Season 4 Episode 3: The Word on Coaching - The Great Resignation

The Word on Coaching podcasts are created by Coaches3 who are JoAnn Auger, Debby Neely, and Kevin Fuselier.  In this episode, we share statistics on the Great Resignation and how leaders can engage their employees and create an environment where people will want to stay. We also share tips on things leaders can do and say to make employees feel valued and appreciated in the workplace. We hope you find this episode engaging, thought-provoking, and encouraging.

Make sure to check out more of The Word on Coaching podcasts and follow Coaches3 on Facebook for more resources and tips for being a leader-coach!

Transcript

JoAnn: 0:01

Hello, and welcome to the word on coaching. I am Joanne and I'm here with my friends and colleagues, Debbie and Kevin. And we're really excited to be here today. Because this is our time to catch up as friends, but also I think we have a topic today that is extremely relevant, in fact, almost too relevant, but to let you know who we are for some of you that are tuning in for the first time, there were three friends. With years of, we won't say how many years, but years of leadership and coaching experience who want to share our passion with others and we call ourselves coaches. These podcasts are for leaders or rather you have that title or not. We focus on leadership and coaching. We along with our guests give you tips and information and some kinds of fresh perspective. And always, always a lot of support because we all have been there. We know that leadership is hard. So today's topic is one that many of you will have heard this numerous times, but we're going to be talking about the great resignation. And how as a coach do we coach through these times, we all know that the COVID-19 pandemic has had numerous impacts on the workforce. And we're going to keep the topic to the workforce today. And it's caused. Employees to start asking a lot of questions. Like, what do I actually get from my job? Who am I without my job? Is this job worth it? And what else is out there waiting on me?

Debby: 1:48

Yeah. You know, there's no greater motivator than a global pandemic, right. To remind you that life is short. Of course that's aside from war. And unfortunately that's a topic that's become very real for all of us to, you know, there were more than 47 million people who call it quits last year, 47 million that's that's crazy. And that's really the reason that has been called the great resignation

Kevin: 2:13

Gallup of course, has been doing some research and they recently surveyed U.S. Employees to get more insights on why employees are looking for new jobs and they identified six factors, and most of these factors aren't new. You probably won't be surprised from this information. If you've ever followed the Gallup's yearly state of employee research It goes hand in hand with that. And the six factors are more income and or benefits. That is the number one reason people are looking for new jobs. Then work-life balance and personal wellbeing. And I think it's very interesting that during these times, it's important to note that one in four people who considered quitting their job cited their mental health as a reason. Hmm. Continue on with this list, opportunity to do what they do. Best people are looking for a better job match stability and security. People are looking for something that I can depend on and rely on then. COVID policies. People are really starting to align what they believe with where they work. And sometimes companies have policies that don't align with how people believe or how they choose to live their life. And so they have chosen different paths and then. Some people are still looking for different types of diversity. And I believe everyone's looking for inclusivity, but diversity and inclusivity rounds out that list. Those are the six things, not a lot of new things on there, but I think some of them are becoming more important to.

JoAnn: 3:49

If nothing else, they are very highlighted in a lot of different ways right now. Right. I think it's fair to, I want to mention the article that we gathered, some of this information from was produced by the market watch list. And, the author of the article, goes by the name of Quentin Bottrell. So I want to give him credit for some of the stats, that he shared on this, know we would all agree that. As leaders, we feel like we've been crashing around and uncharted waters. Right? So many of the leaders that I know that I've been talking to say that not only are they doing with all this stuff, what makes it even harder is that they've never been there before. Oftentimes when we seek out a mentor, Our coach. We were hoping that that person's been there before, but for some of these things, especially all the things that were happening at the same time, many of us, no one's been there. So people are looking for help and looking for solutions. So the question comes to mind, we're three coaches. How does coaching fit in to all of this? Well, let me say, first of all, we're not suggesting that coaching is the answer close, but not the answer to everything. We do think coaching. can help. Leaders gather different perspectives and insight and even solutions by asking powerful questions and really deep listening. And if there's never been a time for leaders to be listening, it's now. For the next few minutes, we want to offer a, what we've observed and learned in the past two years after, being in these uncertain times, like the rest of you. Want to start off by asking you and Debby, I'd like to kick us off. Why should now this time be a bigger deal than pre pandemic.

