317: Keeping Top Talent Without Promotions

Aoife O’Brien [00:00:11]:

One of the biggest reasons that people say that they leave an organisation is because they feel like they’re not being developed. It’s definitely one of the reasons that I left one of the organisations that I left in my career, but there’s a catch. It doesn’t have to be When we talk about development, we don’t have to talk about climbing the ladder. I’m Aoife O’Brien. This is the Happier at Work podcast, and I’m so glad you’re here. Today we’re talking about when your hands are tied and you can’t give people the promotion that they want. But when promotions are not an option, what can we do instead? I think one of the big challenges that we’re seeing now is a real clampdown on budgets. Organisations are investing their money elsewhere, and maybe promotions are not necessarily on the table anymore.

Aoife O’Brien [00:01:03]:

Organisations are becoming flatter, budgets are tightening, they’re reinvesting maybe in AI or in something else, and teams are much, much leaner than they ever were before. So as a manager, when you genuinely don’t have a rung on the ladder to offer someone as the next step, What can you actually do? I think often as leaders, we think we have to offer someone a promotion as the next step, but I actually disagree with that. I think there are lots of other options and I’m going to outline them in today’s podcast episode. In my No-Show Grow framework, I talk about 7 different ways that we can develop people and promotions are just one of those 7. I think often we equate career growth with things like a bigger title with more money, more responsibility or managing people for the first time. But actually, if I think about my own career, I even had a promotion without a pay rise, which kind of seems a little bit unfair. So it doesn’t have to necessarily be about the money. There are other options that we can give people.

Aoife O’Brien [00:02:09]:

If I bring this back to my know, show, grow model, in the know part, it’s really helping people to know themselves better. So there’s a specific area within the know that I really want to focus on today. In the know section, I talk about our values and the importance of values, but really I want to talk about our needs at work and what really drives us. Those are the things that really motivate people to get out of bed and to actually enjoy going to work on a Monday morning. Those are things like learning, like recognition, like solving complex problems by getting to spend time with people that they really connect with on a deep level and really Understanding the impact that their work is having. None of those things actually require someone to be promoted. People are much more likely to stay when they themselves understand what their drivers are, and when those drivers can be satisfied by the work that they’re actually doing. So we all have, and I have covered this on the podcast before, so I’ll pop a link below.

Aoife O’Brien [00:03:19]:

We all have three universal needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence. But we also have unique needs that need to be satisfied at work in order for us to feel motivated to do that work. And the difficulty here is that we all have different unique needs. So if you have a small enough team, this is definitely something that you can have a conversation about. And maybe someone doesn’t know what their needs are, but they certainly know what’s making them feel really frustrated at work, what’s blocking them from utilizing their capabilities. They definitely know that, they can articulate that, and from that you can elicit, well, what need here is going unsatisfied? Let’s take the example of recognition as a driver that someone might have, and that’s a driver that I have. I like being recognized for the work that I’m doing, but again, depending on the individual, they may like that recognition in different ways. If I think about the 5 Love Languages, One of those love languages is words of appreciation or words of affirmation, and that is my love language.

Aoife O’Brien [00:04:32]:

I like hearing those words. So if someone says thank you or well done, or by the way, I mentioned your name in the senior leadership team meeting today, to me that is enough to show that I’m doing a good job. Now maybe that is not the same for everyone who, who has this driver of recognition. Maybe they want public recognition, they want an email sent out to the department, whatever that might look like, but they should be able to articulate that for themselves. That’s if you’re having a one-on-one conversation. If you’re leading a team with more people, it’s harder to do that at scale, but you can invite people to start using language that helps to articulate what they’re frustrated about. So they don’t have to know every single one of their needs, but they can share the frustrations in a universal language. So, you know, no one likes to be told that they are a micromanaging boss, but you may help people to articulate saying, I appreciate the guidance, but here’s what I need in order to reach my full capability at work.

Aoife O’Brien [00:05:46]:

So here are some examples of things that you can do straight away To help people feel like they’re developing and they’re growing in the role, but they’re not necessarily getting a promotion. Give people bigger problems, but not necessarily a bigger title. So give them big juicy problems to work on. Maybe they’ve never led a project before, and it’s an opportunity to actually take the lead on a project. Maybe it’s an opportunity to present their work to a more senior team. Maybe it’s looking at redesigning a process. That has been holding the team back, that’s been getting in the way. Maybe it’s an opportunity for mentoring that they can mentor someone more junior on the team.

