This employee retention speaker and employee retention expert has always struggled with patience when driving but I am working on it. That being said, I noticed how incredibly impatient other drivers are when I was coming home from a breakfast meeting. Then I stopped at the grocery store on the way home. I noticed the impatience of one of the department managers in action. I got thinking about how this department head probably was increasing her employee turnover by her lack of patience.
While this employee retention author was coming to the door, this particular department manager stopped one of her young employees and said sarcastically, “Let Joel go outside to bring in carts, I can’t have you out there forever.” It became very apparent she was impatient with this young kid. Instead of handling it in a way that could have helped this young kid to grow and learn, she simply ignored this opportunity and responded with the comment above. She missed the opportunity to turn this into a learning lesson for this young kid and to help him grow. What she should have said is something like this. “Tom, whenever you go outside to bring in carts you are taking way too much time. I don’t know what the cause of it is, but we need to meet later to discuss how we can solve this problem.” She then should have met with him in private and determined what the problem was and, if needed, train this employee or counsel him depending on what she learned in the meeting.
This incident reminded this employee retention consultant of my first job in high school working as an usher in a theater. I didn’t know anything about work at the time. I was fortunate the woman who was the manager of the theater had the patience of a saint. She never made sarcastic comments. She never called me on the carpet in front of the patrons. She would pull me to the side and tell me where I was going wrong and what to do to solve the problem. She always asked me how my actions looked in front of the patrons. She made me think. She challenged me in a firm and tactful manner so I would grow. She would retrain me if needed. As a result, I became a great employee because I was growing. This was because of the patience she exercised with me.
If you in any sort of leadership role and don’t have patience…you need to acquire it. Why? Because as the workforce gets younger and younger, you will need that patience to help your young people grow. They will notice how they grow and appreciate it. They may not admit it but they will notice the growth. They will stay with the organization longer because they know they have a boss that is a mentor. Developing patience and using it with your people will reduce your employee turnover. It will also help you when driving in heavy traffic!
Is your organization desperate to retain people? If you are an HR Leader, General Manager, or an owner of an organization, call me to get a free copy of my Employee Retention Self-Audit. You can then find out how the C.R.A.P approach can reduce your employee turnover by 40-80%.
