Last Friday, Kevin O’Leary (Mr. Wonderful), Venture Capitalist and co-host of Shark Tank, was on Bill Maher’s Real Time with Bill Maher show speaking about how nearly 55% say they are not coming back to the office post-pandemic.
Kevin said: “They (employees) have proven to everyone all around the world they can use technology to do their job successfully, creatively, functionally, productively. They want to stay at home, raise their kids, take care of their elderly parents. And in fact, if you say to them “you have to come back to the office, that’s our new mandate. They’ll say nah, I’ll just quit and work somewhere else.”
4.4 million of them said I quit just in September.
What was Kevin’s response to this? “We just have to learn to live this way.”
Kevin O’Leary is an example of how leaders should be responding to current changes.
Adapt!
When it comes to conquering change and uncertainty in your (quasi) post-pandemic organizational life, remember that you can’t just mandate what your employees should be doing without providing them a voice to share their concerns and ideas and actually addressing and implementing those. Well, you can if you want to see them begin to quit in droves. Instead, as Mr. Wonderful says, you should be “learning to live this way.” Understanding that COVID-19 has reshaped the workplace and employee expectations. And this isn’t all bad! You can adapt and create the culture your organization needs to succeed, or suffer.
How is your business adapting to retain and attract top talent?
No wonder Kevin O’Leary is so successful. Even though I don’t always agree with his feedback on Shark Tank, I do agree fully with his approach to trying to retain talent.
If you’re curious to watch the full segment, you can watch it here.
About Scott Span, MSOD, CSM: is CEO at Tolero Solutions. As a people strategist, leadership coach, and change and transformation specialist, his work is focused on people. Through his consulting and training work he supports clients to survive and thrive through change and transition and create people-focused cultures and a great employee experience. Through his coaching work, he supports people willing to dig deeper to identify and overcome what’s holding them back, change behaviors, accelerate performance and achieve their goals.
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