Aoife O’Brien [00:06:33]:

Number 2 is about visibility. So is there an opportunity to give them more visibility, whether they’re contributing to an article that’s going to be published by an industry magazine, for example? I know that’s something I did very early in my career and I got really excited about that. Maybe it’s an invitation to a senior meeting, again, going back to this idea of presenting their work or just sitting in to hear. And so that executives can see them and hear their contribution if they’re feeling safe enough to speak up. Maybe it’s bringing them along to a customer meeting that they’ve never been along, you know, they’ve never been to a customer meeting before. They want to see how it works. This kind of visibility makes people feel like they have a bigger opportunity. I think oftentimes we ask what is someone good at? In the current role that they’re doing now, but what if you asked a different question instead, that you asked, what are they really capable of? So understanding what underlying strengths they have, how they’re bringing those current strengths to the role that they have now, or an opportunity to use their strengths in a different way.

Aoife O’Brien [00:07:45]:

You may understand these strengths. There’s lots of online tools that people can use to understand strengths. You can get feedback from clients, from, you can also get feedback from peers, from other leaders. And I think oftentimes we don’t necessarily know what our own strengths are. So being able to help them to articulate what their strengths and their capabilities are, maybe it’s a strength that they’re using in a role outside of work, but trying to really get to the heart of what is this person capable of and how do I help them to unleash those capabilities at work to have a bigger impact. Another thing to know about strengths is there’s something that makes us feel strong, but oftentimes our strengths are something that come quite easily and naturally to us. So we assume that other people are like that as well. Now, a good balance with this is to use your strengths, but on a really gnarly and challenging problem.

Aoife O’Brien [00:08:44]:

So you feel like you’re, you’re stretching yourself a little bit. It’s not Too easy, but it’s also not too hard. It’s right in that middle part where it’s like great problem and really challenging for me. Building on that idea, you can also think about what transferable capabilities they have. These are the really important skills that are going to become increasingly important as AI, the prevalence of AI is everywhere right now. But what are the uniquely human skills that we have and how can we use those? Not just in the role that we have now, but in the role that we’re going to have in 2 years, in 3 years, in 5 years, in 10 years. I’m talking about things like critical thinking, judgment, communication, the ability to influence other people, AI literacy, of course, commercial awareness, being able to spot those customer opportunities, coaching, stakeholder management, and being able to communicate with people at different levels. But also using different communication styles and techniques.

Aoife O’Brien [00:09:51]:

These are all things that people really need to learn about, and giving them the opportunity to learn how to do those things again will go back to feeling like they’re developing in some way. One of the old conversations that we used to have in relation to work was thinking about where do you want to be in five years’ time? I remember certainly when I used to apply for roles. I don’t think it’s like this anymore, but one of those questions was where do you see yourself in five years? Instead of asking those kind of 5-year questions, why don’t we focus on the here and now? What kind of work really gives you energy? What kind of projects do you really enjoy working on? What kind of problems do you want to solve? What would you like to be known for if you could be known for one thing? What haven’t you had the opportunity to do yet? And what capability would you love to develop and explore further? I think often as leaders, as managers, we assume that we have nothing to offer if we don’t have more money, if we don’t have a promotion opportunity. But hopefully in today’s episode, I’ve shown you that there are other ways that we can help people to feel like they really are developing in the roles that they have right now and preparing them for that next step at the same time. This ties in with, as I mentioned at the beginning, this idea of capability that I’m, I’m talking an awful lot about more. Recently, and it’s moving beyond looking at skills and trying to understand the underlying capabilities that people have, the untapped capability that exists in organisations. If we could just get leaders to recognize it and untap it, I can guarantee that every person in your team today has untapped capability that you are not aware of that is going underutilized. And if we can unleash that, then the organisation stands to benefit in multiple ways.

Aoife O’Brien [00:11:44]:

Not least because they are less likely to leave if they are getting to use their capabilities on a day-to-day basis. And a lasting thought that I will leave you with: career progression is not the same as career development. So progressing is a linear line, but development to me can mean moving outwards and getting clearer on what you uniquely bring and what gives you a great sense of fulfillment in the work that you do, whether that’s solving problems, getting to use your strengths, working with amazing people. Those things contribute to a much more fulfilling career than merely jumping up through the rungs of a ladder. And here’s something to think about after today’s episode. If promotion wasn’t an option, how else could you help them grow over the next 6 months? Hopefully I’ve given you some food for thought today. I would love to know what you think of today’s episode. Do get involved in the conversation.

Aoife O’Brien [00:12:42]:

Share it with someone who needs to hear it. Reach out to me on podcast@happieratwork.ie. Get involved in the conversation over on LinkedIn. It’s where I am most active, and I’ll put every link that you need below in the show notes.