Organizations, Leaders Should Pay to Retain

     Justin Verlander signed a 5 year extension worth $80 million to continue to play for the Detroit Tigers. The first thing that ran through my mind was wow that's a lot of money to pay one individual. That total is staggering to pay a person to stay with the organization to deliver the usual, high quality work that has been always delivered.

     This led me to a second thought which was the Detroit Tigers paid a current employee more money so they could continue to be successful rather than sign another player to replace him or to scout new talent they could groom for the future. This organization retained an employee by paying more now to save costs in the future. What an interesting concept.

     Thought number three for me was then why aren't more organizations following this model? I'm not saying that millions of dollars should be paid out to current employees. The dollar amount should be generous but realistic to the position and business revenues being brought in. The point is that leaders and organizations should look at paying current employees more money than what is usually doled out at year end evaluations or through performance bonuses. Spoiling current talent on your roster would be a pleasant surprise that would help decrease attrition, and increasing retention for those higher quality individuals. Am I wrong for feeling this way?

     As I thought about this more I realized that organizations expect more from their employees. More work needs to be completed using fewer resources to accomplish this. This may come in the form of receiving more work with an increase to responsibilities because of attrition, mergers, or more work coming into the company. These expectations of more work may come in the form of being on the clock outside of the usual, traditional work space. Being on call or working additional time outside of the usual 8am-5pm, Monday through Friday workday. More work expectations exist yet more dollars doesn't seem to flow the employee's way.

     I think organizations and leaders, at times, falls into gladly paying more for prospective, new individuals outside of the organization than paying to retain their own talent. Leaders, when interviewing, for open positions looks for candidates that offer everything they ever needed and pay more to bring aboard this "new toy", pardon my expression. People that tell leaders they can offer more of the skills they are searching for will be paid handsomely while current employees are at times taken for granted and paid modestly. This is my "new toy" theory. Leaders fall in love with the new toy out in the stores, pay an exorbitant amount of money for this toy, and cast away current toys to the corner of their rooms.

     I challenge leaders and organizations to break this model and line of thinking. Do what the Detroit Tigers have done. Identify irreplaceable, talented, current employees and pay them a little more money than business traditions dictates to simply retain them. The extra money being offered can be saved in recruiting, hiring, and training costs. Realize that a known commodity can be more valuable to revenues than a prospect can. Known talent can relieve leaders minds compared to wondering if that new prospect will pan out based on an interviewing process. Is it so wrong to want, expect more money if you're a tenured employee to deliver great work? I don't think so.

     

Leadership According to Mick!

I saw the attached link,clip when I watched the movie Rocky many years ago. Through the years this scene has always stuck out in my mind that it is relevant when speaking about leadership no matter the industry.

This will probably get leaders to chuckle sarcastically, doubting this message. How can a fictional character, Mickey Goldmill, send a message to business leaders? Listen to the whole clip before judging it and realize that there are some key topics of leadership he shares with Rocky that can be used in organizations today.

After Mickey small talks with Rocky he proceeds with his first lesson. Organizations absolutely need effective managers (leaders). The importance of good leadership is essential for a business to thrive. They set goals for employees and try to keep them focused on what's important for the business, and how they can achieve success. Leaders create a vision and then need the ability to be able to share this with a diverse group of people with unique talents, different values, and a variety of priorities and then buy into it.

About halfway through this clip Mickey suggests to Rocky about not drinking a beer before his fight. He then delivers a message to him explaining that he never had management to help protect him. His opponents were able to punch holes in his face and career because he lacked leadership. Mickey Goldmill then tries to persuade Rocky to allow him to lead him to be able to share his knowledge helping him avoid failure and allowing him to climb the rankings. Leadership does the same things in business. It guides us through effective communication and passing along key knowledge acquired. This shared knowledge will help guide people through the work day, maybe their personal lives, build networks, and help us career path properly to bigger and better jobs.

Rocky, like many of us, turns Mickey down saying management, leadership isn't needed. It would be a hindrance instead of being helpful. He was willing to go into his fight without guidance. Employees need to be responsible in finding the value effective leadership brings. They need to see that success is the goal for all not failure. The knowledge, experiences, and pain shared is the value provided.  

So as Rocky proceeds with his tirade about management, leadership. Yelling at Mickey as he leaves, asking him if he wants to be present as he gets pummeled know that business leaders face the same dilemma. They want to guide, we just have to want to put our hands out collectively, like Rocky at the end, to shake our leaders hands and accept the mentoring provided

Don't Fear Failure

I started this blog as part of a class assignment this past winter. At the end of the semester we were asked if we would continue our blogs. The majority of the class, including myself, kind of stammered out an answer like "maybe, possibly if I continued the blog" you can finish the sentence with an assortment of answers. While my classmates didn't come out and say it I think all of our hesitancy came out of a fear of failing.

As leaders we have to be willing to try something new even if that means possibly failing. As leaders we have to be willing to step out of our comfort zones and try new things. Whether this means trying develop a new management style, trying to create incentives, improve production, or to find a new way to get through a Monday go ahead and try it.

I think we'll find that some of our best work may come from an experience where as a leader we have failed. So I will continue this blog, hopefully with more frequent posts, because this is a way that I can try something new as a leader which may benefit me.