Expect your employees to be great. Not in an overbearing abusive way but in an encouraging and helping way. Set the expectation. We have gotten to the point where we are worried about someone feeling bad because someone else is great so we has tended to lower expectations. I think high expectations are good. The US Army was right; “Be all that you can be.” Anything less is a waste of your God given talent. I believe organizations have an obligation to expect greatness from their people and work to help them achieve it. It is a partnership.
As an employee retention trainer and employee retention expert, I see a reluctance to expect greatness from employees and this actually hurts an organization’s ability to retain talent. People will consciously, or unconsciously, leave to go to companies where they can learn, grow, and progress. Those are all a part of expecting greatness. People don’t say, “I want to go to work at a mediocre place.” They want to work for the best and the best are the best because they expect greatness from their employees. Greatness just does not happen. Not everyone is going to achieve greatness, but striving for it is what energizes and keeps people engaged. When conducting employee retention training, I challenge participants to be great. My experience is that people love the challenge and rise to the challenge. So when their competitors are complaining about not being able to improve their employee retention, they are able to break through that barrier and solve the issues that are driving their employee turnover.
If as a leader or as an organization does not expect greatness, I have said as an employee retention author that you are doing a disservice to your employees. Organizations have to help people to start thinking about being great because many people believe that “average” is just fine and that is all they aim for. Instead, aim for greatness. If you fall short you will be far better off than aiming for “average.” When you do and fall short then you are “less than average.”
From an employee retention strategies perspective, expecting less than greatness is a recipe for employee retention issues because you will be mediocre. The best people don’t want to be around mediocrity or be in an organization that is mediocre. If you expect less than greatness…that is exactly what you get. If you expect greatness…your employees will rise to the challenge.
