Leaders: Replace These 5 Behaviors to Attract Top Talent
by Kate Nasser | 9 Comments »
Leaders, you and your direct reports have great impact on attracting and keeping top talent. Though you might think it’s only about the money, it isn’t.
There are many behaviors that drive talent away. Talent includes full time employees, contractors, consultants, and even suppliers.
You as leaders and your directors and managers can attract and retain top talent by replacing behaviors that secretly repel them.
Leaders, Replace These 5 Behaviors to Attract Top Talent
Image by: Dee_Gee via Creative Commons License
Behaviors repel talent for any of three reasons:
QL: They seriously reduce quality of life or
BS: They make it unnecessarily difficult to succeed or
$$: They indirectly cost the talent money.
Replace These 5 Behaviors to Attract Top Talent
- Highly disorganized or uncertain. Top talent blossoms when leaders set a clear vision. Wandering through a disorganized morass when deadlines loom, leaves talent wondering if success is possible. They envision more attractive opportunities and yearn for success. Replace disorganization and uncertainty with valuable vision.
- Negativity. Top talent wants to hear what is possible. They feed off of a reality of belief, ideas, and action. Negativity drains their spirit for they see it as unnecessary difficulty. Replace this drain with energy and a call to action.
- Perfectionism. Top talent see this as a triple whammy. It always comes across as unnecessary stress, it reduces the quality of their work life, and it costs them money. How? By reducing the time they can spend learning or accomplishing other valuable tasks or opportunities. Replace the scourge of perfectionism with the goal of excellence. What a difference!
- Fear of failure. It produces behaviors that demoralize others. Even if you as leaders aren’t afraid, those that report to you may be. If you love to delegate, do it wisely. Replace delegation based on occupational skill with delegation based on inspirational leadership ability. Otherwise, top talent will move on to work with project managers and directors who aren’t stuck in fear.
- Me-itis. Top talent tend to love a confident humble leader. Non-confident self-absorbed leaders drive top talent from the organization like a fire alarm. Replace the engineered comfort of me-itis with a belief in what the top talent can produce for the organization and thus for you.
Attracting top talent today is quite different than years ago. There was a time when casting doubt about a talent’s skill would make them work harder to prove you wrong and win out over other talent you are considering.
Though there is still some talent who respond that way, there is top talent who will walk away from you and toward positive inspirational leaders that embrace their talent.
Replace competition with collaboration and doubt with a coalition for success!
What other behaviors would you add to this list? What other leadership traits attract top talent?
From professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™
©2011 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish the content of this post, please first email info@katenasser.com for terms of use. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on leading change, customer service, customer experience, and teamwork. She turns interaction obstacles into business success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.
Hi Kate
Another good one! I think all of us will be able to remember cringe worthy bosses who met these descriptions. How many of us can look back at our own actions and remember when we met these descriptions, however?
best wishes,
Liam
Hi Liam,
So nice to hear from you — via this comment. You use a very interesting word, cringe. Truly describes how it could drive talent away!
Thanks for creating such a strong picture.
Kate
Kate,
Negativity is the one that is so draining for me. My wife calls me Mr. Positivity because I just can’t do the n-word. Positive environments are magnetic and make people feel like anything is possible.
As far as other leadership traits that attract top talent, I would say someone who values individual differences. Diverse backgrounds, perspectives and talents can add tremendous value to a team. Leaders who are confident enough to embrace differences allow people to feel like they can be themselves.
Joshua
Kate,
I admit! I’m a perfectionist! You are absolutely right about that point. I got my subordinate complaining about this
I’m trying to reduce the level of perfection I should opt for so tasks can move on faster but some times I really can’t accept missing some info which i beleive important to the task!
I hope I can control myself in the future
Thanks for the great advice Kate.
Regards,
Khalid
Thanks Kate, A great article.
All the points are really important and together make/ break a leader. I specially liked the point about negativity, it’s one that we can all think about and all experience in all walks of our lives.
So pleased you found this valuable Jon. And as you say, we can all run into negativity or be the source of it. Attention to overcome it is worthwhile!!
I hope you will share your insights on any post of interest here at Smart SenseAbilities.
Happy Holidays and thanks,
Kate
Will add one if I may – top talent like fairness – by “definition” they are potentially high performers and they do not like to see bad behaviour or bad performance rewarded only because leaders have affinities with certain individuals
One more thing I find that drives away talent is not treating employees as responsible people who understand that job performance is tied to their employment, but emphasizing accountability (i.e.,a watch dog mentality).
Thanks for a great topic in a time where organizations are becoming are blaming their employees for the ills brought about by management decisions. Leaders need to look at what situation they are creating that is making it difficult for employees to do their jobs before placing blame.
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