Debby: 5:48

Yeah, well, simply put, you know, people have less emotional bandwidth still at the things coming at them. I mean, think about it. You were switched to working from home and then some of you are back in the office and the, maybe you were even back home again and your daycares were closed and then they were open. And then, there was outbreak. And so you're you, you had to deal with daycare issues. You're worried about your elderly care. The rules were changing daily. Do you wear a mask? Do you not wear a mask? It, there was this a lot, trying to keep up with things emotionally and then people really got thinking about what's their true purpose? What are their core values? What's most important to them and let's face it. This is all really draining stuff.

Kevin: 6:29

I think some people are just tired. I mean, it's kind of anticipated that this would be over that this will come to an end the finish line keeps getting pushed out farther and farther and farther. And I think people are really starting to get fatigued I know we've heard different people discuss this, say, about the sandwich generation, where the people are caring for their parents, and now they're caring for their children that are kind of feel squeezed like a sandwich generation. Well, I feel like we've moved into a spaghetti generation where it's not so clean, cut. Everything is just kind of all mixed up together. And some days it's hard to make heads or tails of what's going on, but you're just kind of working through all this. I think one of the things through all this is getting perspective. When we talk about coaching, I think just being there to plug in with people and help them get a perspective on what's going on with them and what's going on around them is how we can start to try to bring coaching or even listening and asking good questions into this.

JoAnn: 7:33

Yeah. And I agree with everything you guys have said. I do agree that we are all suffering from pandemic fatigue. Right? One of the things that I really noticed is Debbie kind of put it all together is that unknowing and that uncertainty. Kevin you said, you know, looking for a finish line, quite frankly, I don't think there is a finish line. I think there's just a curve having to adjust that. And, you know, as people who are used to having beginnings and endings we haven't seen this. Right. And what's even worse. Other things are being, it's like a Pile on that we have other things that are now being piled on top of this. The question comes as leaders. What do we do? So Kev, talk about how, is leadership showing up right now?

Kevin: 8:30

Well, the thing about it, I think this is a critical time for leaders to be able to step in and step up. We talked about unchartered waters, I think many times that's where people. Leaders can emerge. Maybe they didn't see themselves as a leader, or maybe they were struggling and being a leader, but this is the time for leaders to truly step up. It may be tough to lead now, but more than any time or as this, maybe not more than any time, but this is a critical time for leaders to step up in a recent poll with some more numbers from Good Hire they stayed at the 80% of American workers. Would quit their job because of a bad manager. Now think about that before we were talking about bandwidth where now people, they don't want to add that to their list. They don't want their list that I have to go to work and have a bad manager. 80% of people are willing to walk away from their job because of a bad manager. And that's why I said it's time for leaders to step up. And maybe before the pandemic, people would hang on and think, oh, my boss is going to get better. But now people because of the fatigue, because of the multiple expectations, people don't have as much tolerance. To say, I'm going to stay around here until my leader gets better. They want to go in search of a better leader. as leaders, it's time to make yourself known and lead in a way that people will take notice and that you'll be able to meet the needs of the people that you're leading.

Debby: 10:09

Yeah. I think leaders really have been pushed outside their comfort zone. You know, you're leading in a lot of ambiguity with people don't. Anyway, right. We don't like the uncertainty and not knowing because at least if we can say, we kinda know what's going to happen, or we know what were the outcome we're shooting for, we can do some kind of action. And I think with all that ambiguity, they don't know that. And so being pushed outside your comfort zone in that way, but also being a caring leader like you, you do have to, to check in on people's wellbeing and for some leaders that's not comfortable. For them to have that their compassion come out and share, their compassion. I mean, I think people have to remember managers. Aren't perfect. They're they're human beings are not robots. Right? And so we have to cut leaders some slack, I read this great article from Harvard business review recently that talked about you can have compassion and accountability. And to me that's really the crux of coaching. Is coaching gets you the accountability, right? You get results. And it also helps you show people that you have compassion for them. And so I think all that's really important stuff to remember too. Well,

Kevin: 11:20

I want to check in on some J and not to jump in front of you, but I want to check in on something. I don't want to be in a place where I'm saying, well, leaders should do this and leaders should do. To imply that they aren't already doing it. What I want to encourage people as this is an opportunity, people are looking for good leaders, and this is an opportunity for you to exemplify what a good leader is. And as people take notice, you can attract talent, you can increase your influence by doing these things and to see this time as an opportunity. So I just want to clarify that, that I'm not trying to say all these things that leaders should do. Some of you are already doing. Look at this as an opportunity to do it even more and let your light shine even brighter.

