Want to win the war on talent… it’s all a matter of your character
‘I am struggling to find good staff’ is one of the most common statements I am hearing from clients these days. One even said, ‘I will hire anyone with a pulse, that’s how desperate we are’. But if you thought finding them was hard, trying to keep them is even harder. Countless studies and surveys make a strong case that the deciding factor on whether someone stays in a role or not is the relationship they have with their direct manager.
Being a curious kinda guy, I set out to find out what sort of leadership makes people want to stay in their organisation. In small discussion groups (8 to 10 individuals per group) my team and I asked over 2000 senior managers in professional services (from multiple firms), to describe what were the leadership attributes that would encourage them to stay in their current role? Specifically, we asked them, ‘In order for you to want to stay in your role what are the behaviours you want your leaders to do more of’, and ‘What behaviours do you want your leader to stop doing?’ We ended up with two lists, ranked in order of importance.
What struck me as I read through the lists, is people are craving leadership attributes that relate to high levels of character. It appears that character is what matters most – it’s what inspires, it’s what engages people and, according to our study group, is the thing that makes them want to stay with an organisation. You can define ‘Character’ as having moral or ethical quality. Specifically, things like care, vulnerability, owning it when you screw up, treating people fairly and giving people high levels of support. These things are rated much more important and come up more often than the more tangible and practical leadership behaviours such as effective communication, clear strategy, effective decision making and regular feedback.
Just to be clear, Character is more than authenticity (which is defined as being real). In Australia and across the world, we see a lack of character in our politicians. Trump is authentic but that doesn’t mean he’s a great leader. At the time of writing this Donald J Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of fraud (31 May 2024), 25% of republican voters said the conviction would make them more likely to vote for him in the upcoming election. It appears that that group does not value character.
We often think of leadership skills in terms of soft (adaptability, critical thinking, how we connect with and talk to people) and hard skills (technical skills, database management, strategic decisions, prioritisation). This data suggests that people are seeking a new soft skill that revolves around character, care and nurturing.
Also. the mindset that many leaders have in professional services around ‘I can rely on my technical expertise to make up for my shortcomings when it comes to the ‘soft side’ of leadership’, is well and truly in the past. If we are going to attract and keep the best people, working on ourselves to display more character seems to be the most important aspect of leadership we can invest in.
So, what are these traits that make up Character? Well, the results are below. We asked these people ‘What behaviours do you want your leaders to do more of?’ These are behaviours – visible things that people want to see their leader do.
Empathetic and servant Leadership:
Showing accountability and owning it when things go wrong
Recognition/acknowledgement of good work (timely and genuine)
Supportive of people when they make mistakes
Creating a safe space for people to put their ideas forward and to challenge existing process
Openness, learning mindset and being humble. Having an attitude that they are not perfect and can always improve their leadership
2. Genuine care and interest:
Care for and take interest in others - get to know your team. Understanding what people are interested in their career and coach them around achieving that
Inclusion and encouragement of individuals to try new things and stretch themselves
Available to listen/accessible to ask questions
Being present and engaged during interactions
Immediate, genuine feedback about performance (good and bad) on projects
3. Alignment and integrity:
Decisive and follow through with clarity and direction
Lead by example – walk the talk. They are aligned to what they say they stand for
Adaptable to change, taking on new approaches when needed
4. Development and Growth:
Opportunity for individual development through partnering with other areas of the organisation
Progress over perfection
5. Supportive of and role modelling Wellbeing:
Calming presence by managing your stress levels and not blowing up during stressful situations - you help other people stay calm
Showing vulnerability, share when you are finding things difficult or challenging and when you doubt yourself. It makes you human and shows us you are not always going to feel in control
Taking time off, practice and role model self-care and work life balance
6. Ethical and Fair Practices:
Positive response to failure, support and coach people rather than blame or berate them
Treating people fairly be transparent about why decisions are being made
Don’t expect people to reply to emails out of hours/on holidays
Address bad behaviour instead of letting people get away with things
7. Team Collaboration and Decision-Making:
Clear, effective, timely communication
Circulation of information
After communicating important information, check in with people to ensure they have interpreted the information correctly. Things can get lost in translation
Collaboration around decision making, consulting with the people the decision will affect
8. Authentic Leadership:
Being authentic
Admitting gaps in knowledge
Focus on outcome not ego, put impact and contribution before self
Bring good energy to work
Connecting the team’s goals with the individuals
Bringing their whole selves to work
Have a sense of humour
9. Connection to values:
Challenge and empower their teams. Give people work that stretches them
Talk about your values and the organisations values and how the work you do aligns to those
We asked the same people - what do you want your leaders to stop doing? And there is a similar pattern at the top of the list where they wrote leadership behaviours that show a lack of character. This data sends leaders the message that your team will forgive many things, but what they won’t forgive is a lack of alignment and character.
1. A lack of character
Not taking ownership when things go wrong, and mistakes are made. Instead, they play the blame game/throwing their team under the bus to cover themselves
Micromanaging, not empowering people to run with a project.
Unapproachable, the team feel they can’t come to them for help because they feel unimportant or are fearful to engage with them
Shy away from tough conversations
Not being collaborative
Belittling or dismissive of others
Ignoring team members, not taking an interest in them
Aggressive behaviours like yelling or embarrassing them in front of others
2. Feedback & Recognition
Avoiding giving honest feedback, just saying generic things to move the conversation along
Unhelpful feedback or no feedback
Not giving recognition to people when they do a good job
Taking the credit for other people’s work
3. Decision-Making & Adaptability:
Not being open to challenging existing norms, rather just doing the same old behaviours
Indecisiveness, not making clear decisions
Inconsistent behaviour
Jump to conclusions before considering a situation
4. Wellbeing & Work-Life Balance:
No breaks/holidays
Working excessive hours – sets expectations for the team to model it
Not supporting their team to turn off and have some balance
5. Team Dynamics:
Participating in gossip and bad-mouthing others
Expect others to behave exactly like them
Not being inclusive, only engaging with people who are like them
Take frustration out on others
Having favourites and giving them all the good work and opportunities
6. Professionalism:
Overpromising to clients which causes pressure for the team
No clear boundaries with clients, doing anything to keep the client happy
Over-competitiveness doesn’t share resources or insights
Short term view, not playing the long game
Daily focus on P&L
Take frustration out on others
Not investing in people (avoiding training, or mentoring)
Being caught up in politics
Unrealistic expectations of people in your team
There you have it. Today it appears that leadership that keeps people engaged and loyal begins with us working on ourselves and the person we are, not just the person that shows up to work.