10 Leadership Successes That Make Good Employees Want to Stay
I've spent years sitting with people who were good at their jobs and became deeply unhappy at work at some point during their care. What was happening in their workplace either led them to look for a new job, delayed the healing work they needed, or became a significant contributor to their mental health struggles.
This is part of what inspired my interest in healthy leadership, employee morale, and the kind of workplace culture that allows both employees and leaders to thrive over the long term.
None of these leadership practices, by themselves, automatically mean someone is going to stay or leave. Burnout and turnover are complicated, and there are usually multiple factors involved. But over the years, I've noticed certain leadership patterns come up again and again when people describe why they are happy at work, or need to look for a new job.
These are the top ten I think leaders should pay attention to:
1. Communicating about organizational changes
When leaders don't communicate with their teams about changes that are coming, employees can understandably experience the change as something being done to them rather than something they are part of. That can promote disengagement and lack of cooperation with the change.
If you want employees to feel like they are part of an organization, communicate with them when the organization changes. Communication doesn't always have to be complicated. Sometimes a quick "FYI" email can open the channels of communication for staff questions and create an opportunity to streamline the process before problems arise.
To simplify, use a simple three-part process:
What is changing?
Why is it changing?
What does this mean for you?
Even if you don't have all the answers yet, saying that explicitly can be more reassuring than saying nothing at all. Not communicating communicates something as well…. And it’s not necessarily the message we want to send.
2. Eliciting input and creating ownership to facilitate change
Taking the idea from the previous item one step further, we don't want employees to just understand organizational changes. we want them to have a sense of ownership in the results. Research has shown that employee engagement in organizational change is related to motivation and follow-through (Albrecht, Furlong, & Leiter, 2023). One of the best ways to create that sense of ownership is to not only inform employees of organizational changes, but to also ask them to be involved in the decision-making process.
I know all of us leaders are over-achievers, and perhaps we are even used to being "dragged down" by others who are less efficient, or maybe we are recovering perfectionists who are not doing so well at recovering ;) So, we often skip this step. If that's your usual, please humor me and try the opposite. One of my favorite sayings since I started my group practice is, "I get my best ideas from other people." Maybe that doesn't make me seem very leader-y, but it's just true.
I've found that the more I elicit input from my staff when considering organizational changes, the smoother the process goes and the better outcomes we accomplish. If you're worried about the time it takes, consider how much time it will take to roll out a new procedure, only to have to rework it several times because certain feedback was missing from the beginning of the process. Oftentimes slowing down at the beginning is what allows you to move faster later.
3. Putting people where their strengths can shine
I'm dragging this one out from my own treasure chest of mistakes as a leader. Early in my leadership journey, I hired someone who had some incredible creative strengths for a position that required a lot of detailed administrative work and number crunching. For a long time, I focused on the mistakes she was making rather than asking a more important question: Was I actually setting this person up to use the strengths she was good at?
Eventually, it hit me: What if I asked her to spend more of her time doing the things she did well and found other ways to cover the tasks that consistently weren't a good fit? And even better, what could we create with her help that wasn't within my own skill set previoulsy? Once I started looking at her strengths instead of trying to turn her into someone she wasn't, we were able to reduce some of the frustration on both sides and use her creative abilities to develop new goods and services that I probably wouldn't have thought of on my own.
That experience taught me something I still think about when I'm evaluating an employee's performance: Before deciding that an employee is struggling, ask yourself: Am I asking this person to spend most of their time doing something that simply isn't one of their strengths? Sometimes the problem isn't the person - it’s the fit.
4. Keeping quality employees in roles where their strengths can shine
One of the saddest scenarios I've encountered is a worker who gets moved into a new role because they were so effective in their original one—and then becomes frustrated, unhappy, and eventually starts looking for a new job. Sometimes, of course, an employee will want to move into a different position or take on additional responsibilities, but we shouldn't automatically assume that a high-performing employee wants to be transferred, promoted, or moved simply because they are good at what they currently do.
As I learned from personal experience in #3, one of the things we know about effective work environments is that people tend to do better when their roles allow them to use their strengths and spend less time doing work that consistently frustrates or drains them (Lencioni, 2022). This seems obvious, but I think organizations sometimes lose sight of it. I know I did.
