Episode 498 8 Leadership Mistakes Costing You Great People
In this episode of the Lead Up Podcast, host Mike Harbour challenges the familiar idea that people quit jobs and argues that, more often than we realize, they’re responding to the leadership environment around them.
Turnover may be the number that eventually gets an executive’s attention, but it’s often a lagging indicator. The conditions that lead a good employee to disengage, lose trust, or eventually leave can begin months—or even years—before a resignation ever hits your desk.
Drawing from more than 30 years of his work with healthcare leaders, Mike shares eight critical leadership failures he continues to see across teams and organizations.
More importantly, he challenges leaders to stop looking only at the metrics and start paying attention to the leadership behaviors that may be predicting where those metrics are headed.
In this episode, Mike discusses:
- Why turnover should be viewed as a lagging indicator
- What leaders should be watching before engagement and retention begin to decline
- Why leadership isn’t a “soft skill,” but an essential business skill
- How seemingly small leadership behaviors can quietly shape culture
- Why trust, accountability, growth, and communication matter to retention
- How urgency can sometimes create unintended leadership problems
- Why leaders need to examine the environment they’re creating—not just the employees who leave
- A simple way to grade yourself, your leadership team, and your organization before the metrics tell you there’s a problem
As you listen, Mike challenges you to be honest about what’s happening inside your organization and ask:
If your best people left tomorrow, what would they say they were really leaving?
If you’re working to improve retention, engagement, culture, and organizational performance, this episode will help you look beyond the numbers and identify the leadership behaviors that may be influencing them long before they appear on your dashboard.
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To continue the conversation or learn how Harbour Resources can help your organization develop leaders who drive stronger organizational results, reach out to Mike at Mike@harbourresources.com.
