3 Leadership Communication Changes for 2023

3 Key changes are coming in 2023 for leaders. I was working with several of my clients in this last quarter and really digging in to analyze what is and isn’t working for them. One particular client, we’ll call them Awesome Company A, or ACA for short, had tremendous success pre-Covid but has faced new challenges since then. During COVID, everyone just buckled down and did the best they could. Multiple of their top performers kept the teams rallied and excited, helping them focus beyond the struggle. As the restrictions and limitations of COVID started lifting, they started having turnover unlike they had ever experienced. They started losing people at the mid-level, then the entry level and even a few upper-level employees. As they asked me to step back in, we quickly identified 3 key struggles that were different than before. Like many companies, what WAS working before, wasn’t working now. Here are the 3 things that needed to change to get them back on track.

1. Training and Development — Training was a major complaint from those who had left the organization. They felt they were “flying blind” on job skills, including supervision, management, leadership, and systems knowledge. Based on that feedback, we developed an on-boarding system that accounted for the systems and human skills that would be needed at each level. We then developed ways of building those skills prior to them being needed. This now allows their people to feel prepared, less stressed and anxious, and cared for as employees. When we don’t prepare people now, the message they are interpreting is that they are not important. We can’t let that happen.
2. Performance Management — This is a broad topic as a leader, but involves very specific skills. We measured the perception of employees across multiple businesses and industries to see what they thought about how they were being coached to perform. The vast majority of them felt the coaching and drive to performance was only on the negative side and not the developmental side. This would indicate supervisors, managers, and leaders were using fear and intimidation, but not coaching and behavioral correction. In other words, there was not real performance management going on. We then helped ACA create a model “performance conversation” to have monthly, and redid their performance review systems to build in actual measures, not just subjective evaluation. This created an immediate boost in performance results across the organization.
3. Emotional Context — The third major area we discovered related to the emotional context employees have about work. There are 6 Key Psychological drivers for employees related to work. When 2 of the drivers were met, we discovered that employee retention was created. When 3 or more of the drivers were met, we discovered both retention and engagement were created. An engaged employee produces an average of 67% more work than a disengaged employee. According to Gallup’s research, this means 1 engaged employee is worth 3 disengaged employees. With the struggle to find top talent higher than ever before, mastering the right leadership strategies is more critical than ever before! There are 12 Leadership Skills that ensure the 6 Psychological Drivers are met as consistently as possible.

Taking the right actions to develop the people and systems needed is the first step in actually being a great leader. Just thinking about things needing to change is irrelevant. The companies that will thrive in the coming year are the ones that act. They are the ones that do something different.

ACA took action. They trained their supervisors, managers, and leaders. They built the right systems. They created positive accountability. And, in the end, they got their employee retention and engagement back and even made it better than before. This allowed them to get back to focusing on solving the problem their business was created to solve, resulting in profits going up, and getting more done with fewer people and less stress.

Everyone is given the same opportunity in this life, but not everyone takes the right actions to get the best possible outcomes. It isn’t the opportunities that make the difference. It is the action taken by leaders, both seizing opportunities and facing challenges head-on, that will make the biggest impact. What will you do to overcome employee struggles in 2023? Are you doing what great leaders doing and taking focused action? Or, are you simply hoping the challenges go away? Follow what ACA did and take the right actions to put you and your team at the top of your game. When you do, everyone notices. Your employees are happier. And, customers receive the highest possible value, which means you win too!