Leaders play the biggest role in losing rockstar team members. Though things like low pay, no growth, bad hours, and feeling handcuffed push people away, dig deeper and you’ll usually find leadership gaps are the real knockout punch. Remember the old saying – “people don’t quit jobs, they quit bad managers”
When your brightest stars keep leaving, your managers have seriously dropped the ball.
Let’s break that down…
1. Pay That Doesn’t Value Contributions
Money issues are the #1 resignation trigger, but leaders control the purse strings! The best intentions can still lead to under rewarding performance, poor raises, and overall shocking pay. Meanwhile, the c-suite hauls in the big bucks. That brews major bitterness and makes people feel undervalued, like their gold standard work doesn’t matter.
People need to know that busting their arses off will pay off.
2. Roadblocked Growth
Watching peers zoom ahead while your career idles in park is super frustrating! But often, it’s not a skills thing. Even awesome managers sometimes inadvertently ice out talent by falling short on mentoring, advocacy, next level prep, and combating biases.
People want to know their potential has a cheering squad, not a glass ceiling.
3. Sacrificing Wellbeing for Work
Some overtime here and there is typical. But excessive off-the-clock work without boundaries is unsustainable. The best intentioned leaders sometimes set unrealistic expectations, under-staff chronically, discourage vacations, care more about face time than real impact, and breed a guilt culture over life balance. This steamrolls mental health and whispers that people aren’t human, just output machines.
Talent needs to know leaders care about the whole person, inside and out.
4. Micromanaging Instead of Empowering
Even great leaders have lapses where they default to playing puppet-master, squashing ideas, and controlling like a dad teaching teens to drive. Nobody likes feeling distrusted or handcuffed. People thrive when given autonomy and challenges fit for their skills, not boxed into a corner by bureaucracy.
Let that talent loose and watch them soar!
At the end of the day, the big four turnover triggers are rarely deal breakers on their own. But pair them with disconnected or restrictive leadership and boom goes the dynamite. Awesome employees don’t just quit jobs, they quit feeling valued by leaders who don’t appreciate them.
If you want to keep killer talent, start from the top down with management focused on nurturing, not restricting, your crew’s infinite potential. Support those leaders in fostering warm, empowering, and communicative cultures. Get that foundation right, and the best team you can imagine will bloom.
People stick with leaders who have their back while they reach for gold. Be those leaders people wanna high five every Monday morning and retention will turn around. Who wouldn’t wanna stay on a team like that?