To Retain Top Talent, Coach Them To Grow

It’s not exactly news that American workplaces are struggling. Whether it’s because of disillusionment, exhaustion, the lure of higher wages elsewhere, or a combination of factors, people are leaving businesses in droves. The analytics firm Visier estimates that 1 out 4 workers left their jobs in 2021; as of December, there were 11 million job openings.

With professional, societal and career instability at an all-time high, leaders are scrambling for ways to motivate, challenge and develop their people so they want to stay and thrive. Many have resorted to cheerleading, offering thin words of affirmation, or other superficial approaches at stanching the bleeding. But rather than signal to employees that their leaders truly want them to grow, these sorts of (minimal) efforts reveal the desperation of leaders who fear losing even more talent. One of the most at-risk populations are workers who may have peaked in their jobs. They’ve gained all the mastery and satisfaction their current role can offer and, as a result, are starting to phone it in. 

Whitney Johnson, CEO of Disruption Advisors, has dedicated her career to investigating why workers grow or stagnate. This is a worthy undertaking in a normal work environment. But in the unprecedented chaos in which we currently find ourselves, her perspectives are especially valuable.

I recently spoke with Johnson about her timely new book, Smart Growth: How to Grow Your People to Grow Your Company. The book offers a treasure trove of practical insights on how to cultivate the talent around you to realize their greatest impact, no matter how long they’ve been with you. Her philosophy is based around a model she calls the S Curve of Learning. Whatever industry or position they’re in, an employee will find themselves on one of the curve’s three key points:

·      Launch point. Growth is slow and effortful here since the person is taking on new challenges and learning new things.

·      The sweet spot. Once launch is (successfully) completed, there is rapid upward progress as people acquire new skills and overcome setbacks. During the sweet spot phase, which constitutes half of a typical worker’s trajectory, growth and time progress proportionally.

·      Mastery. When work becomes easier, the curve flattens because there is little left to learn.

When an employee reaches the mastery phase they have two choices. The first is to move on to a better opportunity. This may be painful for all parties, but if that’s what they genuinely want, it’s ultimately the best thing for them and you. The other option is to jump to the bottom of a new S Curve, put in the effort, and experience the thrill of climbing again.

Here are Johnson’s tips to help you figure out which path they ought to take.

Show grace when acknowledging a fading spark. Johnson likens someone in the mastery phase to a mountain climber. “When you’re at an altitude above 26,000 feet, you're so high up your brain and body start to die. And that’s what happens when you leave a person at the top of the S Curve for too long. What looks like a plateau can become a precipice because sooner or later, they will start to underperform if their heart is not in it.” At this elevation they’re at high risk of becoming “Mr. Blah,” a persona Johnson created in the book based on a letter to Dear Abbey to illustrate what employee inertia looks like. They may be performing “just fine,” but their heart is no longer in their work. Emotionally, they could take it or leave it. If something that feels more exciting comes along, they will be much more vulnerable to its lure.

Honesty and respect are crucial at this stage. It’s your responsibility to find out if the employee is on the wrong curve or if they’re just tired and need a new challenge. Figuring this out will probably require some hard conversations. But it’s the only way to determine where things stand. An employee may tell you “I'm done,” but even this answer may be more complicated, says Johnson. If you poke below the surface, you may discover someone who’s ready to keep contributing, just in a different capacity.  She says, “Maybe you just need to rest. Don't quit the race. Keep running the marathon. But you need to get some water and go to the bathroom.”

Help them set up a portfolio of experiments. If an employee who’s plateaued isn’t sure how to proceed, running “experiments” is a helpful way to decide. This could range from taking on different kinds of projects to moving into a stronger management role. There are two keys to successful experiments, says Johnson. The first is to treat it as laboratory. This means accepting that some results may be poor or inconclusive. So if the worker’s performance isn’t initially stellar, that’s okay—and, in fact, completely expected.

The second key is to constantly ask questions: What helps the employee reignite their spark? What dims it even further? These answers will help both of you assess the situation without judgment. “What happens psychologically when you're running an experiment is that your ego gets pulled out of the equation,” says Johnson. “It's set off to the side. Your innate and inherent worth is no longer on the table. And so you're free to just say, ‘Well, did this work or not?’”

Not only will these experiments provide essential data, the process of participating in them may be enough to recharge the employee. “High achievers crave new knowledge, a new perspective, a new way of looking at a problem or finding a solution,” says Ruth Gotian, author of The Success Factor: Developing the Mindset and Skillset for Peak Business Performance, which will be published this month. “Their quest for new information is an unquenched thirst, as they always look for additional opportunities to learn. Despite their accomplishments, degrees and accolades, they will ask questions, listen to others and read new ideas. They realize that they do not know all the answers and, as such, keep asking questions.”

Guide them to be unashamed. Shame is a powerful force, especially in the world of business where high-achievers are especially prone to self-criticism. No one wants to be perceived as a failure or be criticized for wanting something different for themselves. These attitudes, though, are exactly what keeps someone stuck in complacency, says Johnson. “I’ve thought about it a lot that it's actually shame that limits disruption, not failure.”

People who are dissatisfied at work may feel ashamed about wanting something new for themselves—something they’re not “supposed” to have. The result is timidity and lack of growth. But if you take the time to examine what’s causing the shame, you can help them discover what they really want to do. “Shame is a secondary emotion; it’s a feeling about a feeling. So if you're feeling shame in something when it doesn't work, then you want to ask yourself what's actually going on because when you know what's actually going on, you can solve for it,” she says. How? By getting right back to the launch point.

Be their truth-teller. Empowering an employee who’s plateaued to embark on a new S Curve is a major first step. But if they’re years into their career, they may be more reluctant to stay the course once they inevitably face a challenge. This is where you come in. By offering a candid perspective, you can help them decide whether the pain and effort is worth the potential gain.

In the heat of the moment (or a brand-new personal experiment at work) it can be hard for someone to have proper perspective. So, it’s essential that the employee has access to truth tellers—one of which could be you. “You've got to have a few people around you who you trust. Who will be able to say to you, ‘This is not a good idea’ or ‘You're just afraid; you need to proceed’ or “If you can fast forward a year or two, will you regret it if you didn't do it?” says Johnson. She writes in her book, “Our premature cognitive commitments program us to only accept a predetermined range of facts: that we’ve experienced failure before; that we’re likely to experience it again; that we’ve learned everything we need to, or everything we can. Perception becomes reality, and our growth ends where our pride and trepidation or, in other words, our fear of shame and failure begins.”

There’s certainly no panacea to stop the mass exodus we’re seeing around us. But if you’re responsible for retaining top talent, skip the cheesy perks and bribes, roll up your sleeves, and help them reignite the fire in their soul for work they love.  Help them discover the joy of growing…again.