After combing through countless books, articles, and various online posts - the #1 reason for people leaving a company is their direct boss.  Bosses have the ability to change, enhance or ruin a work environment.  And they can do it quickly.  So if bosses are the number one reason, why do we have so many poor ones?  Training.  Let me put it better, the lack of training.  Bosses, leadership, or management - however you describe the people that oversee your day to day life; are the glowing star in the sky that keep you happy or are the gloomy cloud that hovers over your head and forces you out.  Which one do you have?

For the bosses reading this article, TAKE NOTES.  There are various foundational elements that cross all borders of management.  Whether a factory manager, a shift lead in a fast food company, or an manager at a FORTUNE 100 - the basics remain the same.  So take a quick look at why the people say they leave and then we can discuss how to solve the issue.  Professional staff members leave due to the way they are treated - something that has little to do with their duties.  How the manager looks at them, speaks to them, associates with inside/outside the office, encourages them, etc. all were the largest factors when determining how an employee evaluates a boss.  If you do not think these factors matter, look at this.  One of the reports written states that 75% of employees site their direct manager as the most stressful part of their day.  So how does a manager truly manage people?

I believe that there is so much more to managing people than simply overseeing them in their tasks.  The question is engagement, how does a boss engage the people he/she oversees is the real factor that makes all the difference.  Engagement covers all the intangible interactions that we mentioned above and weigh the most on how staff assess their leadership.  The old school thoughts are management up here and the rest of the people down here.  If you are looking to keep losing people, remain in that school of thought - they will fall away in droves.  Lack of engagement is the core foundation of the old school way of management.  So why engage?  People are people, one of the forgotten principles of management in today's business world.  To influence people and get the job done, managers need to engage people.  To do so, you must treat people the right way.  Sounds simple enough - does it not?  Why is it so hard then?  In addition to change management, training, and the fear that all of those bring - technology is one of the single largest factors in the inability of managers to be able to engage.  Email, phone, tele-conference, etc all remove the need for engagement and place people in isolated verticals without management training.  All this equals people consistently ranking their bosses low in performance ratings and leaving their positions for "the grass being greener" on the other side. 

Look for future articles addressing how to be better boss.  Check out workfanatic for more information