Dumb Rules That Make Your Best People Want to Quit by Lolly Daskal
It’s hard enough to attract and hold on to good employees, but to attract and hold on to the best employees is even harder. Occasionally they leave because of an opportunity they can’t pass up, but most of the time the cause lies within the company they’re leaving. Too many workplaces create rule-driven cultures that may keep management feeling like things are under control, but they squelch creativity and reinforce the ordinary.
Faced with a rule-driven culture, the best employees — the most talented and hard-working ones — are usually the first to go, because they’re in high demand and have more opportunity than most. What’s left is a pool of people who are mediocre at what they do, willing to compromise their standards, and in it mostly for the paycheck. And if you have mediocre people doing mediocre work, you are going to have a mediocre company. Here’s a simple principle for hiring and keeping the best and most talented people:
Michael Sauers is the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.
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