I was hanging out with a friend over the weekend who's a leader at a

local company, four or five hundred employees. He was telling

me that retention in his division that he leads is super

high. And in another division it's low. And they're looking for new

people, looking for things that can help retain

employees. He intentionally plans in time

for connection. He's intentionally

encouraging his team from the way he describes it. And

that made me think, well, what kind of

value? First of all, how do people retain employees? And then what type

of value does that add to a company?

Welcome to the Decide youe Legacy podcast. Today's episode is

on how positive relationships in the

workplace are. Retention strategy number one. Three moves

that you can make starting today. And this content not only

relates to the workplace, but it relates to retention

in any relationship. So long term relationships and

friendships over time they create

tremendous benefit because they know you, they know your history. You have

go tos in your life, these lifelong friends and what can

lead you to building those types of long term

relationships. So by the end of this episode,

I can imagine that you're gonna

feel like you have tools. In fact, I

know you're gonna feel like you have tools that can help you build closer

connections with your family, with your team and

with your coworker. Relationships

and really people around you build closer connections.

How will you make turn these relationships into longer term

relationships? I'm your host, Adam Gragg. I'm a legacy coach and a family

therapist. Been a family therapist for over 25 years.

I'm dedicated to helping inspiring

people and organizations to face life with courage,

to live life with courage and relationships are what trigger the

most fear for people, I find. And that's where the biggest benefit

is. As you build closer connections. People are

lonely. People don't feel understood. I hear that in my

office frequently from clients from businesses.

They don't feel connected, they feel lost.

It's a big fear that people have that when I have problems in my life,

who is going to be there? Who's going to show up for me when I

need them the most? Who's going to walk through life with me when I need

them the most? Who's going to help me face my fears and

when I need help. And for me, I find that

I'm much more willing to do courageous things when I know people

are backing me up and they care about me regardless. I have friends that

are like that in my life and I'm very blessed because of that.

So here are some statistics that are pretty powerful when it comes to the

workplace. That's what my friend asked me. He said, do you have any statistics that

show how connection really helps

retention? And I told him, well, I've seen them. I can't

recite them right now. And so I jap GPT it.

And I got some really cool statistics to share with you today about

how connection in the workplace impacts not only retention of

employees, but performance as well. Increased

revenue over time, performance. We're talking people are focused more

at work, they're getting things done, they're doing the hard stuff.

And that retention creates more performance. Who doesn't want

that? So stronger workplace connections

equals higher engagement. So one study from

Gallup found that employees with a

close friend at work are seven times more likely to

be engaged in their jobs. And same study,

highly engaged employees are 59% less

likely to look for a new job in the next 12 months.

Pretty cool stuff. So we're talking

about three moves you can make to

increase connection in the workplace,

which will increase employee engagement, which will

increase longevity of your employees and

workplace performance. So move number one that you can make is

to incorporate more purposes into the work,

into the workplace. Have

intentional times to focus on the impact that

this company, your division, your team is making.

Keep it at the forefront. Mid level managers,

C suite managers, I don't like that term.

Hire managers, whatever. We're all leaders. We lead in

different ways so we can make

the purpose paramount. You do this by

talking about successes. You do this by

focusing on the impact that's being made,

not only in the lives of your customers, but the impact that your company

is making in the community, the impact that your company is

making in the lives of other employees, the

relationships that are being built in the workplace, you're

highlighting that and that's building connection. People like to

rally around a cause, to feel as if what

they're investing their time and energy into is making

a difference. That's why testimonial videos are

so powerful, because they do highlight the impact and the

purpose. I know you don't probably do that for your company team, but you

could. It'd be kind of fun. I'd never really thought of that until right now.

But to actually make an impact video that your team is

shared with your team, even something that you make with your own phone that you

send out. So belonging increases

as you focus on the purpose. Another study,

this is from hbr,

not sure what that stands for. It's a study on belonging at

work. And sense of belonging reduces turnover.

Employees who feel a strong sense of belonging in their work environment.

There's a 56% increase in job performance.

Wow, that's pretty cool. Impacts the bottom line over time and

a 50% drop in turnover. And then

compared with company companies with a strong

workplace culture of connection,

driven by relationships and trust, they saw an 11%

lower turnover rate compared to other companies.

Good. And that's going to pay off right there.

