I often say that no company is bigger or better than the people who work there, employees give it a damned hard every day. So why do companies lose their best talent all the time?

1. CAUSES AND EFFECTS SERIES . FUNDAMENTALS CELLS OF EXCELLENCE
Why do companies lose
their best talents?
by Ricardo Abiz - Founder Cells of Excellence Project
A lot of companies seem to be living in a stage of lethargy,
hibernation. For months, sometimes years, focused on their
day to day, they end up neglecting one of the key success
factors of all companies, PEOPLE! I often say that no
company is bigger or better than the people who work there,
employees give it a damned hard every day. So why do
companies lose their best talent all the time? Why does the
motivation disappear suddenly favouring the non-
achievement of targets and market gains?
!1
"FEEDBACK OF FEAR"
BEHAVIOUR
GIVING YOUR BEST
TALENT SKILLS
CATCH TALENT EYES
HUMAN CAPITAL
I often say that no company is
bigger or better than the
people who work there,
employees give it a damned
hard every day. So why do
companies lose their best
talent all the time?
CELEX PROJECT

2. CAUSES AND EFFECTS SERIES . FUNDAMENTALS CELLS OF EXCELLENCE
(1) Happy employees help businesses to
thrive.
Nobody is happy just by being somewhere, happy people are
part of something, they feel actually useful and
collaborating, not just following orders, but contributing
proactively, being heard, sharing knowledge and especially
clearly understanding what they are doing and where they
are going. Overlook this simple equation and there goes
another talent of the company.
(2) After all, what is my role in this
company and where can I give my best?
Many managers do not devote the time required to create
the Job description of their areas, especially when they turn
to HR, recruitment companies and head hunters for more
senior positions.
Defining the core business of each department is important
in order to escape the trap of being wrapped under a pile of
projects that very often should not even have started.
It is very common for employees, new or not, to bump into
tasks or activities that have nothing to do with the job
description that originally attracted them, much less with
the interview that they participated. To make it even worse
formed and fully functional teams are faced with
contradictory information and policies that often confuse
employees that are ready to give their best in the completion
and consolidation of its projects. I have followed groups of
professionals who come home every day wondering of why
being involved in certain projects and how contradictory it
has been the performance of their departments between
what is said and what is practiced.
See professionals involved in endless meetings, one after the
other in which more than 70% of the cases, say stuff like:
!2
and there jumps
out another
talent
"What a waste of time,
boring and pointless
meeting, I will finally sit
down at my desk and do
what actually needs to be
done. I spend most of my
time building presentations
in order to say the same
thing or communicate what
is already known”.

3. CAUSES AND EFFECTS SERIES . FUNDAMENTALS CELLS OF EXCELLENCE
"What a waste of time, boring and pointless meeting, I will
finally sit down at my desk and do what actually needs to be
done. I spend most of my time building presentations in
order to say the same thing or communicate what is already
known”.
These and other issues are present in employees’ minds 24
hours per day, 7 days per week.
(3) Authoritarianism and arrogance are
more common than you think.
The rush of day-to-day distractions, pressures for results,
personal issues, lack of training, fear, ego, and the list is
huge. These and others are the main reasons of both
authoritarianism and arrogance within companies. From all
of them, I would say that the ego is the main annihilator of
talent.
It's amazing how many professionals have the “boss
syndrome” (I say you do), many of them change
dramatically overnight. Before loyal and engaged colleagues,
now believe they should take a new approach, it seems that
they have moved to a noble caste missing the chance to
become great colleagues and perhaps great leaders.
Another well-known group are the experts. Known as
dominant in their own truths, some go so far when facing a
team with over two hundred employees proclaim their
knowledge as sovereign. They forget that two are better than
one, three better than two, and so on. All this expertise will
go down the drain once he realizes that since he knows so
much, 100 of his team walk in first gear, another 50 still did
not understand anything and the other 50 are literally doing
nothing, waiting for the circus to catch on fire.
Authoritarianism and arrogance are like a mirror that only
reflects the self-image of the beholder, not realising that, by
breaking the mirror, only their self-image that falls apart and
there goes another unbearable boss and many talents along
the way.
!3
ego,
the talent killer
"Before loyal and engaged
colleagues, now believe they
should take a new
approach, it seems that they
have moved to a noble caste
missing the chance to
become great colleagues
and perhaps great leaders."

