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How do you retain top talent

Published by Colin Nanka

25-40% of people are thinking of quitting their job in the next 6-12 months! Are you one of them?

In a recent article published in Axios titled the Great Resignation Wave, surveys show anywhere from 25% to upwards of 40% of workers are thinking about quitting their jobs. Similarly, a UK and Ireland survey found that 38% of employees were planning to leave their jobs in the next six months to a year.

Why is that?

I’ve read and heard from many people:

 

  • The pandemic has really spurred people to think deeply about what is important to them and how they prioritize that
  • They want to be aligned to a company or organization that meets their values
  • They want to be inspired on the mission of what their company does
  • The job market is very hot right now and will no longer will tolerate working for a bad boss

 

If you are a leader of a team or an aspiring leader, here are some things to think about:

  • People want to know where they stand in their career. Have you had this conversation with your employee and are you both very clear on their long term opportunity and approach?
  • Have you created an environment, especially in this new virtual world where they feel like they belong? Have you helped create their internal company network?
  • Have you created a safe space for them to share their values with you and their peers? Do they align to the company’s values?
  • Are you clear on what they are trying to achieve personally outside the job? Who and what’s important to their family, including kids? 

 

People are making family decisions more than ever before in this pandemic.

 

We need to be closer than ever before to our people when we (currently) lack the ability to see most of them in person.

 

Lead and treat people how you want to be treated.

 

Defeating Average in growing your team and family.

 

Colin

I used to collect stickers…business stickers

Published by Colin Nanka

Passion, joy and something to look forward to is an anecdote to anxiety.

When I was 8 years old, a couple friends and I would call up local businesses and ask if they could send us a few of their business stickers.

We got a lot of – what? Pardon? You want what?

When I think of it now, it sounds a little absurd.

On the other hand, we were very committed. We repeated exactly what we were up to and why we wanted the stickers with no apologies.

“We collect business stickers. We have a big album. We have them from all over Alberta.” (My home province in Canada).

Shiny ones were the best. Often long haul trucking companies had sparkly ones, even better.

Some people would take our address and pop them in the mail. Others would ask us to send them an envelope with return postage. Either was good.  We ended up getting a surprise in the mail and split the stickers.

Maybe I am thinking about it more as Tess starts to grow up and has all sorts of hobbies.

She loves stickers, bracelets, magna tiles (hours of fun).

Whether it’s kids, nieces, nephews or for yourself, passion, joy and something to look forward to can be a critical part of a challenging year.

Defeating Average with sparkly stickers.

Colin

Rock Tumbler

Published by Colin Nanka

I had a rock tumbler when I was younger.

For those who have not heard of it, it’s a small cylinder that spins or tumbles. You put stones in it with some small pebbles that wear down and smooth your stones.  

You leave it running for a few days.

When it’s done you have some beautiful smooth stones and you add to your rock collection.

I was thinking of this lately and why I enjoyed it.

  1. Taking something from rough form
  2. Investing in it over time
  3. The anxiety and excitement of what will result
  4. The reveal and pride in what you produced

 

It made me think of how people invested in me and now transitioning to how I invest in other people.

  1. You have a valuable rough young resource you are responsible for
  2. You listen, you coach, you advise 
  3. You ride the emotional coaster of some success, failure and growth
  4. You graduate someone you manage or mentor into the next state of their career

 

The stone continues to tumble, get smoother and shine.

 

Defeating Average one tumble at a time.

 

Colin

I’m back from PTO and I slowed down!

Published by Colin Nanka

“Pay attention in the present moment. Drink your tea slowly and revelry, as if it’s the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly without rushing towards the future. Live the actual moment, only this moment is life.”

– Thich Nhat Hanh

 

It took me three days on a week-long vacation to SLOW down, rest and restore. 

I had naps in the afternoon instead of writing.

I meditated longer in the morning instead of rushing to get a workout in.

I played in the ocean longer with my daughter Tess, instead of heading to the beach and chunking through the book I was reading.

I was less achievement oriented and I feel like I am coming back more rested!

I lived more in the moment. I did less, and went deeper.

 

In the end, what’s it all for?

This is one of my daily questions I answer.

I spent some time documenting good moments during the days. Something I can refer back to.

Hopefully I can bring at least 2%+ more of this theme back into my work world and find synchronicity between work, family and life.

Defeating Average by taking all your PTO.  

 

That means you!

 

Colin

Here’s the rarest type of employee—and why they outperform everyone else

Published by Colin Nanka

It was after two years of really great success for me and then two years of failure that had me look in the mirror and reevaluate how I approached business. My secret sauce of being a great hardware seller hit a wall in 2008 when every purchase by customers was scrutinized to the nth degree. I realized I need to learn more…myself, from my peers and other people in the industry.

I had some solid skills and was not sharing what I knew freely with other people. One day I decided I was going to give away my best ideas to my peers (and who I somewhat saw as competitors), pay it forward, and ask for help in the process.

What I quickly realized is my two hot pieces of secret sauce were dwarfed in a good way by the 10 nuggets of wisdom I quickly got back. From that day forward #growthmindset was my number one focus.

I believe we are at this inflection point again. The world is too complex and companies are matrixed so that you cannot do it alone.

Summarizing from a recent Adam Grant article on CNBC I think he covers it beautifully.

“Takers see the world as a hyper-competitive rat race. Since they assume that no one else will look out for them, they place their own interests first and last. They may choose to help others strategically, but only when the benefit seems to exceed the cost.

Matchers operate tit for tat. When people do them a favor, they repay in a capacity that is no more, no less. And when they help someone, they expect the same in return.

