By Daniel Bobinski, Th.D.
The following observation has been mentioned in workplaces for a long time: People don’t quit jobs, they quit bosses. That begs the question, “What specific management shortcomings drive talented employees out the door?”
In early 2020, Business.com examined the primary reasons employees seek new opportunities. Their findings exposed a troubling reality about management, and studies done just this past year revealed similar results.
The top three reasons people leave a company are:
- A toxic work environment/culture
- Poor leadership/management
- Lack of a career path/no career development
Other reasons people leave are:
- Bosses who lack empathy
- Feeling disengaged from their work
- Feeling undervalued by leadership
- Feeling underutilized despite their capabilities
- Experiencing excessive stress or workload
- Burning out from sustained pressure
- Operating without trust or autonomy
A lack of adequate compensation is rarely stated as a reason people leave.
The above list should catch every manager’s attention. Notice that toxic work environments and lack of empathy are commonly cited reasons. Looking over the list, I surmise that “lack of empathy” serves as the fulcrum for nearly every other factor on the list.
When managers lack empathy, they become blind to their team members’ experiences. They miss signs that someone feels disengaged, undervalued or underutilized. They fail to recognize when stress levels have become unsustainable or when burnout is approaching. They remain oblivious to how company culture affects morale and trust.
The solution isn’t complicated, although implementing it requires a commitment. When people study emotional intelligence, empathy is a key component. Think about it. When managers can perceive and assess their own emotions, desires and tendencies as well as those of others, they gain a substantially increased connection with their employees. Armed with that information, managers can make decisions that lead to the best outcomes for everyone involved. People remain engaged. They feel useful. They feel valued.
Yet a paradox exists. Those with the highest need for EQ often have the greatest resistance to learning it. Too many managers dismiss emotional intelligence because it contains the word “emotional” and assume it’s touchy-feely nonsense.
The evidence says otherwise. In the early 1990s, researchers studied 200 companies worldwide, seeking to identify what separated average performers from top performers. In managerial positions and technical roles, they found that two-thirds of the difference was emotional intelligence.
For top performers at leadership and professional levels, the role of emotional intelligence was even more pronounced. Four-fifths of the performance gap between average and exceptional leaders was directly related to EQ capabilities.
Consider what this means. Managers with solid self-awareness who could also understand people displayed better relationship management skills. Despite common misconceptions, none of that is mysterious or fluffy. Emotional intelligence is not only practical, it directly impacts both employee retention and organizational performance.
Bottom line, the question isn’t whether emotional intelligence matters in management. Research settled that question decades ago. The question is whether managers will invest the effort to develop it, or whether they’ll keep losing good people who simply got tired of being mismanaged.