Losing employees is discouraging. I mean, if you have a great employee and

they get recruited and go to another employer, I mean, not only can they be

taking away trade secrets, although they're not supposed to, but can taking

away all the knowledge they've built up in your work environment. But it's costly to

hire somebody new and train that person. It's costly to the culture because

that person is likable and liked there. And so you have to get somebody new

on the team. That creates anxiety for other employees potentially because they

don't know it's pushing against, up against their fear. So

the cost is great to lose somebody. We want to retain our employees,

our good employees. I mean, there is good turnover. There's

very good turnover. In fact, some of you listening, you're probably needing to turn over

a few employees right now as we talk, because you're waiting. Don't do that. That

causes even, potentially even more damage than keeping an

employee, than losing an employee. So the move number

two is be intentional. Remember that you as a

leader, again, we're all leaders in some facet of our lives. You as

a leader must go first. You must

go first. So I was engaging in a team

development exercise. We lead these for companies.

And one of the conversations I'll have with the head leader before we do any

team building activity, which for me it's being vulnerable and

open with our emotions, how we feel, our struggles, our

challenges, our life experiences. We're being open. I will say

they are only going to open up as much as you're willing to open up.

You have to go first. So if you're going to share things

where I challenge them to be more open about their lives,

you got to do it first as the leader. And

you have to be intentional about it. So it can't just be once a quarter

at a leadership team meeting or once a

year at an annual event. No, it has to be something

you're working into, your interactions with your team. It

won't happen if you're not intentional with

being open. And that's how you build connections. Because you don't build

connections unless you're showing people who you really are. And

then people have a chance to step up and help you. They see your vulnerabilities,

they see where you need help, they see your weaknesses, they see your challenges, your

fears. And the good people in your work environment, you get to see them

and they're revealed because you're opening up and the leader starts it.

People will often

even tell me like I can't get my team to open up. And it's often

always the same thing. They are not opening up

themselves. I

am a fan of team icebreakers.

Things that get people to be vulnerable. One of my

favorite icebreakers is where everybody identifies a skill

in their life that they're fairly good at and then for five

minutes they teach somebody in the group how to do that

specific thing. If you like that too and you like

icebreakers, hit the link to get an article on some of my favorite

icebreakers as well. Icebreakers, meaning it breaks the ice, it loosens people up,

it gets people to open up as well. Start meetings off with

something positive. Even if it's as simple as what

were the good things that happened last week in your job? What are

some celebration worthy

successes from last week? Get people thinking

and they may come in over time they'll be prepared to come in with a

positive, but right now in some of your meetings, they may be

prepared to come in with what's not going well. Thinking that's the focus of the

meeting change that you don't want that. You want people to be excited about

meetings because you're celebrating and you're growing and you're solving

real problems. Which means that in those meetings you're letting

go of the outcome. Which means that when you're intentional and

you're opening up, you're letting go of the outcome. Some people may not like it,

they may be uncomfortable by it. They may even treat you as if you've done

something wrong and say that that's not appropriate in the workplace.

Don't listen to them. I'm not trying to get you to do something that's

unprofessional. I'm simply challenging you to share how you

feel, to share who you are and to be willing to go first

and let people know who you are so they're willing to open up and expose

their giftings and talents and struggles and fears as well.

You gotta trust the process. Great study on this too

by SHRM Society of Human Resource Management. The study

is on employee job satisfaction and engagement. It's a report

so 94% of employees say that mutual respect and

Good relationships with coworkers are important to their

job satisfaction. They don't brush it off. 94% of people say, that's important.

I gotta have that. I want to have that. Poor workplace

relationships are cited as a major reason for

voluntary turnover by 1 in 5 employees.

This taking the time to invest

in improving the culture on your team, in your company

is going to make you money. It's going to decrease

employee turnover. It's going to increase employee performance.

So the third,

the. The third move you can make,

which I want you to make starting today or starting soon, is

that you remember

how you add value. So that's connected to the first move.

Find purpose, and it's connected to going

first. But you're remembering how you add

value. How do you do that? As a leader? You're reminding your team of how

they individually and corporately. Individually

is where I'd encourage you to start. Add value.

You feel as you recognize, as you're recognized by

other people on your team for what you bring to the table.

And they point that out. You do a great job at this and that, and

you're really excellent. I couldn't do it as well as you. And you're reminding them

of that. You're intentionally reminding them of those great traits.

You're building them up in a very healthy way. It's not an egocentric way.