Givers focus on others more than on themselves. They pay close attention to what people need from them, whether it’s time or ideas or mentorship. A rarity in the workplace, according to Grant, their style is more typical of the way we treat family and friends.

Givers pay it forward

In any given field, you’ll find givers near the top of their career ladder. As they pay it forward, according to a number of studies, givers make for more efficient engineers or higher-grossing salespeople than takers or matchers.

Grant proposes that these high performers are strategic in the choices they make and the limits they set. This, of course, is what also makes them more appealing and desirable to employers.

Most of all, they’ve learned how to get help when they need it, and they’re skilled at receiving as well as giving. “Successful givers are every bit as ambitious as takers and matchers,” Grant writes in his book. “They simply have a different way of pursuing their goals.”

Highly recommend reading the rest of the article and reading any of Adam Grant’s books!

Defeating Average.

Colin

Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.

Published by Colin Nanka

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”

  • Arthur Ashe, Tennis hall of fame player, and presidential medal of freedom recipient

I heard this quote today and it made me think of many different stages of my life.

If I could go back to my younger self and give me this advice I would have said.

Start where you can

  • Focus on learning everyday
  • Realize momentum builds over time and taking the first step is the key

Use what you have

  • Use your stubbornness and discipline and commit to one big thing to improve  every year
  • Keep it simple, life gets complex over time

Do what you can

  • Pay it forward to others and reap the benefits over the next 10 years
  • Help one person every week
  • Put your oxygen mask on first every day

Defeating Average.

 

Colin

My Stressful thoughts overtake my ability to focus

Published by Colin Nanka

I was listening to a podcast last weekend as the guest was answering a passage stuck out.

When I am overloaded, “my stressful thoughts overtake my ability to focus” and I thought yes, that is how I feel some days!

The good news is those days are infrequent and I find it’s helpful to watch for the queues and have a plan

Queues:

  • When I feel like I have so much to do and don’t know where to start
  • When the same single keeps playing in my head about things I can’t control
  • Negative thoughts in general

Antidote:

  • Go for a walk outside and get fresh air
  • Take a breathing or meditative pause and break
  • Write down all the things I have to do, get them out of my head. Circle the Top 3 and work on the first one first.

 

Defeating Average through stress.

 

Colin

Are you missing out on opportunity?

Published by Colin Nanka

Pull your toes on the way up, push through your quads on the way down and widen the circle.

 

Good advice from Peloton instructor Sam Yo last week on one of my regular spin classes.

He was focusing on potential range of motion, power, and output.

It made me think about how that applies to life.

 

You can look at it like 7 pieces of a pie in the wheel of life. 

Spirituality

Career

Finance

Family

Learning

Health and Wellness

Friend and Community

 

If you are not getting your full range of motion, power and output in each area, you are missing out on opportunities.

 

None of us will be hitting 10/10 in all areas and not even close.

 

When we think about how much of the pie and landscape we are covering we can put a spotlight on the areas we would like to focus on…and perhaps pull our toes up a little more.

 

Where are you doing well?

Where can you expand that circle?

 

Defeating Average.

 

Colin

Upskilling and the war for talent

Published by Colin Nanka

We used to call education the four and 40. Go to school for four years, work for 40. What’s now is you are going to have to learn some sort of new skill every four years.

I was listening to a great episode of Masters of Scale (Rapid Response) this week with guest Rachel Carlson,  co-founder and CEO of Guild Education.

She shared “100 million Americans, over two-thirds of the workforce today in America, need re-skilling or upskilling in the next decade in order to be relevant, employable, and be able to survive in the economy of the next decade. The problem is those folks don’t know how to find what school or program they ought to go back to, let alone what they ought to study.”

“So the half-life of a skill is now about four years. So if you’re learning anything skills-based, you are probably getting about four years worth. And so the future of work, the skills are going to evolve, right?

“We call that the four and 40, right? Go to school for four years, work for 40. The four and 40 is dead. So dead. What’s now is the every four. You’re going to have to learn some sort of new skill every four years. Now, I don’t know exactly who your listeners are, but if they’re like you and me, Bob, we’re probably some of the edge cases. You and I will learn the new Slack. And if somebody ever changes and builds the next Excel, we’ll learn the next Excel. But for the vast, vast majority of Americans, literally more than two thirds, they’re going to be wholesale learning new technology every four years. And that’s the reality that we’re not totally reckoning with right now.”

We are entering a new pandemic / post pandemic (depending where you live) economy. Everything will be different.

How will you prepare for your future?

What do you need to accept to be ready?

Defeating Average.

Colin

Are you an imposter?

Published by Colin Nanka

I think we all are at some point. This discussion has been coming up more and more recently.

Are you handling the pandemic ok? Yes, I mean nooo!

How are you handling the scope of your new role? Great, I mean, ugg flailing!

You seem to be onboarding your new team well and meeting customer expectations. Yes, I am! Noooo, I am struggling to keep up!

Does this sound like you at all?

We all have a lot on our plate right now and may feel like an imposter balancing our job, our pandemic life, and our family.

It’s ok to say, woe, it’s a lot right now and sometimes I am on the struggle bus.

People appreciate honesty.

Personally, some days I feel like I have it nailed and the next day, I don’t at all!

What is important during these times?

  • Be gentle with yourself, it’s ok to admit…even to others.
  • Partner with other people who can help you get over the hump.
  • Remember each day is a new day and with good sleep, you will wake up refreshed and be able to begin again.

If you are not struggling right now, it’s possible you are not being honest with yourself.

 

Defeating the struggle together!

 

Colin