-- Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish Writer

Culture Integrity™ and Retention Leadership

If leaders at every level of the organization practice the Nine Principles of Culture Integrity™, they will be creating an environment that builds positive relationships, thus improving employee retention and reducing unwanted turnover. They will also be encouraging employees to be fully engaged in their work. The term for this attention to employees is called retention leadership.

In the competition to keep good talent, it is widely understood that leaders and the quality of the relationships they build with their direct reports are the key to why people stay loyal to the organization. Unsatisfying, unethical or contentious relationships with the direct supervisor or manager will drive employees away and in the competition for the best talent, most organizations cannot afford to lose their best and brightest in this manner.

In one of the most comprehensive studies on the subject of the workforce of the future, The Aspen Institute's Domestic Strategy Group summarizes what is just over the horizon: a labor and skill shortage unlike any seen before. Their study documents that growth of the U.S. born workforce during the last 20 years was 44%. For the next 20 years that growth will drop to zero. Because of the coming labor and skill shortages, hanging on to well-performing employees will reach a new level of urgency for organizations of all types and sizes.

The strong connection between leadership, culture integrity, and employee retention and keeps leadership development consistently at the top of the strategy list for organizations trying to remain successful and competitive. Companies consistently invest more time, energy and resources in developing present and future leaders than nearly any other business and performance improvement effort.

As the competition for talent heats up, this training of future leaders must become even more intense. Executives and managers with skill in building trust into their culture relationships in addition to structuring a retention-oriented relationship climate are critical to organizational success in our new ‘flat’ world. Why is a retention-oriented climate hard to achieve in leadership circles? Because many leaders are operating on outdated philosophies, principles and beliefs.

Most leadership literature is based on the belief that there will be an ever-expanding availability of a perpetually better-educated talent pool. With the predicted labor shortage, the better-educated talent pool may shallow in your industry. On the culture integrity side, this shrinking pool of talent makes it even more important to have retention-oriented executives and managers. It's time to look at leadership development in a new light. That new light is integrity of operation and retention. Applied in the correct manner, both dramatically affect long-term business growth and profits. Few business priorities will eclipse talent retention in a world of disappearing workers.