It's a way where they can see how they impact other people's

lives. And I would encourage you to be specific. Give

them an example. Hey, I saw what you did

on. On the project on the

proposal for XYZ Company. Your

wording, your grammar, just. You put it together

in a way that I could not have

imagined. And it's so creative. I presented it to the

company. They thought it was amazing. And I just got to give you a lot

of credit. Your wording, your writing skills are excellent,

Kelsey. Keep it up. If you give them a specific

example, it's going to stick for them. More

related to how they add value. And I would like to go even a step

further where, for, let's say I had a team of eight people

where I'd make it a goal to have a list of how they impact

other people's lives related to their job, which is pretty

broad because relationships at work are a big part of our

lives. People find their spouses at work, people find

their best friends at work. People find the people they hang out with on the

weekends and their kids make friends with their

coworkers and people they brush shoulders with professionally.

It's not what you may think it's much deeper than that

when it comes to these connections at work. It's a pretty modern

phenomenon that we work in offices and away from our

families even. I mean, historically, agriculturally, we worked around

people that were our family and that were our close friends. That, that's

the way I find. I find

encouragement knowing that these are a big deal,

these relationships are significant, and people want to feel connected

at work. So you can help them find that. You can help them make their

own lists of how they add value to other people's lives. That's a great thing

to look at when you're selling your company as well to

a potential customer. If you remember how you add value, then you, you

can help. First of all, you want to understand them, but you can

help point that out because that's how you can add value to their lives or

at least remember those things as you interact with them, because that's a

asset that you bring. So A study by O.C. tanner

2023 Global Culture Report on

recognition and connection matter. How they matter. So when employees feel

recognized and acknowledged,

they feel connected in the workplace. So when that happens, when employees feel

recognized and connected, they're 63% more likely to stay

with their current employer over the next three years.

That is exactly experientially what I

have seen. That's what I heard from my buddy over the weekend. That's what

I hear. And he has the highest retention, I think, in his whole company or

in the company wide. Very good at retention level in his division. I think he

has like 25 employees in the company. Company's a thousand plus.

But locally in Wichita, I think it's 4 or 500. But that's powerful.

Think about that. 63% more. More likely to stay when

they feel acknowledged for their contributions.

Very cool stuff. Now I know for

me, one of the challenges when it comes to connection is

I have abandonment fear. And when I am reaching out and connecting with people,

that abandonment fear can be highlighted. It can be

triggered. And when we are triggered, and that's about relationships and connecting

with other people. If I know that when I go into

interactions where I'm being more open, even challenging

people, not being the expert, but being open

and learning and listening, I know that if my abandonment fear gets triggered,

then all of a sudden I go into old

unhealthy coping mechanisms. And for me it's the desire to

isolate. So I'd encourage you to remember that. And remember

that isolation is exactly what loses employees.

Employees that are isolated and don't feel connected are the ones that are going to

end up leaving. Companies that invest in connection driven

cultures see significantly higher retention and stronger performance. They

build trust, they increase engagement, they foster a sense of

belonging. All of which dramatically reduces the

likelihood that an employee will ever

leave. So

to summarize, we can do things

retention strategy number one,

relationships. That's retention strategy number one.

There's actions you can take right away, well,

at least hopefully soon, to engage

and to increase that kind of engagement. These moves you can make, I want to

review them. Number one is create purpose for your team.

Number two is be intentional in opportunities

that you create for connection. You must go first or it won't happen. And number

three, big move number three is remember

to highlight how they add value. It's not going to

make them arrogant. It's actually going to make them more likely to

connect with other people with confidence. Confidence is not arrogance. Confidence is knowing

what you bring. It's believing in yourself. So

check out Shatterproof yourself. It's live.

This is a course on seven small steps to a giant leap in your mental

health and the Shatterproof community. You interact with people going through the content.

We do two live events a month. You get to interact

over the app as well and that's included in your lifetime

membership. Six months of the Shatterproof communities included.

We cover relationships. That's step number seven. And we

also cover perspective, having a good

attitude overall, that's on. That's step number three

right there. And so that content is gonna help you

to go deeper with this podcast content as

well help you improve your workplace connections. So take action.

Take action. Nothing makes me more proud and excited than

hearing from a listener, hearing from a client, how they've applied content.

Take an action to face a fear and they see results.

Take action and follow me. Subscribe, leave a rating

and review wherever you get your podcast content. Check it

out on YouTube. There is no positive change

until you decide to change. Decide today.

Your legacy depends on you acting, doing

something to decide means eliminating other options.

Your legacy is the impact that your life has on others.

I want to close the way I always do. Live the life today

that you want to be remembered for 10 years after you're gone. You

decide your legacy. Nobody else. I appreciate you greatly

and I'll see you next time.