In the Great Resignation of the pandemic era, when 3% of the US workforce left their jobs every month – a record of 4.5 million workers – most cited reasons of wage stagnation, rising costs of living, limited upward mobility within careers, hostile work environments, and long-term dissatisfaction with their jobs. Now, it seems to have reached its second term. Nearly 40% more than three years ago, almost half of professionals worldwide say they are considering leaving their jobs in 2024.
As highly-valued employees begin to leave their jobs in search of more fulfilling opportunities, organizations are scurrying to find solutions to keep them on. While the overwhelming consensus within business psychology and development is that companies flourish when they cultivate psychologically safe environments, there is a disconnect between the science and what businesses actually implement. “There are a lot of ideas floating around on how to improve mental health in the workplace, but we just don’t see it working within organizations,” states Maja (Maya) Caplette, founder of Glu Consultants.
On the other hand, a study of 1,000 working professionals reported that the correlation may point in the opposite direction, that high-performance teams build trust and reduce attrition rates. Employees who trust their organizations, from peers to management, show higher engagement, creativity, and productivity in their work. Additionally, they are less likely to feel stress, experience burnout, and quit their jobs.
This study found that teams that were qualified as ‘high-performance’ had codified guidelines for the process of collaboration – they didn’t leave it up to chance. Teams would discuss in-depth how they could work together, delegate tasks, set timelines, address tensions, and communicate consistently and constructively.
Similarly, when the Harvard Business Review conducted research into team behavior at 15 multinational companies, they found that, fundamentally, the success of a team depended on the philosophy of the highest-level executives. When leaders were staunch in their principles to support employee relationships and demonstrate collaborative behavior amongst themselves, employees would experience these behaviors as valuable and worthy of being mirrored.
When looking at individual employees, a shift is observed from valuing stable employment to self-fulfillment and career development, which is why the Great Resignation 2.0 has begun to take off. Rather than focusing on how to reduce employee turnover, the real puzzle is in building strong foundations and planned collaboration within and between teams and leaders.
“People will always leave their jobs, as is their right. Job-hopping is not the problem. The problem is when people quit and organizations fall apart,” Maya Caplette explains. According to Maya, what makes a team most effective is their level of satisfactory work and the speed of execution. “During my experience as a business development executive, I’ve observed that the best work is done today in unofficial, invisible teams. We need to find a way to formalize that work.”
One way to achieve real organization within companies is to see where the border of their leaders’ influence ends. This is because leaders have a responsibility within their organization to ensure that employees can develop in their jobs – this has the additional benefit of nurturing employees that will help businesses succeed.
Maya recommends that leaders start with their inner selves to find their true zone of genius. A leader’s self-realization can be applied to build a sense of belonging among employees, to make them feel recognized and valued, and to have the space to grow as career people.
Glu Consultants coaches management, executives, and founders on building the pipeline to their business’ progress through collaboration. With their slogan proclaiming ‘No one is successful alone,’ Glu conclusively demonstrates that confident leaders are reflected throughout an organizational structure. Maya’s background in neuroscience enables her to analyze her clients’ teams to enhance their natural cognitive potential and amplify their productivity.
“The last client I had, who is in the environmental engineering space, told me about unsuccessful meetings that he held with his teams. He would use a lot of business jargon, but the only thing that resonated with his entire team was when he spoke about saving the planet through their work,” Maya recalls. While leaders usually have creative, strategic, and intuitive personalities, their ability to connect with teams through shared missions and ideals is paramount to building trust.
Moreover, a confident leader does not mean a lone wolf. Just as team players depend on each other, leaders can also ask for help when needed. “There needs to be effective communication throughout a structure. This includes leadership roles, as you only find real success after jumping over the hurdles,” she explains.
Maya’s method with leaders involves transforming common and detrimental feelings – burnout, self-doubt, and feeling stagnant in their progress – into leaders who have conviction, humility, foresight, and a toolkit to provide their teams with the support they need. Her holistic approach enables clients to not only reduce turnover but to protect a company’s productivity and integrity when employees inevitably leave. This is achieved through their actionable coaching for planned collaboration, driven by empowered leaders with vision and conviction.
Glu Consultants is committed to cultivating its clients’ success by harnessing the power of collaboration. By building a pipeline to progress from the top down, Maya Caplette empowers leaders to embrace their potential and model what high performance looks like throughout their structure. As Maya concludes, “When leaders thrive, teams thrive. And when teams thrive, their business thrives.”
