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Recently, I watched a young CEO being interviewed. One of the tougher questions he faced was being asked to explain what he thought led to several key hires leaving his startup in rapid succession in the past couple of months. His answer boiled down to "Some people just aren't passionate about our product and industry and when they realize that, it makes sense that they would choose to leave." As he continued to speak and reply to other questions with vague generalities and a damp-foreheaded evasiveness, it became readily apparent how wrong his answer on turnover truly was.
What was lacking wasn't passion among high performers, but leadership vision from senior management -- starting with the CEO himself. Top talent doesn't flee because they wake up one take and realize they aren't in love with making widgets/designing irrigation systems/selling vitamin supplements. How many of us truly are? They leave -- or don't accept your offer in the first place -- because you've failed to provide them with a compelling vision of why they'd want to work at your organization and the journey they can expect to embark on as a member of your team.
Top performers, especially those in the brutally competitive tech space, have their pick of employers. High salaries, signing bonuses and stock options are table stakes in the race for rare talent. A software engineer who specializes in native apps or a SaaS account executive has his/her pick of employers offering lucrative compensation packages, so why would they choose to earn that six-figure salary at a company that's suffering through another quarterly identity crisis or led by weak, unimaginative or myopic management? They wouldn't and they don't. Money talks, but past a certain level, vision speaks much louder.
Research shows that decisiveness is one of the top three traits we crave most in our bosses. We want to work for leaders who have a clear point of view. You need only look at Donald Trump's poll numbers to confirm that we respond to people who take unequivocal stances, even if we might disagree with the substance of their position. Ambitious employees want to work for companies that have a strong vision of what they want to achieve in the world and leadership committed to making that happen. Millennials, that next generation of top talent, are particularly vocal about their desire for workplaces with clear values that they can buy into. Organizations that don't get this reality still believe they're competing with other employers on the basis of compensation and perks. A quick glance at their careers page will give you all the intel you need. If a company is boasting about its amenities instead of its vision and the only thing you can tell about its culture has to be gleaned from stock images of business professionals clustered around a generic boardroom table, this is a place that doesn't know what it takes to retain high achievers.
If you’re losing out on top talent to competitors or your star employees never seem to stay with you long, it would behoove you to refresh your familiarity with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Once your workers have checked off those bottom levels of the pyramid, they’ll be looking to fulfill their higher level needs. If you aren’t offering them an organizational vision that helps them reach self-actualization, they’ll start looking elsewhere.
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