“Quiet Quitting” and the “Great Detachment” Reflect Your Culture, Not Your Workforce
51% of employees are “watching or actively searching for a new job” according to a new Gallup survey.
I saw this data in an article via on Fortune (behind a paywall) here; and was syndicated via MSN here if you can stand all the ads.
That stat is attention-getting, but in historical context, that level is not unprecedented — but it is higher than we’ve seen since 2015.
A few other stats that really caught my eye:
55% of managers are looking to leave their current roles, compared to 41% of leaders, and 51% of individual contributors.
We all know the role that managers play in employee retention (or attrition) -- so a majority of managers being disengaged is a huge red flag that something is wrong out there.
“[T]wo of the biggest reasons for the dip in engagement was an increase in employees feeling disconnected from their work’s mission and reports of unclear expectations.” (citing Ben Wigert, Ph.D, MBA).
“Of those who left their jobs within this past year, 42% said their manager or company could have done something to stop them from quitting. ‘Managers simply are not showing-up for their employees,’” (citing Corey Tatel, Ph.D.).
When I read data like this over, and over, and over, it makes me wish I had a bigger megaphone.
This level of disengagement and suffering does not need to persist (and frankly, the impact to human health and wellbeing is unacceptable).
Management skills can be learned.
Organizations have numerous options for developing the talent and competency of fundamental management mechanics: these are skills that can be learned, not innate characteristics that some "good managers" are born with and "bad managers" aren't.
Managers and leaders can learn, practice, and build skills with self-awareness, emotional regulation, and intellectual humility that directly improve managers' effectiveness with their reports.
Ben Arendt's book, "How to Suck Less As a Manager" is literally sitting in front of me on my desk, and it is a fast, fun, impactful read that touches on ten ways managers "suck" and provides useful coaching for how to suck less. (Ben was also a recent Thinkydoers guest, so you can hear more from him via this link).
"Almost half (45%) of those surveyed said that they did not have a “constructive conversation” with their bosses about their satisfaction or future in their job up to three months before they left."
Improving those fundamental management skills -- self-awareness, emotional regulation, intellectual humility -- also has an indirect benefit of increasing manager confidence and capability with constructive conflict conversations.
Yes, managers are busy.
And, disengaged managers also may dodge performance conversations with their reports because they don't have the energy or stomach for a conversation that may involve conflict.
OKRs close the gap on "how does my work matter?"
New to Objectives and Key Results? Snag a copy of our "WTF are OKRs" Guide today!
Well-implemented OKRs play a role here as well: with individual goals aligned to organizational OKRs, managers and their reports have regular performance conversations because the focus is on what progress and results are being achieved on a weekly and monthly basis, not only when formal evaluation conversations take place.
Not to mention, No-BS OKRs are literally designed to close the engagement dips mentioned in the Gallup data.
Done well, OKRs help people understand how their work connects to the organization's mission, purpose, and strategy, and help provide everyone in the organization clearer expectations.
And, OKRs can also be created by individuals and then aligned with their leaders to help individuals create their own clear expectations -- no matter how chaotic the environment or how foggy the organizational strategy.
These shifts may challenge the status quo and require managers and leaders to get comfortable with productive conflict.
I'm the first one to say: I started my leadership career as a conflict avoider, and an accommodator -- I had to build and nurture my skills for engaging productively with conflict. Those learnings were hard earned -- and they are absolutely reproduceable (even at scale).
High performance hinges on clear direction, clear expectations, and a curious and learning-focused culture.
These things are simple, not easy.
And the organizations that embrace learning new approaches to managing well not only insulate themselves from employee disengagement: they're building their organizational readiness for future generations of workers among whom these trends are even more amplified.
Your team is “Quiet Quitting,” or part of the “Great Detatchment” because of controllable factors in how your organization operates.
Way back in 2022, McKinsey & Company released a study about the Great Attrition making hiring harder (but in there, they cited some eye-popping findings about reasons people leave jobs, that I’ve never been able to unsee).
That was during what they termed the “Great Attrition” at the height of the pandemic — when in November 2021 somewhere around 4.5 million U.S. workers voluntarily left their jobs in one month alone.
Now, this data is undoubtedly pandemic-affected — top reasons for quitting previous jobs included “unsafe working environment,” and “lack of support for health and well-being,” which I do think are probably evergreen reasons but were likely even stronger during the height of the pandemic.
What I couldn’t unsee when reviewing their data:
Out of twelve major factors driving retention and/or attrition, No-BS OKRs directly address five of the factor, and support progress on five more.
There are only two retention/attrition factors not targeted by No-BS OKRs: “Adequacy of total compensation, and “Geographic ties and travel demands.”
No-BS OKRs support retention: done well, people have a clearer understanding of how their work matters and is meaningful, with improvement in other factors as secondary effects of implementing OKRs.
But where No-BS OKRs unmistakably shine is in reducing attrition.
