"People do not leave organizations, they leave their bosses" 
and they take knowledge,experience and contacts with them, straight to the competition.

Before you read further, take a moment to think about your best boss that you had in your life and the worst one. Take five minutes to write down the adjectives that describe them. Most likely much of what was great for you is what your employees need as well. 


Gallup Organization had conducted a study with over a million employees and 80,000 managers. The expanded results and analysis was published in a book called "First Break All The Rules" by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman. The study confirms that If you're keep on losing good people, you might want to look to their immediate boss. 
People join organisations for their reputation, the benefits, the working environment, and so on. But how long they stay and how engaged they are depends mostly on their relationship with their immediate supervisor. 
All of us are emotional beings. The better the talent is, the easier it is to find alternative workplace, even during recession. The top talent you want to keep and attract wants to work in a place that CARES to set them up for success. 
A place that they ENJOY working for, that answer their needs sense of MEANING and PURPOSE. 
A place that excites them, that let them participate and feel connected. People are looking to be lead by someone who inspires them and to be the best that they can be, someone who grooms them with genuine care for their success. Someone who knows how 21st century motivation works that ignites intrinsic motivation. 
The new generation is more sensitive to negative criticism. Who loves someone who constantly focus on mistakes and keep showing them where they are not doing well?  Your top talent and high potentials are yearning to be coached by you how to fill their gaps so they can prove their self-worth  Every one loves to be appreciated, listened to, respected and kept informed. When you build the trust and you spend time (at least an hour a month) with your direct reports to coach them, you will see them rise to the occasion and improve. When they feel that you CARE for their development and success, they will take the negative comments constructively. Studies have found that front-line employees tend to treat customers in a similar manner that they are treated!

This is a picture taken by Avi Liran at Koh Phi Phi island. He broke the rules by read this book during a vacation.

Your check-list:

• Do you sit in the room with a view disconnected from the main area where things happen?
• Is there nice pantry and well designed meeting places for people to meet and share or just cold meeting rooms?
• Do you devote time to communicate often with your direct employees one on one? How often?
  
• Do your direct reports follow your example and devote time to their employees?
• Have you created with them a plan for their growth within the company? Does it have milestones? 
• Has that plan been implemented after sign-off?
• Do you catch them doing the right thing then dedicate the time to praise them on what they did great and coach them how to stretch it further?
• Do you care for them as human beings? What do you know about their personal life and challenges?
• Being competitive on targets is one thing. Setting unreasonable targets deflates morale. Are you putting people and departments against each other ?
• Some people thrive in all stressful environments, most don’t. How do you manage the stress level and life balance for your direct reports?