. I started testing what worked to trigger change in people’s lives—from yearlong coaching, weeklong training programs, and experiential workshops to lunch-and-learns, webinars, and even animated videos.

We tried everything, and through these mini experiments, I discovered two key insights that made a profound impact on my future, ultimately leading me here.

Discovery 1

I found what really works to drive a human being from knowledge to action and how to do this rapidly and effectively. All of the work I’ve done with leaders since has been based on this key learning and even informs how I’ve laid out this book for you to read. I care more about you taking action as a result of reading this book than anything else, so the book is designed in a way for you to do, not to simply know.

Discovery 2

In my work with thousands of leaders, I noticed what gives me the most joy is seeing the light switch go on for a leader. And once the light turns on, I’m awed at the way these leaders quickly take action, not just in that one area but also across various other domains in their lives and business. I uncovered how far-reaching and profound one intentional, consistent change can be on a leader and a company’s performance.

The feeling of helping someone tap into their potential invigorates me, and even now, writing about it, I feel my heart beating faster with energy and excitement. This clarity shifted my perspective of the world and my role within it. I realized that helping people unlock their potential is what I love doing. It’s what fills me up. And my eyes immediately opened to the problems and possibilities around me. I began asking some different questions of myself.

How can I serve more people in unlocking their potential? Where could I maximize my impact? What problem would I be solving? In searching for a better answer to these questions, I was led to a $30 billion problem and realized I could do something about it.

MILLENNIAL TURNOVER: THE $30 BILLION PROBLEM

For quite some time, I’ve observed people—millennials in particular—jumping from job to job, sometimes leaving incredible positions for reasons I couldn’t logically understand. I had a friend, Harry, who was making well over $150,000 at twenty-five years old. He kept getting promotions and raises at a rapidly growing company, where he worked with a few of his good friends—and they even had a barista on staff. Yet only three months after his most recent promotion, Harry quit.

The crazy part is that he wasn’t recruited by another company; he wasn’t starting his own business. He simply left to sit on his couch and figure things out. I remember being really confused. He seemed to have all the things you’d want at a company, and yet he still left. I asked him what his reasons were at the time, and he told me, I didn’t feel like I had the opportunity to grow and develop myself, and if I couldn’t see myself there in five years, why should I stay?

Harry’s story sparked a fire in me. I began interviewing friends, clients, and anyone who would talk to me about their job and their future desires. Virtually all of them said they were in the process of searching for a new job or not planning to stay with their organization for more than two or three years. After more research, I found these stories weren’t all that unique. Millennials everywhere—even today—are going from job to job, staying months instead of years. According to a recent survey, only 27% of millennials were expected to stay at their current company for the next four years.²

As a millennial myself, I wanted to know what was going on. What was causing this enormous turnover?

What I found was simple yet powerful. In almost every leave story, I observed a perceived lack of one or more of these factors, factors that apply to your workforce today:

1. The desire to do work that makes an impact

2. The need to feel connected to your team, company, and boss

3. The belief that your company cares deeply about your growth and development

Millennials want to do work that makes an impact, to do something with real purpose to it. This doesn’t necessarily mean working for a nonprofit whose mission is to rid the world of illness or poverty. Millennials want to know, within whatever company or organization they join, that the work they do matters and how it plays a role in the company’s success.

I consistently see how a millennial’s desire to be heard and recognized is often misconstrued as a desire for instant gratification or to be coddled. In reality, their behavior has to do with a desire for a feeling of connectedness to their company and the feeling that their opinions and perspectives are valued by their leaders and team.

Like Harry, millennials’ most common reason for leaving a job is that they don’t feel their company truly cares about their growth and development. Often, it breaks down at the manager level, with the manager seeing the millennial as a to-do on their weekly task list instead of as a future leader to grow and nurture.

You might be thinking these are not just millennial needs; these are basic human needs any person wants in life. Don’t we all want to make a difference, to be heard, and to grow and develop?

You’re right. These needs are not unique to millennials—although there is a key difference. Millennials not only need these factors in their life but also have come to expect them from their workplace, which is vastly different from the Gen Xers, baby boomers, and traditionalists who came before them.