No-BS OKRs tackle major attrition factors head-on, including:
Adequacy of career development and advancement
Sustainability of work expectations
Adequacy of reliable and supportive people at work
Adequacy of caring and inspiring leaders, and
Adequacy of resource accessibility
Adapted from source: The Great Renegotiation and new talent pools | McKinsey.
Dots added by me to show the factors affected primarily or secondarily by implementing No-BS OKRs.
Alt text, continued: The top factors driving retention are shown as: Meaningfulness of work; Adequacy of workplace flexibility; Adequacy of support for health and well-being; Geographic ties and travel demands; Safety of workplace environment; and Adequacy of inclusivity and welcomeness of community. Attrition factors fully listed in next graphic caption.
Adapted from source: The Great Renegotiation and new talent pools | McKinsey.
Dots added by me to show the factors affected primarily or secondarily by implementing No-BS OKRs.
Alt text, continued: From left to right, No-BS OKRs target Lack of career development and advancement (the largest factor). They do not target Inadequate total compensation (although they could — if the organization performs better, a larger bonus and promotion pool may be available!). Continuing down the list: No-BS OKRs directly address Uncaring and uninspiring leaders, Lack of Meaningful Work, Unsustainable work expectations, Unreliable and unsupportive people at work, and secondarily support four of the remaining five factors: Lack of workplace flexibility, Lack of support for health and well-being, Noninclusive and unwelcoming community, Unsafe workplace environment, and Inadequate resource accessibility. The third to last factor, Geographic ties and travel demands, No-BS OKRs don’t directly or secondarily affect.
People leave jobs because of bad management: that, we know.
(I also know first hand how hard it is to learn how to become a good manager, and I believe every manager who wants to, can learn.)
People also leave jobs because of a lack of career development and advancement, unsustainable work expectations, a lack of meaningful work, and unsustainable work expectations.
When I read those two statements together, the missing piece of the puzzle is just so clear. People and managers need:
Clarity about growth and development opportunities, and objective, aligned goals on which to evaluate performance with less bias and subjectivity.
Caring and inspiring leaders, who enunciate their vision with empathy for and intellectual humility about the difficulty of achieving it.
Work expectations that are realistic, not just “do more with less” quarter over quarter. Organizations need a framework for deciding what they’re going to stop doing, or do less of so that they don’t burn out their talent and churn resources unnecessarily on “how we’ve always done it.”
Meaningful work: which is connected to all three points above — work is meaningful when people are growing and contributing, when they’re receiving affirmation and growth support from their leaders, and when their labor is not being wasted because of outdated processes, poor communication, poor planning, or any number of other reasons.
And, people need to be able to trust and rely on each other — to know that their colleagues or leaders have their backs when things get difficult, and that when a colleague makes a commitment, they’ll do their best to deliver on it because they recognize other people are depending on them.*
No-BS Objective and Key Results are a literal toolkit for achieving all five of those factors.
I’m at risk of writing a book chapter here when this was supposed to be a blog post, so I’m going to try to wrap this up.
Nobody – or at least – very few people wake up in the morning, and go to work to do a bad job, no matter what their role in the organization. Most people – leaders, managers, and staff – are doing the best they can. Traditional management practices are failing to meet the needs of today’s leaders and workforce, and something needs to change.
Organizations can do better by everyone by increasing clarity, focus, and alignment by adopting a mechanism like No-BS Objectives and Key Results.
No-BS OKRs not only address the core issues of disconnection and unclear expectations, but also empower individuals and teams to envision the direct impact their work contributes to the organization’s strategy and mission.
By fostering a culture of curiosity, learning, and purpose, No-BS OKRs help bridge the gap between personal aspiration and organizational goals – creating an overlap in that Venn diagram where everyone benefits.
Want to learn more?
📖 WTF are OKRs? — An excerpt from the No-BS OKRs Workbook, answering that critical question: “What are OKRs?” and a few of my most valuable one-page cheat sheets that even experienced OKR practicitioners may find helpful!
📖 Snag a copy of the PDF version of the No-BS OKRs Workbook — 50+ pages of basics and worksheets to help you get started right with OKRs from the start.
🧭 Take an hour and learn the basics of No-BS OKRs in the Get Started with No-BS OKRs self-paced training.
🤝 Schedule a 25-minute strategy session with me to discuss whether No-BS OKRs may be right for your organization.
From Disengaged and Demotivated to High Impact
Strategy coach (and goal nerd), Sara Lobkovich helps organizations and individuals set clear goals, stay focused, and build cultures of growth, learning, and high performance.
*If you want some more statistics to keep you up at night, Edelman’s Trust Barometer Global Report is a doozie. Just one example:
61% of respondents answered that business leaders are purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations
(While I’m on the topic, No-BS OKRs are — at their core — a way to align on what truths matter most for an organization. When implemented with high integrity, they leave little room for anyone to mislead, exaggerate, or lie, since it’s just math.)
