Do We Worry Too Much About Talent Retention? (11/03/2025)

Happy Talent Tuesday!

Everything today is about the talent on our teams – an article about how we need to be thinking about the large layoffs in the news and then a bit of a contrarian view about retention of talent.

And while we are talking about talent, is our next webinar on your calendar? If not, mark it now: November 11 at 2 pm ET. It’s my last public webinar that we will offer this year titled, Seven Signs You Have a Significant Leadership Gap (That You Didn’t Know You Had). It is free for you and all those who care about getting better results in your organization. Learn more and register here.

One more thing about talent . . . “my” Purdue Men’s basketball team tips off tonight as the #1 team in the country, and Lori and I will be in Mackey Arena for it.

If you enjoy this issue – pass it on to someone or use the link below to encourage them to subscribe.

Make it a great Tuesday and remember …

You are Remarkable!

Kevin 😊

The Pressure on Leaders is Rising – Are We Helping Them Succeed?

Here’s a quote from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy during their Third Quarter Earnings call:

“I don’t know if there’s ever been a time in the history of Amazon and maybe business in general with the technology transformation happening right now where it’s as important to be lean, it’s important to be flat and it’s important to move fast.”

Lean. Flat. Fast.

Each of these factors increases the expectations of and pressure on leaders.

And it’s not just Amazon.

UPS and Target are among the most recent in the news, but they aren’t the only ones cutting their workforce.

When the cuts are among the staff, leaders must get greater productivity and results from fewer people. And when the cuts are among their peers, leaders must lead bigger, broader teams, making their work more complex – and challenging them to lead differently.

Many remaining leaders are likely to face both of those realities.

As businesses make these strategic staffing decisions, some will bemoan the job losses as tragic or short-sighted. It is not mine to say if those are wise cuts or not. But as someone who has observed, worked with, coached and consulted with leaders for over thirty years, here is my concern.

As these far-reaching changes are made, the expectations of leaders grow and change, but those changes are often assumed and go unmentioned.

It’s not that I don’t think leaders are up to it – the potential for their growth and development is significant. The problem is that by not talking about and addressing the changes for leaders, we don’t support them, guide them or allow them to grow in the ways necessary for them to succeed.

And so, I predict that in a few months, the business news will report negative consequences from these cuts (at Amazon and others), and the cuts themselves will be blamed, when the source of the solution was not likely addressed by the organizations or the news stories.

The source of the solution is to consciously develop leaders to navigate their new realities with new perspectives and skills.

Amazon will spend $1.8 billion cutting 14,000 white collar workers. I hope they invest some money in the leaders that are staying – helping them thrive in the new world that has been created.

If we want leaders to lead in a new context, we can’t allow or expect them to lead in the ways they have been leading. This reality is true in every organization, whether you are cutting staff or not.

Now, more than ever, we need leaders who are willing and able to flex their approach as the circumstances and context around them changes. If you need that toolkit for yourself or others, consider the Flexible Leadership Approach outlined in my book, Flexible Leadership: Navigate Uncertainty and Lead With Confidence.

Do We Worry Too Much About Talent Retention?

It might be a strange time to talk about talent retention, when so many people are talking about the large layoffs at companies we’ve all heard of. But not everyone is laying people off, and everything else being equal, shouldn’t talent retention always be important?

It should be and is, but maybe not quite as important as we tend to think. Like many other goals, if we over-index on something (in this case talent retention), there may be some unintended consequences.

Let’s dive in.

Thanks for reading. Please reply at any time with questions or feedback for our team.

When you’re ready, here are a few ways we can help:

1. Work with me 1:1: Book a coaching or strategy session to help you achieve your goals for 2025 and beyond!

2. Book me for your next keynote or event: Not just “another keynote”, this is a message that inspires, engages and accelerates you, your team and organization to success!

3. Courses & workshops: check out our wide-array of learning opportunities - live & interactive workshops, micro and on-demand solutions and so much more.