OCTOBER 21

“Gone are the days when people stay because they love their organization. Today, great people stay because they love the people they work for.”

—Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton, authors

TIES THAT BIND

This is one case where it really is all about you. (All those other times, well, we really can’t say.)

Contrary to popular belief, employees bond to their managers, not to their companies. When a manager is good, so is performance. When he’s bad, so goes just about everything else.

In the 2002 Global Employee Commitment Study, 20,000 workers in thirty-three countries were asked for feedback on key management skills associated with highly productive cultures. Employees from high-performance firms consistently rated their managers much higher than those in poorly performing businesses.

Feel that? It’s the weight of responsibility. Bear it well.