Off the Presses: Love 'em or Lose 'em:
Getting Good People to Stay

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From NetSpeed Leader Volume 22, April 2005

As a collection of "engagement strategies for busy managers" the third edition of Love 'em or Lose 'em is a gem. Published as an update in 2005, this volume by Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans provides an A-to-Z of topics focusing on retaining employees. For example, moving from A for "Ask: What Keeps You?" to E for "Enrich: Energize the Job," and on to G for "Goals: Expand Options," the book winds up at Z: "Zenith: Go for It."

Chapters provide provocative quotations, familiar stories, data, sample conversations, illustrative letters from clients, and lots of lists of to-dos. The Z chapter contains a "Retention/Engagement Index: A Manager’s Self-Test," which asks the reader to answer 26 questions like these:

Do you give information to employees on a need-to-know basis only? (If yes, read Chapter I, "Information: Share It.")

Do you fear that if you introduce employees to others in your network, they might be enticed away? (If yes, review Chapter L: "Link: Create Connections.")

Do you view employees' values as their own business and therefore seldom discuss them? (If so, go to Chapter V: "Values: Define and Align.")

The chapter on mentoring,  "Mentor: Be One," suggests these practical mentoring activities:

Model: Be aware of your own role modeling, and point out others who are good role models for your people.

Encourage: Support your people in the risk-taking that is essential to their growth.

Nurture: Get to know your people’s unique skills and capabilities. Work with them to do the most with their talents.

Teach Organizational Reality: Tell it like it is. Help them avoid those organizational minefields that are never written about in any policy manual.

On the topic of mentoring, the authors state, "People are more likely to trust ‘copers’ than 'masters.'" For that reason, it's important to show oneself to be human among employees, as in this scenario:

Let’s say you were unable to hold to a predetermined agenda at an important meeting. Debriefing with an employee ("Here's what I think happened. Did you see how I was sidetracked by Max's questions?") is a wonderful way of mentoring.

"Just-in-Time Encouragement" is another mentoring technique, including the steps Recognize, Verbalize, and Mobilize:

Liliana gives a beautifully designed flyer to her manager and says, "I’ve been doing some fiddling with the new graphics program and the laser printer."

Recognize—Manager: "Hmm, looks great. I didn’t know you like this kind of stuff." (Good)

Recognize and Verbalize—Manager: "This is really good. Is this something you'd like to do more of?" (Better)

Recognize, Verbalize, and Mobilize—“Manager: "If you like this kind of work, why not let Marc in Graphics know, and while you're there, find out when he's offering his next graphics course." (Best)

Another mentoring activity the authors recommend, teaching organizational reality, can take place in staff meetings. Ask employees to talk about questions like these:

What have I learned about what counts in this organization?
How have my failures and successes grown me?
What most surprised me about the culture?
What was the most difficult culture shift for me to make?
What are the ways to get in really hot water here?
How do people derail themselves?
What do I know now that I wish I had known then?

Love 'em or Lose 'em: Getting Good People to Stay is an easy read from cover to cover. It’s also designed crisply and clearly to dip into. In about 275 pages, authors Kaye and Jordan-Evans have provided a rich collection of ideas for managers, and they finish it with a valuable trouble-shooting guide. The book lists for $22.95, and is published by Berrett-Koehler.

Note: All material indented above is taken verbatim from the volume.