Are you having conversations like this one too?

I was talking the other day with a client who is struggling to keep their people. No new hire seems to make it past two years in the organisation and they can’t find the right people to replace them.

It seems like not a day goes by without a conversation about attracting, retaining, and supporting a high performing team.

I’ve been having these conversations for over 20 years. Attracting and retaining the right people has always been an issue, but this time it seems almost everyone is struggling with this and there aren’t enough people to go around.

And this time, there is something else in the air…slight…panic, discouragement, and amongst that, a touch of stubbornly holding on to how things have always been done.

It reminds me of when my daughter was at an age where she and her friends all walked to school on their own, but the parents of one of her friends were adamant that this would not work for them, that they had exceptional circumstances, and she would have to be forever dropped off in the safety of their car and that was the end of it.

And of course, I knew that one day they would let go and embrace this new stage of parenting. It just takes some of us longer to embrace the changes around us…

Like parenting, leadership is so much about adapting to new circumstances, to a new version of our child, an ever evolving human who keeps us on our toes.

At the moment hybrid work and specifically what returning to ‘the office’ looks like are key issues for so many teams, and make me think about how embracing change with all our might is THE way to make it through the other side stronger.

This means being clear about where we’re taking our business, talking with our team about how we achieve our goals together, learning from the past two years so we can leave behind unproductive stories and processes and really focus on HOW we take the team and the business forward. When we get these elements right our good people stay because they are inspired and new people are attracted to the clarity and purpose.

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