Let’s focus on the professional impact of the no-normal era. If you are reading this, you are responsible for the output of others; your profession is leader. And whether you know it or not, there is a storm coming.
The “greatest generation” norm of one job–one career was supplanted by baby boomers that averaged 11 jobs between the ages of 18 and 44. Who knows where the numbers will end up for gen X, Y and beyond? Organizations can simply no longer provide full support to a worker for 60 or 70 years in exchange for 30 or 35 years of service. The economics are not sustainable. A lifelong relationship between organization and employee is gone.
The net result is transience, and it’s growing. Last year, an average of up to 55 percent of employees worldwide expressed a desire to leave their present employer. So why don’t they go? Here is where the pressure is building. In a down economy you get economic hostages. Early in a no-normal world of lower headcount and higher productivity, there is nowhere else to go. There are no other jobs; people can’t retire or quit. Pressure is building. Employees dissatisfied for any number of reasons want a change and can’t make it happen. The talent exodus has yet to begin, but it will, and it’s going to affect you.
At some point when people begin to feel better about the economy, there will be a chain reaction. You’re going to find people leaving, and when they do, so will some of their teams—a domino effect. It’s like a perfect storm. All these dynamic factors coming into play at once, and if we don’t reengage our people, they’re going to go in droves. There is only one answer to this leader’s paradox: give yourself the freedom to not know all the answers. Your challenge for the future will be to retain the core of your team. The goal will be three-quarters of your primary talent—to keep 75 percent of your team intact, motivated, engaged.
The success of your leadership will lie in how effective you are in deploying others, not in how effective you are in deploying yourselves. In a no-normal world your interaction will be key, not your knowledge.
One of the things we may look back on in our rocking chairs 30 years from now is in essence that this no-normal world forced a higher quality of leadership than any other era in history. Bring out the best in your people and in yourself to make that happen.