When someone specifically and thoughtfully sought out a particular role, there is usually a reason. Maybe they were excited about the work, it matched their expertise and/or gave them an opportunity to use skills they had spent years developing.
So, when someone is doing exceptionally well in a particular role, one of the best things a leader can do may be to ask: How can I help this person continue to thrive where they are already thriving? Let's think of excellent performance as something to build upon. How can we give people opportunities to grow without taking them away from the work they love and do well?
Sometimes the best way to retain a stellar employee is to let them keep being stellar.
5. Helping employees find meaning and value when their roles change
There are occasionally times when a role transition really is necessary, and those transitions can go well. The difference is often in how thoughtfully they are handled. Employees are more likely to engage with change when they understand the reasons for it, have some meaningful voice in the process, and can see how the change connects with their own goals and values (Albrecht, Furlong, & Leiter, 2023).
This is where coaching can be particularly useful. For coaches working with leaders or employees through a role transition, psychological approaches such as Motivational Interviewing and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy can offer useful frameworks for exploring values, autonomy, and resistance to change.
So, if you need to ask someone to take on a different role, don't just announce the change and hope they get on board. Talk with them. Help them understand why the change is happening and, when possible, help them identify what they might gain from the new opportunity. Perhaps even present the problem and see if they propose themselves as a solution before you even have to ask.
For instance, a managerial role can be an opportunity to develop interpersonal skills for someone who has scored lower on these dimensions of Emotional Intelligence. Even if the role itself is frustrating at first, the employee may be able to connect the experience to something that matters to them personally. Similarly, if they have a future goal of promotion and leadership, the new responsibilities may be an opportunity to develop skills they will eventually need. I have seen this happen personally with a number of my clients. A positive outcome allows an institution to retain a stellar employee, while giving the employee better opportunities for their future – a win-win for everyone!
6. Avoid engaging in workplace gossip = create psychological safety and facilitate creativity
This one is a poison arrow for organizational culture. Now, you can't control what other people say behind your back, but don't underestimate the power of modeling in shaping your culture. When a leader demonstrates professionalism by refusing to participate in gossip—and doesn't reward gossip with attention or bonding—they communicate something important about what is and isn't acceptable within the organization.
Research has found connections between negative workplace gossip, ostracism, and psychological safety (Guo, Gong, Li, & Liang, 2021). Healthy leaders promote understanding and compassion among team members by considering multiple points of view, acknowledging challenges, and supporting people's autonomy in selecting a life path, while also applying consequences consistently. This sets expectations by communicating what will be tolerated. It also creates trust that teammates won't have to worry about being gossiped about behind their backs, which can help create a sense of psychological safety in the workplace.
And here's the part I think is particularly important: People do their best and most sustainable work when they don't have to spend a significant amount of their energy wondering whether they're safe, respected, or going to become the next subject of workplace gossip. If you want creativity, authenticity, problem solving, and engagement from your team, give them an environment where they can actually cultivate those things.
7. Develop comfort with being an “authority figure”
This was the first mistake I made as a leader, and I think it’s common – needing to be liked by my staff, and if I’m being completely honest, wanting to be “cool” and engaging in a ton of people pleasing to ensure that policies would be followed, that staff were “happy,” and would (hopefully) stay at my organization long-term. While it’s natural to have these feelings, since we are all oriented towards belonging and survival, as leaders we have to prevent ourselves from acting on these impulses. Instead, we can generate respect from our teams, becoming a role model that they don’t want to disappoint.
Healthy authority isn't about being intimidating or punitive. It's about being clear and authentic, internally consistent, and having integrity. Employees should know what is expected of them, what happens when expectations aren't met, and that the rules get applied consistently. When leaders don't provide enough structure, clarity, and accountability, someone else will often end up filling the vacuum by stepping into the role of “alpha.” ….That doesn't necessarily mean they are the most qualified person to do so.
8. Celebrating work anniversaries and meaningful contributions
I cannot count on two hands the number of times a client has mentioned in session that they are disappointed that a significant work anniversary was not even acknowledged. I previously had no idea this was so important to people! Now I send something to each of my employees on each of their 3-year+ anniversaries, with money or gifts for the significant ones (5 years and over). This seems small, but I think it matters more than most leaders realize. People spend a significant portion of their lives at work and they want to know that time was well spent, that their work was noticed and their contribution matters.
