'Learn, leap, repeat': How leaders can retain their top employees

Creating growth opportunities for high performing employees not only helps your organization retain top talent, but it also ensures employees continue to work at a high level, according to an op-ed by executive coach Whitney Johnson in the Harvard Business Review.

Ms. Johnson argues employees will work harder and not look for outside job opportunities if they feel there is the possibility of upward mobility in their current organization. However, even if people stay at their organization, a lack of growth opportunities can hurt their quality of work.

"When people can no longer grow in their jobs, they mail it in — leading to huge gaps in productivity," Ms. Johnson writes. "According to Gallup, a lack of employee engagement 'implies a stunning amount of wasted potential, given that business units in the top quartile of Gallup’s global employee engagement database are 17 percent more productive and 21 percent more profitable than those in the bottom quartile.'"

Leaders should maintain a mindset that their employees are on perpetual learning curves and that every role has a shelf life. Organizations can keep employees engaged by continually giving them new responsibilities that reduce the possibility they will mentally check out, according to Ms. Johnson.

"You and every person on your team is a learning machine. You want the challenge of not knowing how to do something, learning how to do it, mastering it, and then learning something new," Ms. Johnson writes. "Instead of letting the engines of your employees sit idle, crank them: Learn, leap, and repeat."

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