JoAnn: 12:03

I couldn't agree more. Yes. We're here to support and help. I think one of the things I wanted to add to this is as leaders, the more transparent you can be and honest you can be about where you are in all of this. Your employees can have empathy towards you. When you can say, I have no clue where we're headed. I don't know what we're going to do, but I know this we're in it together and we'll figure it out together. So Kevin, I agree is that we're not suggesting that you're not doing it. This is, we're all struggling with this. I have heard that one of the things that employees really have struggled with during the pandemic is they don't feel very valued by their organization or their leadership. So Debby how does coaching support and an employee feeling valued?

Debby: 12:55

I think where we have to start with that is really the foundation for coaching, which is about asking questions. So the first question I would ask leaders out there is, do you know how each of your employees would personally define being valued? Because we all would define that a little different. We all have our ways of what that means to us, how we prefer it, those types of things. And our recommendation is if you don't know the answer to that for your employees, don't make assumptions. Ask them, they'll be happy to talk to you about it. In fact, they're probably be very happy that you asked, right. That you're, that you're showing the interests and what that means to them.

Kevin: 13:37

I think simple things like acknowledging people's hard work, acknowledging their contribution. Spending time to write the thank you note, calling up someone you haven't seen and just checking on them to let them know that, Hey, I am thinking about you even though. I'm in the office and you're out of the office or you're out of the office that I'm in, you know, whichever way it goes, just checking in with people and acknowledging them and, really scheduling some times for those people that you need to maintain those relationships with is not leaving it up to chance to run into that person. But being intention. And setting up times to check in with people. These conversations don't have to be long They can be seven minutes, 15 minutes. But just the fact that you are checking in on people less than know that you are a part of this team, you are part of this group. We haven't forgotten about you. And I do care about you as a person, you know, and just checking in and seeing where they are. And like Debbie said, sometimes just asking people, what do you need? How can I help? How can I support and just offering that up to people.

JoAnn: 14:44

Yes. Now I was talking to a leader the other day, who's working sometimes up to 15 hours a day, just trying to keep it all together. We were talking about, he felt like some of his. Team, we're not really engaged. And we talked about the dependent MC fatigue and all of that. And one of the things we talked about was him checking in with his employees and he's like, ah, he said, man, I don't know how I could add that to my day. I've got so many things going on, I guess, just get busy, trying to keep it all together. And I think he came up with a really great Solution, because we talked about priorities and we talked about, prioritizing priorities, right. What's really important. You know, one of the things that really warmed my heart, he said, you know, I got to remember none of this gets done without. Right. If you're not here. So he decided that he was going to actually schedule on his calendar 30 minutes every day to personally acknowledge one or two of his employees, call them up and say, I was just checking on you. And I think those are simple things. Yeah. They take time. But he said, if I don't put it on my calendar, Right. So those are some things that, you know, you could think about doing as a, as a leader is put some things on your calendar that you would like to do. But if they don't see it on your calendar, it's not going to happen.

Kevin: 16:13

And don't forget the.

Debby: 16:15

I was going to say, what I really love about that too. Joanne is I think a lot of leaders feel like when they do team meetings and that is a check-in with the team that's on a check-in with individuals. Right. And so making sure you're making that one-on-one time. And that means a lot to people that someone made that one-on-one time to check in with them individually. You know, we talk about the power of. Making people feel seen and heard. And to me, that's got one-on-one and just spending a little bit of time, actually listening to them. I mean, you're going to learn so much about that person and about what's going on, but it's going to get you so much more when it comes to them, feeling valued and wanting to do even more in their, role than just show up and do the bare minimum.

Kevin: 17:04

I was just going to jump in there just to add onto that. It's, don't forget about development. People still want to be developed. They want to get smarter, faster, stronger, highly skilled. No one wants to be left behind in the skills economy that we're in. spending that time. Help the person find some development that's applicable to them. That feels like you're interested in me staying and interested in me getting better. And that makes some people feel valued because you're actually making an investment in the person. And that's how you can demonstrate it by beyond just words is demonstrating it by putting some development dollars or some development time into play in these different conversations.

Debby: 17:48

Yeah. I tell a lot of people that feels like a reward. I hear a lot of leaders say, oh, I only have so much bonus money or so, you know, but it doesn't always have to be money. I mean, money works for a lot of people, you know, will lie. And there are other ways to have people feel recognized and diet and development, investing in them through development for a lot of people back feels like your reward.