4. CAUSES AND EFFECTS SERIES . FUNDAMENTALS CELLS OF EXCELLENCE
(4) “Feedback of fear”
Simple as that, you must see it to believe, just talk about
feedback and everyone starts to shake, even more when it
comes packed with a feedback technique that starts with a
compliment and is followed by BUT...
It is not uncommon amongst humans to emphasise the error
instead of highlighting the successes. Feedback should be
daily and preferably positive because no one likes to be the
“ugly duck”, people like to look up to winners, not losers.
Feedback done badly is like a plague, only spread terror.
(5) Who points out errors is punished or
banned
As Vincent Falconi (Brazilian Consulting) points out, the
coping policy can be more positive than it seems. Who
points out the errors is punished; who is in the comfort zone
is awarded. All wrong, a strong team is exactly a team of self-
criticism, of course when properly dosed. Many enter into a
cycle in which they become very passive. Once in this cycle
all they do is complain, they build nothing.
(6) Creativity annihilator
Not very rare that an employee comes up with an idea that is
immediately refused, that employee or team that has a
product design that capture images in digital form for
example and the company sits on top of your idea saying:
This will cannibalise our business ". It seems like a joke but
it happened at Kodak. The digital camera was created within
the Kodak and today there is not much left of that company.
(7) 10, 15, 20 years with the company
and a “little medal”
I see many, many companies honouring its employees with a
party, a diploma, a gold medal. It has been years of
dedication and results, nothing more fair than establishing
an average score for performance for those years and reward
the employees with a bigger bonus, so they can take their
families on holidays and simply buy something they have
!4
Who points out the
errors is punished;
who is in the
comfort zone is
awarded
This will cannibalise our
business ". It seems like a
joke but it happened at
Kodak. The digital camera
was created within the
Kodak and today there is
not much left of that
company.

5. CAUSES AND EFFECTS SERIES . FUNDAMENTALS CELLS OF EXCELLENCE
been wanting for a long time.
A “little medal” means nothing other than: Thank you, you
have done nothing more than your obligation!
(8) After all, why to retain talents?
They are the most important assets of the company, our best
employees and our intellectual capital. True, but perhaps
rather than simply retaining talent, companies start
eliminating once and for all with what is already known to
all.
Nothing that has been said is new; it is part of the daily life
of professionals and companies. What about disseminating a
culture where the meritocracy is applied, where favouritism
is eliminated, where qualified professionals are recognised,
where the mission and the vision of the company are in fact
present and not simply printed on flyers hanging on walls
around the company.
Where employees perform their duties aware that they really
need to do their part, that the function of creating the
meanings for doing things and keeping those in place is not
solely a company’s responsibility, but of everyone involved,
shareholders, managers and employees.
Nobody leaves a fertile and prosperous land, pleasant and
enriching ground, nobody leaves the “dream company”.
We need to wake up to the fact that we are looking in the
wrong direction, creating plan after plan to retain people
when in fact we should tackle the causes rather than the
symptoms that make us lose talent every day.
!5
Nobody leaves a
fertile and
prosperous land,
pleasant and
enriching ground,
nobody leaves the
“dream company”.
What about disseminating a
culture where the
meritocracy is applied,
where favouritism is
eliminated, where qualified
professionals are
recognised…
Ricardo Abiz has over 30 years experience in Change Management, Business
Consulting, Innovation, Marketing and Sales. He worked for major
telecommunications companies and he was responsible for one of the first
e-learning company focuses in corporations training and knowledge
management in Brazil. He won five of six awards of the "Learning Organisation
NET Award" with focus on creating and disseminating management best
practices. Writer, he has been published several articles on Linkedin and
management websites reaching over million views. Mr. Abiz is also founder -
Celex - Cells of Excellence project.