Is the Great Resignation a good or bad thing for compassionate, heart-centered leaders?
As we’ve shared before, when your life becomes balanced on a single point instead of a broad foundation, finding the good vs the bad can be challenging. And yet, such a situation can also offer opportunities that may not otherwise exist. With the tectonic shifts that seem to be relentlessly altering our concepts of the workplace, many professionals find themselves reexamining their goals, relationships, and values almost weekly.
Toxic workplaces are being abandoned at an almost exponential rate. Those who are at or near retirement age are leaving the workforce in droves. Some have decided a long commute is no longer worth it and are choosing positions closer to home. A surprising number of families are simply so well off that fewer of them need to work. Others have taken lessons learned from the pandemic to seek positions where they are truly appreciated with more fulfilling career paths.
Finally, with more open positions than there are applicants to fill them, workers at all levels are “voting with their feet in favor of more flexible work hours, continued availability of remote work, higher wages, and better treatment.” (Forbes.com)
More Career Choices for Heart-Centered Leaders
As a heart-centered leader, you have more leverage for your career choices than ever. With more upper-level positions available than qualified leaders to fill them, now is a good time to stop adjusting, start leaning into your strengths, and find new opportunities and/or workplaces where you can thrive.
Whether directly related to the eye-opening influence of the pandemic or not, many professionals are using this trend to push themselves toward daring to make some necessary steps they have delayed (avoided?) for quite some time. These include considering a career transition, clarifying their goals and vision, and starting a business, to name a few. (Previous Post)
And again, workplaces with toxic environments will face ever more challenges to hiring and keeping talent. The current Omicron surge will further exacerbate this trend.
It’s a simple but universal truth that, when facing existential questions of life and death, as well as experiencing loss and anxiety, people tend to re-evaluate their core values and make decisions that they were previously delaying. Their priorities become clear and they get momentum to act.
Time to Take Action
Ultimately, the reasons for The Great Resignation matter far less than the need for business owners and managers to overcome it. This trend makes it more important than ever to accept that the key to business success is found in people – people who have both talent and marketable skills. These are traits that simply must be recognized and appreciated for their value by management and which are supported and rewarded accordingly.
Doing this will require personalized solutions to stem the tide. It will help a great deal if business leaders think of it this way: your company is not merely suffering from a “workforce problem”. You are losing valuable individuals; people in whom you’ve invested time, energy, and capital, and people who’ve invested themselves in you.
If your current workplace has not taken the obvious hints and begun to implement these solutions for retaining talent like you, it may be your best ever opportunity for making a change. To get started moving forward with your own version of The Great Resignation… Feel free to contact me for answers.
