Your Best Employee Just Quit and it had nothing to do with money

 "Your Best Employee Just Quit — And It Had Nothing to Do With Money"

Every manager has a story like this. Maybe it's yours.

A high performer — someone you counted on — walks into your office one afternoon and slides a resignation letter across the desk. You're blindsided. You thought things were fine. You thought they were fine.

Then you find out where they're going. A lateral move. Same title. Barely a raise.

They didn't leave for a better opportunity. They left for a better manager.

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Here's a statistic that should stop every executive in their tracks: Gallup reports that managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores. Not the company culture. Not the pay. Not the perks. The manager.

And yet, most people promoted into management roles receive little to no formal training on how to actually manage people. We promote our best individual contributors — the top salesperson, the most technical engineer, the hardest working analyst — and then we hand them a team and expect magic.

It doesn't work that way.

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The story of Marcus and his team.

Marcus was a rising star in operations. He hit every number, solved every problem, and never missed a deadline. So when a management position opened up, leadership didn't think twice. Marcus was their guy.

Six months later, three of his five team members had quietly requested transfers.

It wasn't that Marcus was unkind. He was brilliant, hardworking, and genuinely wanted the team to succeed. But Marcus managed people the same way he managed tasks — with urgency, precision, and zero tolerance for "doing it wrong." He corrected publicly. He solved problems for people instead of helping them grow. He gave instructions, not context.

His team didn't feel led. They felt monitored.

The turning point came when Marcus's director sat him down — not to reprimand him, but to teach him. She introduced him to something deceptively simple: the discipline of asking before telling. Before stepping in to fix something, Marcus learned to ask: "What do you think we should do?" Before correcting, he learned to ask: "How do you think that went?"

Within 90 days, the transfer requests stopped. Within a year, Marcus's team was the highest-performing in the department.

Marcus hadn't changed who he was. He had learned how to lead.

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This is the truth about great management:

It is not a personality type. It is not charisma. It is not something you either have or you don't.

Great management is a discipline. A set of learnable, repeatable skills that transform good intentions into real results — for your people, your team, and your organization.

The managers who retain top talent, build high-performing teams, and drive sustainable growth aren't necessarily the loudest voices in the room. They're the ones who learned how to listen, how to develop, and how to lead with purpose.

And every single one of them made the choice to learn.

Are you ready to make that choice?

[Read more about the skills that separate great managers from the rest →]

 

Steve Sapato is the author of "Great Managers Are Made Not Born" and the founder of Steve Sapato Seminars. He has spent decades training leaders at every level to unlock the management potential already inside them. Visit stevesapatoseminars.com to learn more.

 

Great Managers know how to engage their people. Steve Sapato on YouTube has created several informative and help oriented videos to help you become a better manager. https://youtu.be/NAblX1Nokwc?si=A2JE5SlK8DO1cSZi

There are hundreds of articles showing how most people don't quit their jobs but they do quit a bad managers.

If this is such a huge problem why isn't it being fixed? Why isn't it being addressed?

It's like American politics, they know where the problems are but the people in power are typically the ones causing the problem and therefore it won't get fixed.

If you are having high turnover or if you are having issues with reliability, attendance, conflict among employees then you are probably having manager issues.

How do you fix a bad manager? Train them. If they won't be trained? Replace them.

One bad manager can cost your company thousands maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars. Why are you allowing bad managers and bad attitudes to impact your business?

It is time to train your people, all of them, on communication, management skills, and confrontation. Note that confrontation is vastly different from conflict.

Many companies train in conflict resolution but few on confrontational skills. One is negative and one is positive.

