Why your team’s star players quit?

When you see this happy guy or gal from your team around the office, or in the kitchen, whom is always smiling, and never whines or complains about anything, it is very natural for us to assume that he or she is having a good time here and not going to leave us!

Though it is possible that you are right and they are genuinely happy, we should make sure that we are not mistaken.

From my experience, top players in teams don’t grumble or whine much, and if you are not paying attention to their needs, they might keep their options open in case they find other opportunities elsewhere, because of one of the reasons that I want to talk about.

1. Not enough success or challenges

Your teams super starts are normally self-managed and self-driven and they are thirsty for success.

They are literally success junkies.

The more challenge they face, the more excited they get and it becomes like an addiction for them. “Dopamine” addiction!

Yes, it’s science. Success in small projects, or career growth, etc, releases dopamine in our brain, which by the way is a highly addictive substance!

When an animal, be it fish or human, wins a contest, there is a large release of testosterone and dopamine into their brain. Over time this changes their brains structure and chemical makeup, making them smarter, more confident and able to take on larger challenges than before.

What that means is, the more our good team players succeed, the more they need to be challenged and to grow, or else they will look around to satisfy their success addiction and get their dose of dopamine!

So if you want to keep them around, make should they get their share of opportunity to grow, challenges, responsibilities.

2. They see no future

We should make sure that we realize (and let our team know) that we understand that this position that they are in right now, is not the last thing they will be doing in their career.

People have plans and visions for their career and we should help them get there, even though it might or might not be possible for them, to be in that position in our company!

Basically, we figure out what our team members want to be in the future, plan for it, prepare them good enough with training, related responsibilities, to make sure when the time comes (if it is in our company or not) they are ready for it!

If they see that, considering their plan, staying with your team, is not helping them to achieve their ideal position in the future (again, I repeat since it is very important, not necessarily in the current company) they will leave!

In a nutshell, we should be involved in developing them to be ready for their long term plan, and be more than just a stepping stone for a short term game!

3. They are not clear on your “WHY”

When I started my career, I noticed this concept of “Vision” everywhere, and I just thought that a “thing” like a paper work or something that companies need to have.

Then after several years I came across this concept of “WHY” from Simon Sinek, and it opened my eyes about, how important it is. Simon has a book around this called: “Start with why”, which is an amazing concept and is very much the same as your team’s vision.

Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

You can also listen to the following video, if you are not up to reading his book: (it is one of the top most viewed TEDTalk videos ever!)

High performance people, need to know there is a “WHY” and there are goals and values we care about as a team, and they need to know that we are moving towards those goals, and our small daily steps and tasks, are moving us there.

If we are not clear on our vision, and our values, and don’t emphasize this to our team, then they will forget and one day, they will be like: “Why am I doing this again?” and that’s the day whey will look for other places where they can find their “WHY”.

Here is the link to Simon’s “Start With Why” book:

4. Money Talks

Salary conversations are not the easiest ones, specially with your best performers. But it is very important to have those conversations BEFORE they ask for a raise! Most super stars might not even ask for a raise, specially it is very common among ladies, they are known for not being able to “negotiate”. So if they ask for a raise, you know that they have already looked, now if you want to keep them better hurry (if it is not too late already).

Though it is not always that easy, because in companies, there are salary bands, budget and what not, but I guess for your good players, those are going to be very good problems to have.

How will more money help?

First of all, with more money, hopefully it helps the employee to have a better life quality, and be more focused on the job rather than, constantly being distracted and thinking about “a better paying company or position”

And secondly, it has the same effect as “success” that we discussed earlier. But the difference is, you are literally paying for the dose of “dopamine” that the employees need to get going, but to my experience, raises and bonuses has shorter effect when it comes to dopamine effect, so we should make sure we proactively and regularly give them their dose!

Considering all the cost that the company has to pay when an employee quits, for recruiting, training, on-boarding, having an open position (so you will not get some stuff done because you are short one good performer), and at the end, 99% of the time you end up paying the same amount that you could have paid to keep your, well performing, trained employee with, to a new guy who you probably don’t know how they are going to turn out.

In short, make sure you proactively monitor your employees compensation package and make sure it grows, along with their value to the company.

5. You are burning them out

One of the great things about super starts on your team is, they get shit done! And they do it quick!

Now, what often happens, is they get rewarded, with the wrong thing, which is MORE WORK, because they are free!

Also, another scenario is, your top players are so dedicated that they might put in some extra time, from their weekend, or after hours, not even because you asked them too, because they enjoy it. So our job here is to make sure that is not unnoticed and they get their time back, even it they tell you that they don’t need it. You don’t want to burnt out employee, because they quit!

Another scenario is, you might have some people on the team that are not so great, and they might actually slow down the top players, or the top players might have to carry other’s weight all the time, which could be another cause of burn out.

So we should make sure we find out if they are at their best and they have all the things they need to be their best!

6. Give and Receive Feedback

Everyone need to feel like their contribution has an effect on the team. Good players need it even more.

So if they do a good job, make sure you give them feedback. Even if they screw up occasionally, you should give them that hard feedback as well, so they know you are being honest with them.

While giving feedback, it is better to be as specific as possible, so telling people “good job” is not enough! You should tell them why, and when they did a good job!

It is also very important for you as a leader to let them the chance to give you feedback. They need to trust you enough (hopefully) that without being worried about anything tell you that “You suck” or “You rock”.

Some people are not that comfortable to give their leaders feedback, so you might have to ask several times to give you feedback, then they might trust you and open up.

7. Make sure you recognize their efforts

Some people might say, “Well, they get paid a couple times a month, and they also have a bonus”, but that’s just not enough.

We need to recognize the good work, ALL THE TIME. Specially in groups, so they feel pumped!

Every chance you get, don’t miss your chance to recognize your employee for their hard work, their success. Make sure they know that they are one of the reasons that you are getting things done

When your team’s hard work is acknowledgment from you as a leader, it makes a huge difference in their morale and again like most other communication tricks, each person is different.

So we need to “know” our team member’s communication preferences, and they recognize their efforts accordingly. For some people a post card in a quarterly staff meeting works, some people a bottle of wine and some with a gift card or a lunch!

What ever you do, the key is we should “consistently” let them know we notice and value their efforts.

8. Nice office space

I’d say, not a lot of people would leave or join a company “just” because they have a crappy or nice office, but it sure helps people feel comfortable when they are spending a lot of time in the office everyday.

It is important for people not to feel bad, when they get up every morning and getting ready to go to work. They should be looking forward to get into their desk, feeling energized and motivated.

LGM Financial Services (Vancouver, CA)

9. They don’t have the tools they need

Again this one might sound stupid, but you gotta give them the right and good tools to be at their best.

The outdated computers, the crappy IT support, not purchasing the software and hardware that your team needs, just because you think, they can still get the job done with their current stuff, but it might be a bit slower!

The old crappy hardware and software will frustrate people and they quit!

Obviously, there is no end to this list, and this might or might not apply to everyone and every company, but I think this is just a good start.

If you have other things that you as a leader do to keep your super star players, or you as an employee have some ideas that will keep you around, please leave them in the comments.

Cheers!