Development 4 Managers.com

Employee Growth

Want Staff to Grow? Make Them Quit!

A supervisor asked the manager, how do you get people to grow and change?

His answer was: Make them quit!

Admittedly, the answer shook up the supervisor. Then the manager explained: if the person is doing the same job day in and day out, and there is no reason for growth, the person simply will choose not to grow.

He went on to describe how most employees are not trailblazers. Most like things to stay just as they are. Only a few like to stir things up every now and then, and even fewer like to keep things moving and changing. Most of us like the comfort we find in familiar routines and in our mundane lives.

If you want something to change, if you want your employees to grow and develop, change needs to take place. Our manager friend described to us how he simply takes an individual and begins the process of growth and development by describing what the individual?s current role is, and what the individual does.

Then he explains to the employee what the new expectation is, and how the old role is simply inadequate. He also takes time to explain how he sees potential in the individual, and how confident he is that this person can do the ?new job.? Finally he gives the person the choice to ?stay in the old job,? or take on the ?new job.? In essence he asks them to quit their old job, and to accept their new job.

The key though is just that. The person has to want to quit the old job. He did not say ?fire them,? he said ?make them quit.? The individual needs to choose to leave the old behind, and take on the new.

When I first hear of this, I found the method a bit surprising. Yet, with time, the approach made sense to me. It is as if the individual is given the choice to continue in their old, yet comfortable path, or they can venture into a brand new world. The act of ?quitting? the old puts the control right in the hands of the individual, giving the person more courage and resolution to move on to the next thing.