Maybe it's time you taught your people how to be better.

steve@stevesapato.com

https://mentalprosperityblog.com/great-managers-made-not-born-ep-224-office-gossip/

What makes you exceptional as a Manager? One thing to make it happen~

When you talk about what makes someone good there are lots of points you can make, but the difference between good and great managers are just a few things. Great managers do a few things that the good managers and lesser managers only think about doing.one else One primary place where Great Managers stand out from every other manager is 'communication'. I know that most managers when you ask them will say that they think they are good at communication. And when I pin them down to specifics, like asking, give me an example of how you communicate with your least important tier of employees they will be aghast and say, all of my employees are important. Of course they are. Now tell me how you just communicated with that tier? They cannot tell me of course because most managers tell their immediate supervisors information and expect that information to be communicated effectively down to all of the employees in their group or organization. The real heart of this is that Great Managers never assume/presume or take for granted what will or won't happen. They check and ask and seek to find out if that information is adequately passed down to all of their people. Great Managers use all avenues of communication, verify that it worked and insure that no one is left out. Great Managers not only use email to send information they also invite response to insure the information was communicated. They will use email, phone calls, text messages and verbal connections to make sure their messages are valued and received openly. Now I ask, what did you last 'send' and how did you make sure the correct info was transmitted and understood by the recipients? Now we are on the right track to being a Great Manager! Steve Sapato is a management trainer and speaker and has trained hundreds of companies and organizations in how to become exceptional. mentalprosperityblog.com

How Were You Trained To become A Manager? Who trained you and who trained them?

Did you receive any training before you became a manager? Most managers were never even trained to become managers but were placed into a position simply because it came available and they were next in line! There was no selection process. No tests or psychological profiling that went into their placement. And that is most typically answered with a resounding YES!!! by all of the people who suffer under the auspices of a bad or mediocre manager. So tell me, what training did you receive? Did you go to management classes taught by an outside vendor? because 90% of all in-house management training is taught by someone who has limited management training themselves and merely inherited the Training Position. This alone is responsible for thousands of lost man hours and thousands of unhappy employees because inadequately trained managers do not know how to use the exceptional people that are working with and for them. They don't know how to confront, delegate and utilize the people working under them. So bullying in the workplace stays strong because managers are not trained on how to deal in these areas! Great Managers understand and have learned how to deal with all kinds of personalities and learn how to out perform other departments by making their people happy and wanting to do great jobs for their manager. Most managers are improperly trained and therefore limited in their knowledge and their abilities to perform or excel outside of the scope of their experience. That means they can only teach you as much as they know. But we all know that each generation teaches less than they know so you aren't even being trained via what they know but only what they can pass on to you. What most companies desire is to achieve excellence in their organizations. Most understand that this excellence is achieved by utilizing their greatest resource – people. And most companies understand that the greatest loss of productivity is through the mismanagement of people and the under utilization of their abilities and skills. Now I ask again, who trained you and what additional training are you achieving on your own? I write this management blog for the mere pleasure of helping struggling managers learn more about how to get the most out of themselves and out of their people. I hope you enjoy reading it and forward it on to your peers. But let’s talk about what is really happening. If you are relying on a simple afternoon training class or some video training you were required to take then you are missing the most important part of management training. The interaction. The ability to ask questions in and of a person who has suffered through many of the things you are trying to figure out. Who has gained knowledge and background after years of managing as well as taking courses from others who we can learn from. The Great Management Trainers are never boring because we have been forced to set through hours and hours of terrible management meetings, hours and hours of boring meetings because the managers didn’t know how or understand the purpose of those meetings. And we have put ourselves out there to learn from other trainers and learned that boring is not only bad but ridiculous! Now you need to step up your game. You want the bosses to notice you? Then you need to be noticeable! You need to start showing them the results that only a great manager can achieve. And you can start that process by self training. Don’t wait for your company or your bosses to train you. Don’t wait! Take on the leadership you want by learning to be the leader they need. Read some of my past blogs and then follow the new ones and encourage your bosses and other managers to hire a GREAT management trainer (hint hint nudge nudge) to come in and start the process to make your company into the successful and powerful organization they want it and you need it to be. I am Steve Sapato with http://www.mentalprosperityblog.com and I have been training corporate managers for over twenty years. 563-370-4938