JoAnn: 18:11

And, you know, to wrap this up, I think Debbie, you mentioned it earlier, you know, is the more valued someone feels, the more likely they stay with you and isn't that what we want as leaders. We want our folks to stay with us. Right, right,

Kevin: 18:26

right. Right.

JoAnn: 18:28

Well, I know that we could dig into each one of these factors that Gallup put forth and. Unfortunately, we don't have that much time and we don't have answers. I think what we'd like to do here for our audience is maybe to give some overall tips of how coaching could really support these things, what I'd like to do is for the rest of the time guys us to talk about how coaching could support these factors. And I think one of the ways that it starts and it, and I think Debbie, you mentioned it earlier is the environment. So how does environment play into all of this?

Debby: 19:14

I think environment is huge, right? Because you know, I hear from a lot of employees where they'll say, oh, the. The value, my values don't align with my team's values or the company's values that goes to the environment that they're in. If they feel like I'm back to, they feel like they're not getting rewarded, or someone's not looking for their best interest. If they're not getting feedback, I had someone the other day say the only time I get feedback is when I've done something wrong. I never get feedback. It's kind of like the no news is good news. I never get. Feedback when I've done something right. And I had another employee telling me they were so impressed when their leader asked them for feedback, like, okay, what you know, what, what could I be doing differently or what what's working for you? And actually ask their opinion on that. And they were like, that creates an environment where I want to come to work and I want to do my best,

JoAnn: 20:08

Employees want to work in an environment that they. Right to ask those questions, to share their ideas or even to push back sometimes you know, it is so important that that environment exists, that people feel like that what they have to say, people will, that leadership will listen to and apply value to it. As a leader, Don't underestimate our role in creating an environment where people feel safe, where people feel, you know, excited about being there because they, their ideas are minimum listened to and often acted upon.

Kevin: 20:47

I often think about the conversations that we used to have a long time ago about someone being there, being their best. We have these conversations about me at my best, and I believe leaders as they're coaching and having conversations with their people. A simple question could be, what do you need? Right now to be your best. And let's talk about that. What that means. Do you need a flexible work schedule? Do you need more money? Do you need more time off? Do you need different types of work? What do you need to do your best? Do you need a administrative support? Do you need a thought partner? Do you need access to other people in the organization? What do you need to be your best? We'll give them an opportunity to talk about all these things that are on this list. If they really need more money, they may, I have four children in college. I need more money. You know, how does that happen? Whatever that, whatever that might be here. But one of those things was opportunity to do what they do best. Sometimes you have really good people that are misaligned with the work that they're doing, and they may be spending more of their time doing. Things outside of their job description when they may want to just focus on the things that they need to focus on. And there are many times when just I've experienced it in the past, where just talking to my team and talking to them about the work. That they came up with a better solution on how to organize the work than I ever would have. And I was like, well, I'm so glad we talked about this because I didn't have the answer. But the team was like, well, what if this person does this, then I can do this and I can do this. And at the end of the conversation, everybody was happier. I was happier because they were happier and we were getting the work done. And that's what, that's what really, mattered is just pausing long enough to have that conversation and just asking people, what do you need? To be your best and then listening to what they say.

Debby: 22:54

Yeah. I think that opportunity to do your best to go to strengths, if you're, if people are not in a good fit role, they're, you know, they, they're not playing to their strengths, their bosses and know what their strengths are right there. Those are all things that can be really helpful is make sure you're focusing on people's strengths and you're setting people up for success. I also want to say one thing I love about question. We talk about this all the time is a coach. You know, a leader coach is there to support the person and, and you support them in thinking it through and figuring it out and all of that, but ultimately the employee or the person being coached owns it. Right. So we don't, I don't want to infer that a leader should be taking on. People's problems or issues, that type of thing. You're there to support them. And ultimately that person owns their wellbeing. So while it's great that you're a leader might ask you. I think a leader creates that environment where people can come to them and say this, you know, this is what I need, or I'm having an issue with my, my wellbeing or, you know, that type of thing. And that's part of it too, because leaders have enough on their plate. They don't need to take on other people's issues and problems as well.

