What role do emotional factors play in retaining employees and bringing out their best?
Rational factors such as compensation are important when it comes to retention, but it takes more than compensation to motivate people. We’ve learned from research that right brain-oriented emotional factors such as how people feel about their day-to-day tasks, their coworkers and their organization’s identity are on average four times as important as rational factors when it comes to inspiring people to give their best effort. No individual or organization can thrive for long without meeting the emotional needs that their members have. The great leaders throughout history that I studied in Fired Up or Burned Out created ‘connection cultures’ that met the emotional needs in the people they lead. What I found remarkable is that this is true of leaders in every realm: in business, government, the social sector and in sports. For me, that was a very big ‘aha’ moment. It’s important to achieve results, but it’s also important to value relationships and human beings in the workplace. Both a