Recognition isn't a substitute for fair compensation, reasonable workloads, or opportunities for growth—but when those basic needs are being met, feeling genuinely appreciated can be an important part of wanting to stay. Even just a work anniversary card can carry a lot of weight, and it’s easy to throw in even a small amount of money (such as $25 or $50) to drive the point home. Adding a higher emphasis on the monetary reward can only have additional benefits, as it can be a motivation in itself to stick around to see what next year’s bonus may hold.
9. Caring about employees as people
When asked to reflect on a leader in my life who set the best example for me, and made me want to do the best job working for them, I thought about Tony Read, who was the manager at Outback Steakhouse when I worked there as a waitress, and eventually was promoted to headwait, and then bartender. When I reflected on what it was about Tony that made him an inspirational leader to me, what stood out was that he often asked me questions about my life, my goals, my dreams, and he considered these when offering additional opportunities to me, or just in general. But it was more than that – feeling that he cared about me as a person led to me caring about him as a person, and that meant I prioritized his success just below my own. (Sorry, but that’s the best you can hope for as a manager.)
Caring about employees as people doesn't mean becoming their best friend or knowing every detail of their personal lives. It means being interested enough to understand that the person sitting across from you has goals, responsibilities, interests, and a life outside of the work they do for you. Simple things can go a long way here. Just asking, “how are you today?” is a good start. You can level that up by noting important dates and details, and following up. For example, “How are you doing with your kids going back to school last week?”
One of my favorite strategies is to find shared work jokes you can refer to often for a much-needed laugh. For instance, we’re pretty sure we have a ghost in our building, and we get a kick out of blaming everything on our invisible friend.
Most importantly, ask them about their career goals, and life dreams. Try to find opportunities within the organization that can help them grow, and make sure to revisit these goals yearly. Use coaching strategies to help them build better habits, or improve bad ones, and make sure to check in often with recognition and praise when they accomplish their goals.
10. Modeling self-care, emotional regulation, and work-life balance
The only thing worse than an absent, passive, or people-pleasing leader is a chronically dysregulated one. I want you to consider this question for a moment:
What does it feel like to work for you?
Does everyone know when you’ve arrived on site because there is a certain amount of tension that just entered the room? Do people become more cautious about what they say? Or do they greet you with a smile, knowing that you're approachable and that even on a difficult day, they can trust you to manage your emotions appropriately?
Research shows that leaders who engage in self-care and have a goal of work-life balance are able to function better under stress, their teams have better health, and all involved are less prone to burnout and report increased job satisfaction (Hartung et al., 2025; Klug, Felfe, & Krick, 2022).
Leaders don't have to be endlessly calm, cheerful, or unaffected by stress. We're human and we have bad days too. The goal isn't to eliminate emotion from leadership. It's to become responsible for what we do with our emotions—and to recognize that our employees experience our emotional state whether we intend them to or not.
Even deeper, answer this:
What does it feel like to work for you on a bad day?
This is when our leadership is often most visible—not when everything is going well, but when we're stressed, disappointed, overwhelmed, or frustrated.
....I’ll leave you with that question for now, because I think I just came up with an idea for my 2nd leadership-related blog post – The Importance of Emotional Intelligence for Leaders.
Stay tuned!
References
Albrecht S.L, Furlong S., Leiter M.P. (2023). The psychological conditions for employee
engagement in organizational change: Test of a change engagement model. Frontiers in
Psychology, 14, 1071924. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1071924
Guo G., Gong Q., Li S., & Liang X. (2021). Don't Speak Ill of Others Behind Their Backs: Receivers'
Ostracism (Sender-Oriented) Reactions to Negative Workplace Gossip. Psychology Research
and Behavior Management, 14, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S288961
Hartung, K., Swann-Thomsen, H. E., & Schneider, K. R. (2025). Wellness-centered leadership: A
key differentiator for successfully reducing burnout and building a culture of well-being
among physicians and APPs. Journal of Healthcare Leadership, 17, 145–157.
Klug, K., Felfe, J., & Krick, A. (2022). Does self-care make you a better leader? A multisource
study linking leader self-care to health-oriented leadership, employee self-care, and health.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(11), 6733.
Lencioni, P. M. (2022). The 6 types of working genius: A better way to understand your gifts,
your frustrations, and your team. Matt Holt.
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