Great Managers~ Restaurants~making your staff more money by is using a 30 yr old technique

Have you been blessed by working for a great manager? Me too. I have learned many great styles and techniques as well as 'catch phrases' that endure time. I would love to hear yours so please comment and let me know. And pass this on to help others! One of the phrases that have stuck in my head for 50 years now is 'if you have time to lean, you have time to clean.' I love that. I hated at the time because it meant my boss wanted me to keep working! Now get ready to share yours, please. I have the great pleasure recently of having someone I managed over thirty years ago come back into my life. She is now a great manager and as we talk she reminds me of things she has learned and recently she told me I was the inspiration for her helping her staff make more money. Now don't get me wrong, I have lots of techniques I use and train that I tell restaurants will increase their business by ten percent and sometimes double the tips their servers receive. It is why I travel and train. I know things! Surprise surprise. But this one phrase I had long forgotten and my friend reminded me. She told me that her staff said that working her shift made them a lot more money than working for any other manager. By using one phrase she helped her people make more money. Would you like your staff to make more money? Because that is what great restaurant managers do isn't it? It is one of the reasons that Great Managers seldom have to look for a great staff because the staff tells their friends how great it is to work with you and they come and apply giving you a never ending supply of great staff while at other restaurants you hear, "I can't find good help these days." If you have heard that, maybe this one phrase will help you solve that huge problem of getting good help! Are you ready? When your guests check out all you need to do is ask them - Did your server take good care of you today? Wait, not done because it's the next phrase that makes all the difference! And of course they better be saying yes to that question or you had better be doing a lot more to make your guests happy. When you ask, - Did your server take good care of you today - and they answer yes! Then the money maker reply is... - Did you take good care of your server?- It's innocuous, it doesn't raise their hackles, it's not pandering, it's not offensive in any way AND it makes your guests realize that you not only value them but you value your staff. And my great friend Toni Finch said her servers love working with her for many reasons (it's why she is a great manager)but one reason they tell her is because she uses those two phrases together and they make her staff a lot more money! What makes you a great manager? Lots and lots of things. This is just one small idea that will create a loyalty from your staff and also make them more money. And that is what drives many people today, show me the money~ I hope this tidbit makes you and your people a better place to work and a happier place to spend your time. Would you like to learn more ways to increase your bottom line profits? Learn how to increase customer loyalty? Have great people standing in line to work for you? I am Steve Sapato and I would love to train you and your staff so that all of those things can happen. Great Managers are made not born. mentalprosperityblog.com - Now please leave your catch phrases here so we can all learn and grow.! Have an amazing year!

Great managers know their people

Great managers know their people, know how to treat them, know how to keep them and know how to move them forward.

Were you truly trained to be a manager? To manage your friends?

One of our greatest challenges in any business is improper training and no one suffers from that more than the position of Manager.
I was recently speaking to a group of managers and several asked similar question. They all revolved around them being promoted within their department to the managers position.
And I hear some of you saying, well Steve, what's wrong with that?

The answer is nothing and everything.

If you organization is as sharp as I hope they are then what probably happened was that the department manager was replaced and you were invited to step into the managers role. With that being said, I hope your company then sent you or brought in an expert on being a Great Manager (me). And that they spend several weeks training you about what being a manager means, how you need to understand people, attitudes, difficult situations. How you need to know the five emotional languages your people speak without speaking a word. I hope they taught you about the D.I.S.C. method of knowing your people so that you would recognize what each person brings to your department and how you will need to deal with them in such different ways.

And IF they promoted you to be the manager of the department you were just working in I hope your company really spent some time training you AND working with your people so that when you move from being their 'friend' and co-worker into the management position there won't be the typical awkward and often times hostile environment that occurs when you have to manage them, discipline them and reprimand them.

If your organization does not do both of those things you will be in for a huge learning curve that will undoubtedly affect morale, productivity and office relationships.

