I am helping a client recruit a new employee and while going through some resumes found one person who seemed to fit the job well regarding experience, knowledge and skills.

I arranged a phone interview and discovered that the person wanted to change jobs because they felt they were not being developed and that the boss was micromanaging them.

The job market is very competitive for good talent and as an employer you need to do everything you can to retain your staff, especially good performers.  You need to provide more than a dental or medical plan but also career growth opportunities, training and good leadership.

The Right Leadership Style

Good leadership today means a style of leadership that uses coaching more often than managing or supervising.  You still need to manage performance, but you do it differently.  Rather than checking up on the person you set goals and objectives with them and coach them on reaching their targets.

This is done much easier with experienced employees because they know the job well and can see what can be improved. As a coach your job is to make sure that the goals they set are aligned with the team, department and organization and include a personal development goal.

Support Commitments by the Leader

It is also important that as a leader you commit to specific support initiatives so that they are not blocked in doing their job and achieving their goals. For example, an employee goal could be to reduce errors by paying more attention to detail on certain tasks, but they are also forced to answer customer calls while they are working. Perhaps the support required is to transfer the task of taking calls to another employee, at least for part of the day.

Set Coaching Review Sessions

Once you have agreed on the performance commitment goals with the employee, you then set review coaching sessions. There are more like discussions on how well the employee is doing and to help them overcome obstacles. It is also an opportunity to discuss your support commitments and set new action steps if required.

You can use my goal planning worksheet to set goals with employees and the win-win agreement process and form to put agreements in writing.