Why 1/2 of Americans are leaving their job
And the one principle I use to keep my teams happy
Over the last 10 years I’ve lead teams on submarines during operations, I’ve lead teams in offices, I’ve lead different teams in many different environments. Including inter-services and multinational environments. I’ve experienced amazing leaders and I’ve experienced leaders that I wouldn’t have followed to lunch, let alone to war.
There are two main things I wish I didn’t need to work out for myself.
- Why grow as a leader?
- What is leadership capital?
Why grow as a leader?
I’m sure you have your own reasons, which is why you’re here!
But a lack of leadership and leadership training across industries is a huge problem.
To put it simply, poor leadership is a major contributor to employees choosing to quit.
Half of Americans who leave their jobs say they do so because of bad managers. The same is true for a third of those in Britain.
What you do as a leader has a bigger impact on your team than you realise.
In a survey conducted across ten rich countries 69% of employees said their boss influenced their mental health as much, or more than their spouse.
People are leaving workforces due to bad leadership, their mental health is being effected but still, 82% of managers within Britain have not received proper management training.
You being here is an amazing step. My goal is to help improve the lives of leaders by helping them level up their skills, but in return that improves the lives of everyone that works for them. Leadership is about everyone, and with people like you taking steps to improve their skills, the world is moving in the right direction. I’m so happy to be a part of it.
Leadership capital
Every leadership principle comes back to that one of the core philosophies of leadership:
Leadership is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do, because they want to do it.
Leadership capital is the cash in your bank that you spend every time you tell someone to do something they don’t want to do.
If people are doing things for other reasons, i.e., because you told them to do it and you’re a higher rank then them, then you’re spending leadership capital.
Lets run an example:
You check into your new position as manager. You’ve had a boss before. You know how this works.
“Jim, go fetch me some more coffee.”
“Sarah, I don’t like the way you’ve done these files, do them again but differently.”
You’re spending that leadership capital fast! Keep this up and you’ll be in debt soon…
Like normal debt, you can’t run from this forever, and more often than not the interest rate will keep you stuck there for a very long time.
Leadership debt can manifest itself in a few different ways:
- Poor work performance
- Failure to meet deadlines
- Low moral within the team
You can see how that doesn’t equate to a successful team. So how do we avoid diving into leadership debt?
- We decrease the cost of an ask (ideally it costs nothing!)
- We build up more capital over time.
As any resourceful leader should, you’re going to do both.
I’ve met so many examples of people expending their leadership capital and then never being able to climb out of the debt. I have made this mistake myself, and it ruined any chance of a positive relationship with a team member. It was during this that I realised the true value of understanding what we are spending our leadership capital on.
Every interaction will effect your leadership capital, either positively or negatively.
Throughout your day, be aware of the whether you might be spending leadership capital, or gaining leadership capital when you talk to your team.
And if you’re not at work, or don’t have a team, you can think about it this way during any conversation throughout the day:
Did this interaction positively or negatively effect my relationship with this person?
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Support your team. Grow as a leader.
