The 3 things employees need from managers

I learned the hard way. At the end of a meeting a few years ago, my soon to be ex-colleague sat across the table and said: “I didn’t know what my job was, why I was doing it and how I was doing.”

In other words, she was leaving me, not the business. This harsh but indelible lesson taught me that people really do leave managers, but also that there’s plenty you can do to prevent the loss of good people.

Recently, I had Patrick Lencioni on my podcast and asked him: “Why do people leave their manager?” His candid answer:

If people don’t get what they need from their manager, they can’t possibly like their job and are eventually going to leave.

Lencioni went on to say that people need three things from a manager:

1. To be known. Employees must know their manager cares about them and is interested in their life.