And if your organization did not set aside time to train you as a manger you will have to take your personal time to read the right books and listen to the right material so that you can optimize your newly acquired position.
If you don't do your due diligence in these areas you are facing hard times and possibly even being a failure as a manager because your people will resist you moving from their co-worker to becoming their manager.

I hope you understand these issues and ask for all the help and assistance you can get and do not let your own pride prevent you from becoming one of your companies greatest assets; a Great Manager.

I am Steve Sapato, author and trainer in Mental Prosperity the way to find your success in your future at mentalprosperityblog.com

Are you feeling valued at your job? What can you ...

What makes a great manager? According to the experts over 80% of all employees do not feel valued at their jobs.
I know what you are thinking, thank goodness I am not one of them!
Now isn't that close to what you were thinking? Oh sure it could have been 'my people feel valued' or it could have been 'I know a manager who's people don't feel valued'.
Now let's face it, what makes you think your people are not in that 80%? What makes you think you are in the top 20% of all managers in the nation?

And the trouble is ALL managers are thinking the exact same thing! If all managers are thinking that then where does that leave you? and therein lies the problem. Most of us do not see ourselves as the problem! We see ourselves as the exception.

My question is, how will you find out if you are in the top 20%? How will you truly find out and you need to know that 80% of all of the managers who read this blog will not do anything to find out because they really don't want to know. As Yoda might say, question you ask, find out you will.

If you do not take some action after reading this then you are most likely in that 80% and you will deny it until the day you are fired or embarrassed.
And the top 20% are wondering, how do I find out if I am in the top 20%? How do I find out if my people feel valued?
That is what separates the top 20% from all the rest. They take action. They want to know. They need to find out. And they understand you can't just walk up to your employees and ask, "Hey, Bob. Do I make you feel valued at your job?" "Hey Karen, do you feel valued here at work?"

They know that kind of confrontation will never yield the true results you need to know in order to find the truth.

If you as a GREAT MANAGER want to know which of your people feel valued or even better, which of your people do not feel valued than you need to find the proper methods for polling or surveying your people so you get real results and not just a stamp of approval or the "yes" person attitude you want to find.

I can offer you methods to find the truth from your people. Drop me a note and I will send you some links. Don't forget to pass this on to all of your manager friends. And don't forget to subscribe to this blog: http://greatmanagersaremadenotborn.blogspot.com/
And learn more about being better at my website www.mentalprosperityblog.com

I'm Steve Sapato and I will see you at many of the Great Manager events coming to your team soon!

Great Managers- Finding Your Center

Great Managers – Finding your center!

I watch managers struggle every single day and wonder.. is it because they truly don’t know? Don’t understand? Or have never been taught!

I watch managers every day who don’t know how to delegate or are afraid of the consequences, repercussions or reactions of their staff. I watch supervisors react in situations instead of acting upon those situations.

A GREAT MANAGER should be trained, informed, held accountable for their staff, the training of that staff, the motivating of that staff, the effectiveness of that staff. It is the managers duty to involve their people, create in their people a desire to not only be effective but to excel at their jobs and even superset and help others succeed at their jobs also.

GREAT MANAGERS ARE MADE by seeing the problem or challenge before it happens and planning how they will handle the situation if and or when it arrives. A great manager is made into someone who will face their boss and deliver an effective solution to a problem or at least acknowledge and share with them the problems they are facing so that they can get help fixing the problem if they are not prepared or trained for that situation.

Staying focused and not getting out of balance in a crucial moment can make all the difference in resolving a situation and not exacerbating it. FIND YOUR CENTER and know that you can handle any situation even if it involved asking for assistance from your boss or your staff.

Remember, you hired your staff for their excellence. Don’t be afraid to call upon it.

Need additional management training to turn your supervisors and managers into GREAT MANAGERS? Call upon www.stevesapato.com for some real answers and excellent training for your people.