Attn: CEOs - you are NOT getting the best and the brightest
Nevermind that we are in one of the worst economic times ever. Nevermind conventional speak that says the you can get the best and the brightest - the cream of the crop - right now. Nevermind that you and your hiring people think they are getting the best.
I know better. I see the truth every day. You are NOT getting the best and the brightest. You are in fact running them off.
The best and the brightest - MANY OF THEM - are leaving corporate America. They are choosing the terrible economy, they are choosing to not know what they are going to do next, they are choosing to leave it all and try something - ANYTHING - else. That's how bad their experience was in corporate America.What was that experience?Just the other night I found myself at dinner with a few attendees to a local ICF (coaching) gathering. It was a random selection of people of diverse backgrounds. Three our of four had left corporate. The newest departee shared her story. An HR professional with her company for TEN years. Started when the company was young and believed its people made it what it was. The company gave stock to all employees at a time when this was rare. Her role involved training other managers and HR people and firing. Her company had grown fast and big. In fact it's a big company.For the past nine months she had been drawing attention to the cultural discrepancies between what the company was saying and doing. She couldn't any longer stand quiet. While the company said people mattered, the choices they were making were oriented to financial, bottom-line, 'business-first' values. And one day not long ago her manager - the company - said in actual words "I've considered this and I really don't think you have added value at all."What would you do if your husband, girlfriend, mother told you you hadn't added value in their lives? Would you get angry or hurt? Would you question yourself?What did she do? She left. And she did feel hurt and angry and did question herself. Still is questioning herself. Not the way you'd think. She isn't questioning the value she added to that company. She knows she added value. What she is now questioning are her values. She's getting rock-solid certain of what's important to her. The experience has shown her exactly what she doesn't want and will not stand for.
She'll find her way to a place where she will only welcome authenticity and integrity in her life. As so many other entrepreneurs have. She won't go back to corporate like that again.
Dear CEO - I don't think you chose to leave authenticity and integrity behind. I think you fell into conventional action by going with old-style business values. Companies know really well how to be profitable, efficient, and competitive to be successful. The 'it's just business' mindset. Companies don't have many examples of being caring, compassionate, sufficient, cooperative and interconnected to be successful. Just because there aren't many doing it doesn't mean it can't be done. It can be. And the roadmap is simpler than you think. You follow your heart and your values.Our recent corporate departee is doing it. And your company is not any different. She's stepped into the unknown and faced her fears to find and follow her heart and values. Surely your company can too?