Rick Kelo, CEO of Chicago-based recruiting firm, TaxScout Inc., is concerned by the number of employee resignitions that have been conclusively linked with dissatisfaction with their manager or boss. True, there has always been a suspicion that ‘people leave the boss, not the company,’ but until now there has been scant analysis to back up the theory. That has now changed. Recent research has definitively proven that more than half of all employees who resign from their positions do so because of problems with their boss. And it is now clear that urgent remedial action is required to stem the flow of work departures.
The problem, as Rick Kelo perceives it, is that there is far too much importance placed on intelligence and not nearly enough on emotional response. EQ requires self-awareness. Recognizing that as a manager you are the cause of the problem helps concentrate the mind wonderfully. And as the research makes clear, there are some extremely simple measures that any can adopt to improve the overall situation in the company. Firstly, for example, is the time-honored advice of giving credit where credit is due. Data shows that that when people were asked to describe their worst boss, 33 percent never gave any praise, while 28 percent rarely gave encouragement or recognition for tasks accomplished.
As Rick Kelo emphasizes, that accounts for around 55 percent of all employees who state that their worst boss never gave any form of praise. Look at it another way: that is 55 percent of employees who left companies because their boss simply did not understand the importance of motivation. And this is further corroborated by an astonishing 60 percent, who stated that the important part of being a manager was to give appropriate praise and make the workforce feel appreciated.
For Rick Kelo, this is an easy, zero-cost fix. The ability to empathize with the workforce should be a mandatory managerial requirement; Forget the gilt-edged MBAs and diplomas lining the walls of the office – try and put yourself in the shoes of others, try to feel as they do about situations. By so doing, we will learn the importance of praise. Do not expect your ‘team’ to go over and beyond their stipulated responsibilities. With no encouragement, there is more chance them scheming behind your back rather than exercising their own intelligence on getting the work completed to the best of their capabilities. Which is surely why they were hired in the first place?