To better explain, there are a variety of reasons—including the changing world of work, the nature of our current on-demand society, and various inciting incidents—that have affected the experiences of an entire generation. (The generations conversation is a different conversation for another day. If you want to know more about why the millennial generation is different, I share more in the bonus chapter at the end of the book.) What I noticed from all of this was a group of people who were not satisfied with their work, who were not unlocking their potential, and who were hoping that the next role they landed would magically tap into it. It was a disturbing hope.

I was lucky; I found my potential in my very first role. Many others aren’t so lucky.

I looked at the problem from the perspective of an organization or a business leader and found that employee turnover costs US businesses more than $30 billion per year. And it’s not a problem that can simply be avoided by not hiring millennials.³

According to a 2016 Gallup Study, millennials already account for 38% of the entire workforce and are expected to be 75% of the workforce by 2025.⁴ Rather than being an issue about millennials, this is an issue about the largest population in the workforce—one critical to the growth and future success of any business.

It’s a two-sided problem, one where the employee wants to be at their best, to reach their potential, but has no idea of where to do this, how it happens, and what to do to ensure their next job is the one that connects them with their potential. The other side of the problem comes from companies wanting their employees to be at their best and not knowing how to get the most out of their people. Both sides are losing, and an end doesn’t seem to be in sight. One reason is that it’s even easier now more than ever for employees to leave when something’s not working because the labor market is so competitive. The shorter employee life cycle only makes this problem harder and more critical to solve.

THE WAR FOR TALENT IS REAL

Record low unemployment is making it harder and harder for growing companies to find and hire top talent and, conversely, easier for talent to switch jobs. I was at lunch a few months ago with four successful entrepreneurs, and like most conversations, the topic quickly turned to their most pressing concern—hiring talent. One founder rolled his eyes, another sighed, and they all complained about the difficulty and the fierce competition around attracting top talent. These entrepreneurs are impressive; one just raised $40 million, another is on Crain’s Fastest Growing Companies, and they were all exasperated with the struggle to find the right employees to grow their companies.

Although low unemployment is good for the economy, the lower the unemployment rate is, the harder it is for businesses to find good employees. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate dropped to 3.9%, which is the lowest point since the late 1960s. If you take a deeper dive into the data over time, you’ll find unemployment for adults over twenty-five is 3.1%, and for those with a bachelor’s degree or higher, it’s at 2%—making it even harder to find talent with a degree.⁵

The issue of attracting talent is real. Attracting talent is something companies must focus their energy and resources on. Yet, in meeting with 400+ businesses in the past twenty-four months, I’ve noticed a trend—more of a trap—that most of these companies fall into.

Companies look at the problem of attracting top talent, and, instead of taking a long-term approach, they often focus on a short-term solution: throwing money at it. It’s as if they are dealing with a leaking bucket, and, instead of taking time to fix the leak, they just keep adding more water to replace what’s flowing out.

As people continue to leave, companies try to solve the problem by adding more people to replace them. They focus on filling the bucket with more talent and making the opening of the bucket look prettier so more people will want to jump in.

A perfect example of this can be seen in a fast-growing tech company in Chicago—let’s call them Company X—that just raised $7 million. Most of the funding is going into hiring tech talent to develop Company X’s product for new markets and into building out its gorgeous new office space with a game room, nap room, kombucha on tap, and a cereal bar. To hire the needed developers, coders, and digital marketers, the company pays a recruiting firm 25% of each new hire’s starting salary. At an average salary of $150,000, Company X pays out $750,000 across three recruitment companies just to hire twenty new employees. At the company’s current turnover rate of 30%, Company X will also need to hire six more people in the next year just to maintain its team; it’s throwing away $225,000 to recruiters each year.

Most companies hire recruiters, pay exorbitant recruitment fees, enhance their perk packages, and continue to raise salaries—even though people are leaving almost as fast as they are hired. The cyclical nature of this problem, which most companies find themselves in, creates a huge opportunity—one that only a few organizations have tapped into. Instead of focusing on the trap of attracting talent — on filling the bucket with more water—strategic leaders take the time to fix the hole in the bucket by focusing on talent retention.

FIXING THE LEAK

This is where I’ve decided to put my energy. It’s how I’ve found I can best help people unlock their potential. You may have heard the phrase, It’s cheaper to keep a client than to find a new one. I believe the same holds true for your employees. I’ve seen how companies who provide