“Just do what I say…”
THE “WAR” FOR TALENT
We all know that the trades are facing a significant shortage. The figures are all over the map. We’ve heard for every 10,000 trades people who retire only 6,000 enter the trades. There will be over a half-million open electrician jobs by 2029. And the practical realities are trucks that sit idle in the service industry, projects that face major delays due to a shortage of required skilled trades people, and much higher costs due to those shortages.
With that in mind, it’s key to keep your good people! Retention rates in the trades are one of the best indicators of how healthy your business is – and how likely you are to survive & grow!
YOUR GREATEST WEAPON
Let’s talk about one of the key factors that impact your turnover rate – credibility. The ability to be sincere or authentic in your leadership. Credibility can inspire trust and respect. It’s one of the cornerstones of employee retention. It’s one of those things you’d expect from every workplace, from every leader or manager. But credibility is sorely lacking in a lot of companies. And when people see credibility issues it destroys trust and confidence, leading them to explore other options.
A EXAMPLE OF SELF-SABOTAGE
A specific example comes to mind. Years ago a company I worked with was acquired by an investment group. One of the new ownership group’s first objectives was to require every department manager, general manager and region management team member go through “mindfulness” training. Always excited to learn, I was excited. As HR , I was responsible for coordinating training meetings. I arranged the hotel, I coordinated lodging, travel from the airport and meals.
Our trainer, let’s call him Dr. Bill, was an expert (we were told). On the second night of training he tagged along with the large management team for dinner. And that’s when the cracks started to show. Dr Bill was “hangry.” When the waiter was struggling to get everyone’s drink orders, Dr Bill snapped. I’ll admit we were an unruly bunch, but the waiter was making good progress. He was “shook” by Dr Bill’s outburst, as were several of the managers who were present. Only Dr. Bill didn’t seem to notice. Or if he did, he didn’t care. So much for mindfulness.
A month or two later at the second installment of the training (we all had projects that we had to complete for this training), Dr. Bill’s actions caused further concern. Throughout the course of the several days of training, he put poster paper up around the room with tape. On the last day, Dr. Bill started taking down posters while small groups were working. As he did, the tape tore the wallpaper from the meeting room walls. In several places. Noticeably. Given my responsibility to coordinate these meetings with hotel representatives, I approached Dr. Phil on a break.
Me: “How do you think we should handle the damage to the wallpaper.”
Dr. Phil: “Let’s just not say anything and see if they notice it.”
Me: [Speechless]
Since then, I’ve learned some great benefits to mindfulness. But every time it gets brought up in conversation, the memory of Dr. Bill’s example comes to mind. The reality was Dr. Bill didn’t maintain credibility. As a “professional” trainer, Dr. Bill was accorded a level of respect to start with – but his actions diminished his credibility in several managers’ view.
AVOID THIS APPROACH
How does this apply to you’re ability to create and build credibility? It illustrates how quickly you can destroy credibility by the difference between your “walk” and your “talk.” Many will think of that infamous statement made to their children, “Do as I say, not as I do!” How has that one helped your relationship with your kids? How can you expect that approach to have a different outcome with team members? And if you regularly tell your team, “Just do what I say…” you may be similarly destroying credibility. Creating distrust and disrespect among your team – whether you add the “not what I do,” or not!
This may sound familiar for those of you who practice faith. A great teacher once said, “The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.” Do your actions and habits model the behavior that you’d like your customers to experience? Do you think those behaviors are ones that cause your team to trust – or distrust you?
BOTTOM LINE
Want to keep your people? Want them to trust you? Model the behaviors that you want them to use. Work to be sincere and authentic – or more plainly, to be trustworthy. Not preaching here – but the feedback from hundreds of employee roundtables, surveys and informal “check-ins” while working in HR has validated this. Team members will often mention thinking about looking for better opportunities – and explain some minute inconsistency between what they are expected to do and the way their manager acts or speaks. Worse yet, former employees – who tend to be way more honest after they leave in exit interviews – will often mention specific management behaviors that they say showed them the boss couldn’t be trusted.
The “war for talent” that we hear about A LOT is tough enough. No manager, no person, is perfect. But we enhance our performance when we focus on building trust and credibility. Especially in the trades, people with skills have options. They get to choose who the work for or with. Unless you are THE employer of choice in your community, people have choices and may choose to leave for a new (not necessarily better!) opportunity!
