Build or buy employees

In the first episode of Ted Lasso, the new coaches converse with their team captain, the gruff Roy Kent.

Ted: It was real fun watching you out there today. You know, the boys really respond to you. It doesn't surprise me though. You've had a heck of a career.

Roy: Thank you. Never thought it would end being coached by Ronald fu*king McDonald.

(Roy Leaves)

Ted: You gonna let him call you that?

Coach Beard: I don't think he was referring to me.

Ted: He thinks he's mad now, wait till we win him over.

Coach Beard: He'll... be... furious.

With so much movement and shortages in the workforce, we need to be thinking carefully about how we keep our staff well and engaged.

Managers have always needed to be focused on keeping great people. But it is even more important now to focus on building the greatness in your people if you are to grow the business and achieve success. This is especially true in our regional and rural areas where there is a limited pool of workers to choose from. It can be hard to let people go if there are no suitable alternatives.

The advice to managers under significant stress to find and keep sufficient good staff varies. One strand recommends keeping toxic employees away from other people so they don't infect them. This is not always possible even if it was advisable.

And it's not always easy to win employees over. But it does seem a valiant and compassionate thing to do. Instead of exclusion, can we try inclusion by being positive, giving responsibility, autonomy and support.

We can't know what is going on for people and what is causing them to turn up as the smallest version of themselves. Maybe it's all they can manage right now.

There comes a point when damage to the business, the team and the clients outweighs keeping someone in their role. But can we hand-on-heart say we have tried to bring out the best in the scarce resources that are available to us? Have we tried to make them furiously won over?

#tedlasso #toxicemployee #compassion #retention