Three small steps to help you use authentic leadership as your strategy to improve engagement and retain your talent.

It seems just about every day your news feed has a new article talking about the (admittedly catchy) “Great Resignation.

And geez, so sorry about adding yet another.

I’m guessing just about every leader out there is on the spectrum between, “What am I gonna do to survive this?!” and “I think I might be in that data too .”

But there’s new information that suggests you can hold your horses on the freak-out session and that we’re just experiencing the same shiznat, different decade.

Gallup recently released an analysis that shows that people that are engaged (i.e. happy and dig their work) are really not any more likely to leave than they were in pre-pandemic times. They looked at data from September 2019 and 29% of engaged workers were looking at potential new jobs, whereas in March 2021, they’re looking about 30% of the time.

In contrast, there are 4-5 percentage points more employees that are unengaged looking to bail.

In fact, they found that it takes more than a 20% pay raise for people that are engaged to make a move these days. Alternatively, it often takes no increase in pay or perks to move the unengaged.

So what does this all mean?

It means that all the stuff you knew was important before – leadership, culture – is simply more important than ever. The companies that double-down and make tangible effort to differentiate based on “the fluff” are going to win the fight.

If you’re like, “Oh Lord, this is the definition of insanity! How do I not get caught in doing the same things I did in the past relative to training and development and expect the same outcomes?”

While ensuring your leaders have the 101 curriculum they need to transition or grow from individual rock star to leadership superstar, you have got to try new things. It’ll be critical to modernize your culture just like you modernize your products.

In another recent study, “The Importance of Authenticity in the Workplace,” their data shows that people who feel they can be authentic at work are 60% more engaged than those that don’t. They also found that people 71% more confident and 46% happier overall.

In another study, Microsoft’s Work Trend Index, they found that leaders were largely ignorant to the extent of the burnout and dissatisfaction felt by their teams. Then then stated that authenticity is the thing that will re-catalyze productivity and wellbeing in this new, wacky working world we’ve entered. 

So where do you even start? I mean, authenticity probably feels oh-so-good on your soul, but how in the heck do you change your culture to be one that doesn’t just allow authenticity, but one that leans into it help you survive the talent war you’re facing?

New Research Shows That Authentic Leadership Can Save You From the Great Resignation

Here are three steps that can help you make this pivot immediately and keep your team and dream alive!

1. Do a “rigmarole” audit.

Meet with your team and talk through the things that are getting their way and that don’t feel “on mission.” Have them freely brainstorm and list these items and with as much detail as possible. For example, you might find things like the fact that your team spends 20% of their time updating internal PowerPoint presentations. Or maybe they often spend time writing status emails that you then edit and send on to your boss

2. Practice using humility as a connection speed-pass

Purposefully using humility is one of the most effective tools to increasing trust and creating connection with others. But humility has to be a bit unexpected and a bit brave. When you’re willing to expose something of yourself, when people least expect it, that’s a core building block of being an authentic leader.

Think about places where you can avail a fault of yours (e.g. the opening at a Town Hall, a team meeting) or where you can act a heck of a lot more human (e.g. do the dirty work at a company gathering, do something that most leaders have their assistant’s take care of.)

3. Post on LinkedIn…as you.

People are using LinkedIn more and more like the conference you rarely get to attend. It’s a place that goes well beyond finding a new job. Look, it’s basically a public dating app for work.

I know I’m not the only one that has my authenticity radar turned on high when scrolling through LinkedIn. Anyone engaging out there knows it’s easy to tell which leaders are on there to provoke and which leaders are on there to promote (or their comms/social media people are on there for them).

If you think people aren’t checking you out, judging you, and determining who they want to work for – at least in part – based on what they see on LinkedIn, you craaaaazy.

Erin Hatzikostas is an internationally-recognized leader on the impact of authenticity in the workplace and the founder of b Authentic inc, where she helps people and companies win by using authenticity as their secret weapon to success.

Erin is the bestselling author of You Do You(ish), a TEDx speaker, coach-sultant, and the co-host of an offbeat career and leadership podcast, b Cause with Erin & Nicole. Erin’s talks have reached hundreds of thousands of people, and her thought leadership has been featured on ABC and CBS and been published in Business Insider, Fast Company, Well+Good, among several others.

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