Bill Taylor, author of Practically Radical: Not-So-Crazy Ways to Transform Your Company, Shake Up Your Industry, and Challenge Yourself, editor of Fast Company and regular contributor to HBR said there recently, “Great companies, great organizations of all kinds, are as much about character as credentials, about how everyone works together as well as how each person does his or her work. Winning teams are more than just a collection of talented individuals.” Perhaps you’ve been following the debate on Bill’s HBR blog about whether a talented individual or a talented team matters more; the fact is that when a team gains or loses a talented individual the whole team’s performance is affected.
Managers in companies such as Applebee’s Restaurants are accountable to retain 90% of their A performing talent. The goal of course is to build an entire team of A players. The sports teams that make it to the World Series or the Super Bowl have a star player in every position.
How much of the responsibility for retaining top talent also rests with the team? Gallup research confirms having a best friend at work is among the top twelve retention factors. As leaders, what team behaviors do you encourage to help ensure that each player has a mentor(s) for various competencies critical to the organization? Many Executive Workgroup members are probing into what it takes to successfully rotate talent for developmental reasons, particularly into “feeder jobs” where competencies can be learned that will predictably be needed in strategic roles. What career paths can individuals initiate so that “growth maps” can be tapped by those who are responsible for having the right talent in the right place at the right time?
Teams form, storm, norm and perform and these stages repeat every time someone leaves or a new person joins a team. If your business is one that has higher turnover by nature, the risk is team performance stalls in a perpetual storming stage. In the storming stage, it is critical that leaders maintain a high focus on both task and relationships. What do we do to onboard and assimilate new people into the team? There is an ethical intent leaders communicate to new teams that can be the “velcro” to make people stick, both through predictably frustrating learning curves for new members and members in new assignments, to retain a member who is a retention risk, and for established team members who are affected by a member’s departure. As leaders we control the work climate that enables teams to perform at their best- how do you take the temperature on a regular basis?
Deloitte estimates that 80% of organizations lack the bench strength to support their business operations into the next decade. Hear how Joe Garcia, Ph.D., Senior Director, Talent Management, The Home Depot and Per Wingerup, Vice President of Learning & Development and International Human Resources, CBS Corp are responding to this challenge at our Learning and Leadership Development conference.
A friend had named one of her cats "Velcro" because he always stuck around no matter what... but one day the cat (being what cats are) wandered off never to return. Retaining A players and top team performance can be "velcro-ed" into the fabric of your organization… what do you find works to make your teams “sticky?” When Bill Taylor described "Not-So-Crazy Ways to Transform Your Company..." I'd bet that he did not include Crazy Glue as an answer. Drop me a line to share actions that you have found work to retain top players on your teams, or pose your questions to collaborate with our Leadership Community…
photo of the cat "Velcro" courtesy of Vanessa Marie Hernandez