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Ready for the ‘Great Resignation’? | Issue #142

Why Looking After Your ‘A-Players’ Has Never Been More Important

Are you clear on the identity of your A-Players in your business?  Do they know they’re A-Players?  Have you told them?  And are they being paid the market rate?  Do they seem happy and engaged?  This matters because there’s a ticking post-pandemic time bomb about to explode – ‘The Great Resignation’.  We’re about to see the most significant transfer of people and wage inflation since the early 1980s.

The Microsoft Work Trend Index found that 40% of people want to change jobs this year. A survey of workers in the U.K. and Ireland put the number at 38%, and a similar U.S. survey found 26% of workers are planning to leave their current job over the next few months.  The reasons are obvious. During the pandemic, many people have sat tight. There’s been minimal movement.  Companies have got behind with their appraisals.  Some have even cut salaries.  And remote working has led to a lower emotional connection with employers.  It’s particularly bad for new hires. 

All of this spells Danger with a capital ‘D’.  A buyer’s market is opening up for A-Players to pick and choose where they work, and it’s not just your local competitors who’ll be coming after them.  Because of remote working, you’re up against more prominent London companies with a more sophisticated recruitment machine and deeper pockets.  If you have good people, you need to know who they are and make sure they’re happy. Good people will stay in good teams with good managers.


The Process Of Change With Greatness U Founder, Gina Mollicone

Are you ready to change? If so, don’t miss Greatness U founder, Gina Mollicone, on this week’s episode of The Melting Pot. 

Gina, based in Whistler in British Columbia, Canada is a best selling author and an agent of change. She’s written Think Or Sink and The Secret Of Successful Failing.

She is a product of what she preaches: having had to pivot hard in March 2020, when Covid hit and her business went to zero, overnight. Today, Gina helps clients get what they want. Because, says Gina, anything is possible. 

“There are only two conditions required to change anything. That is a bonafide desire to change and that desire must be burning inside the person, you’ve really gotta want it. And the second thing is you gotta be willing to give it what it takes.”

Her business, Greatness U, trains coaches, like Dom, to be better coaches. From talking about change and her model for change and the things people need to do to see change, to how to build rapport, and why if you’re struggling, impact change can help you break out of the box. Download and listen now.

You can’t spend time with Gina and not find yourself learning new things. We found this conversation illuminating, we hope you do too.


7 Strategies for leading a crisis-driven reorg.

Tune into hear the inside story from startup founders, investors and leading tech voices: the people who’ve built businesses, scaled globally, failed fantastically and learnt massively. Seedcamp invests early in world-class founders attacking large, global markets and solving real problems using technology. Seedcamp provides the infrastructure to fast-track a founder’s vision and create value through immediate access to smart capital, a lifelong community of support and a global network built upon a decade’s experience backing exceptional talent.


How to Scale Your Sales Team Quickly

When Chief Revenue Officer Steve Johnson was ramping up the sales team at Hootsuite, he faced a big challenge: He needed to scale sales, and he needed to do it quickly.

Help your employees find purpose—or watch them leave

If the tumult of 2020 has prompted your organization or leadership team to reconsider people priorities such as employee well-being, resilience, or purpose, then you’re in good company. Your employees are reconsidering you, too. 

Facing up to fear

For several weeks into lockdown, in the spring of 2020, fear gave me a sick feeling of dread in my stomach a few seconds after I’d woken. Oh God, this is real, it’s not just a bad dream. I’d listen to the news on the radio in bed and my stress levels would elevate, along with my blood pressure, no doubt. That can’t have been a healthy way to start the day. Fear also disconnected me from the usual pleasures of life and my senses were dulled. Even into early summer, the honeyed lime blossom, my favourite fragrance, smelt sad.


A State of Fear: How the UK government weaponised fear during the Covid-19 pandemic

This is a book about fear. Fear of a virus. Fear of death. Fear of losing our jobs, our democracy, our human connections, our health and our minds. It’s also about how the government weaponised our fear against us – supposedly in our best interests – until we were one of the most frightened countries in the world. But why did the government deliberately frighten us? How has this affected us as individuals and as a country? Who is involved in the decision-making that affects our lives? How are behavioural science and nudge theory being used to subliminally manipulate us? How does the media leverage fear? What are the real risks to our wellbeing? Ahead of any official inquiry into the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, Laura Dodsworth explores all these questions and more, in a nuanced and thought-provoking discussion of an extraordinary year in British life and politics. With stories from members of the general public who were impacted by fear, anxiety and isolation, and revealing interviews with psychologists, politicians, scientists, lawyers, Whitehall advisers and journalists, A State of Fear calls for a more hopeful, transparent and effective democracy.


The Hard Work Myth

Entrepreneurs are working harder than ever, with almost half working 50 hours a week or more, swapping quality time with our families for long hours in our offices. The problem is, it isn’t working. Despite the sacrifices, less than a third of businesses started today will survive long enough to see their 10th birthday. In The Hard Work Myth, you’ll discover why working harder is a waste of time and learn the simple but high impact techniques used by some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs to achieve more, without working harder About the author: Barnaby Lashbrooke is on a mission to destroy the myth that working hard is the key to success. Why? Barnaby has built two multi-million dollar businesses, with more than $32 million in total sales, all whilst working less than 35 hours per week and he believes if he can to it, you can too.


MEANINGFUL ACTION FOR MONDAY

Give your best people a pay rise  

Next week, get your HR Department to write a list of your best people – your ‘A-Players’.  If you don’t have an HR Department, do this as an Executive team.  Look at what you’re paying them and compare it to similar jobs listed on Indeed or LinkedIn.  Is their pay at market rate?  Could it be more?  Most of the clients that come to us initially have around 15 – 35% A-players in their business.  Work out who they are, put your arm around them and give them a 5 – 10% pay rise. Get to them in advance of them being headhunted.  Trying to keep them will save you a fortune.


Upcoming Events

LIVE FIRESIDE CHAT WITH HUBERT JOLY, CEO OF BEST BUY – 23RD JUNE – 1.30-2.30PM ET

Join us to hear the remarkable story of how Hubert Joly orchestrated Best Buy’s spectacular turnaround. Having joined as CEO in 2012, he spent 8 years transforming the company into one of the nation’s favourite employers, a sustainability leader, and an innovator, vastly increasing customer satisfaction, and dramatically growing its stock price. In this fireside chat, Joly will share how he did it and unveil his personal philosophy to achieving extraordinary outcomes for all stakeholders by putting purpose and people first.

SCALING UP BUSINESS GROWTH WORKSHOP – 6TH JULY – THE NEW FOREST

Restrictions are easing and the race is on! Don’t let COVID-19 beat you into the ground and take your business. Treat this pandemic as an accelerator. The “one thing” you’ve been looking for to pivot, re-evaluate and get ahead of the competition. Join us on our farm in Wiltshire to walk through our Scaling Up growth programme.


Quote of the week

“Confidence is the prize given to the mediocre”

Robert Hughes

Dominic Monkhouse

Dominic offers business coaching and management development, strategy planning and organisational change, using tried and tested methods to launch your organisation onto an unparalleled growth trajectory. His programme is a function of his broad experience, his deep expertise and a proven process used by over 2,700 firms worldwide.

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