JoAnn: 24:08

I so agree, you know, I was speaking with a leader the other day, who had an employee come to him and say, Hey, you know, I've been offered this other position and it's more money and it's closer to home. And I'm really thinking about it, thinking about taking it and the latest. His first reaction in his head was he says, and thank goodness, it was just somebody who's like, are you kidding me? We're, we're struggling here. And you're going to be so disloyal by leaving us. And, and he said, what? I had better. Yeah. Pause for a second. Then I asked him, he's like, well, what can we do to keep. And, and he had to be honest, it couldn't be money because they were stressed, but what could, what could they do? And what a powerful question to ask, what can we do to keep you? And he said it turned out to be a really good conversation now, to be honest, he's not sure if they're going to keep this person or not, but the person told him at the end of the conversation, Thank you. I, I didn't realize you valued me that much. And it was a big learning lesson for that leader as well, but at what a powerful question that leader asked, and it opened a great conversation and the leader was open and honest and transparent about job security and what, what he could and couldn't do. And the employee really appreciated it. Well guys, we could keep talking couldn't really, but we need to kind of wrap it up and we've been doing this for a while. So you all know that we always ask our guests is where are the guests today? We ask them three questions. So get ready. I'm going to ask the three questions. And the first one is what is a book that you would recommend to our leader coaches right now? And I'll jump in there. First. I. Just about through reading the book, atomic habits. I think that's a big book around town right now, but it's really helping a person like me who has a terrible time, was keeping good habits. I can keep the bad ones you've ever noticed that keep really well is the good ones I have struggled with. But this book has some very practical approaches. Debbie, what's your what's a book you would recommend.

Debby: 26:28

So I would recommend the book. Everything is figureoutable by Marie Forleo. It's, it's her story, which I always love to hear people's stories. But it's, it's her lessons learned along the way. And so she has questions to ask yourself lessons learned, but also some activities, journaling activities and different things that you can do when you feel stuck, that that might help you.

JoAnn: 26:51

That's great. I love that book by the way. Kevin. What about you

Kevin: 26:57

Think Again by Adam Grant? Think Again, and it's about thinking about our thinking. I think it'd be very helpful, actually rethinking how we think. And just things that we get trapped in around our thinking and how we can open our minds up to different types of things. So think again by Adam Grant.

JoAnn: 27:20

That's great. So the next question is, what is the question that you have been asked that gave you Pause maybe made you think differently or look differently at something? And I I'll go first on that. I I'll never forget this question because I was really struggling with a situation and was trying to figure out how I was going to resolve this. And the person says, ask me the coach, ask what if this situation never changes? What are you willing to do? And talking about thinking differently, Kevin, I needed that book at that moment, but it made me think differently. Kevin, what about you? What's a question that has given you pause or made you think about something or look at something differently.

Kevin: 28:06

If you would not be personally impacted, what do you think should be done? I really just had to stop because some of our decisions we make we make are don't make, because the way they're going to impact us. But if you could really do the right thing, what would you really do if you did wouldn't bear any consequences just for making sure the right thing happened, right?

JoAnn: 28:29

Debbie.

Debby: 28:29

Which I asked myself all the time now, cause it's happened to me a few times where I got, I got very stuck in a situation and I couldn't see all the options. And so the question of what are the choices that you're not seeing just opened me up to, oh, oh, there's more than just it's this or this. There could be other, other choices for me to consider

JoAnn: 28:54

that's right. Because we get that tunnel vision sometimes. That's great. Well, thanks guys. So the final question is what is your word on coaching? I'll give you my, the word that comes to, especially in what I've been reading and looking at lately is safety. You know how as a leader, can I make those around me, feel safe to say what they need to say, do what they need to do and brave enough to do it.

Kevin: 29:22

Purposeful action.

JoAnn: 29:25

Okay.

Debby: 29:26

I would say my word is, listen. I thought listening so powerful and it's, it's a great place for if you're new to coaching.

Kevin: 29:34

And I know I cheated, but it's just not really about action. You need to be acting with some type of purpose.

JoAnn: 29:42

That's true. That's true. Well, guys, we're wrapping up any final words,

Kevin: 29:48

Stay strong.

Debby: 29:49

So my final words are Coaches3 to three, as a book coming out the word on coaching, just like our podcasts. So look for more podcasts, look for our book coming out this spring. And if you're someone on Facebook, check out the coaches three Facebook page, like, and follow us because that's where you'll find updates on what's going on with us, but also lots of tips and information as well.

JoAnn: 30:14

Thank you for that day. Well, guys, it's been a pleasure. It's always fun to get together and talk. And hopefully our audience picked up a few tips and hopefully some support and some encouragement out of our conversation today. So we want to give our big thanks to those that are listening in. Feel free to notify us. If you have a topic you would like for us to talk about our, your word on coaching. We'd love to hear that. So if you want to hear more of our podcasts, just check out our word on coaching podcast and until next time. Talk to you guys later.