But the people who train managers, coach executive leaders and help solve human resource problems believe employees leave for different reasons.

“There is a direct link between leadership and employee retention,” says Karen St. Jean, a leadership coach and veteran HR manager who now is a partner in a consulting company called Keepers Inc.

“Most people leave because of bad managers,” she says, reciting several myths about the motives responsible for high staff turnover. 

“One myth is people are loyal to the organization.  That’s not true.  They are loyal to their careers.  If  I worked for terrific companies and I have a goal for myself then I’m responsible for my own career.  That’s different from years ago when employers were responsible for mapping an individual’s career. 

“Myth No. 2 is that people leave for the money.  That’s the last reason people go.  One of the factors individuals consider is trust and talking about issues.  When that trust isn’t there, where do you go with all this stuff?  A headhunter is just waiting, knocking on the door. It doesn’t mean money is not an issue.  If you’re strapped and have five children and your husband doesn’t have a job and you don’t have a dental plan, you’re not going to walk out the door.”

Human resources with offshoots into professional development and management training have consistently been regarded as the down-covered underbelly of the high-technology industry. In recent years, these areas have been shown to be crucial to business success.  The University of Waterloo school of accountancy found that skilled and motivated staff and strong leadership ranked among the highest factors in business success.

The study, by school director Howard Armitage, followed a survey of 136 Canadian public company executives who ranked these factors higher than high-quality technology and information systems.  (It was published August 1999 by the Society of Management Accountants of Canada under the full title: An Executive View of Shareholder Value Creation: Determinants of Success in Publicly Held Canadian Organizations).

Ms. St. Jean, who spent 10 years in the high-tech industry in human resources with positions leading into senior management, struck out on her own in 1997 to join Keepers.  Company president Daniel O’Connor runs the Toronto office and he needed a presence in Ottawa.

Mr. O’Connor and Ms. St. Jean conduct the workshops, one-on-one training and group sessions. In Ottawa, clients range from the high-tech sector to the companies serving the industry.  Besides leadership training, they work with companies to identify and strengthen skills. They examine other issues including how to identify employees who may be ready to leave, building a relationship with staff and designing plans to help retain employees who might be ready to go elsewhere.

“There are a lot of young entrepreneurs right now who are beginning businesses.”  Ms. St. Jean says.  “But a lot of components go into running a successful business.  There is so much emphasis now on managing well….People want their values met. It’s so much more complex.  Unless you understand how to go about this, it’s pretty tough.

“I am very familiar with what works in high technology because I was in it.”

As the name suggests, Keepers is all about helping companies keep their employees and senior executives. Coaching, training and helping to polish skills usually evolve from an initial test using the HR standard called the Myers Briggs, which helps assess individual skills and capabilities. Additionally, the coach-trainer employs the so-called 360-degree feedback, an assessment based on interviews with superiors, peers and subordinates of a particular employee or manager.

“Getting results from these reports is a real eye opener for some people.” says Ms. St. Jean.  “Some people have never had such frank feedback before. OK, now that you know, where do we go from here?”

In the high-tech environment particularly, there is a clear need for help in management and leadership coaching.

“All of a sudden there are technical guys who are doing so well in their technical field and their reward is: guess what, we’re going to promote you to manager,” she says.  “Organizing these complex human beings is a lot harder than doing technical work.”

Too often, however, there is simply no time available for intensive training.  Besides, she says, leadership skills are not acquired during a one-or two-day seminar.  Keepers employs a one-on-one customized coaching technique that allows senior managers and executives to build on what they learn from day to day in the boardroom, with employees and their managers.

The greatest challenge lies in teaching people to solve the problems on their own, Ms. St. Jean says.

How does leadership coaching work?  “What we do is spend 90 minutes every second week for six months with a person.  We talk about some of the issues that have come up since the last time we met.  We review the results and the action plans we have put together. So it’s a very good use of the 90 minutes.”

If a problem crops up, the coach is available to talk about an issue in the interim by telephone or e-mail.

How do you deal with employees who could be described as introverts?

“Dealing with an introvert is challenging if they need to deal successfully with a whole bunch of extroverts. A lot of introverts have learned to be extroverted. One of the things we walk our clients through is, what is the impact of not changing?”

“What’s going to happen if Martin wants this and Joe wants this and you don’t deliver?  You can understand the consequences of not changing.  We’re adults. It’s all about choices.  There is no guarantee you can turn everyone into a terrific leader, but at least you can understand what their expectations are.

“Introverts can learn to become more extroverted.  It’s not that they wear a lampshade on their head or become a real party animal, but they’ll be more vocal with their thoughts, with what leads to making a decision.”

Even an extroverted manager will need to adjust.

“Sometimes extroverts need to slow down a bit. The last thing we can do is categorize people, but engineers can be very conceptual beings. They can certainly add to a group.  But when you think of someone one who is very extroverted working in sales or human resources versus someone creating concepts, extroverts need to slow down a little and realize they won’t get an immediate reaction out of an introvert.

“There’s an old expression: ‘If you don’t know what an extrovert is thinking, then you haven’t been listening because they talk, talk, talk.’  They think out loud. They invite other people’s expressions.  They feed on a group, whereas people who are a little more introverted process information much differently.”

How about another problem that crops up, that of a new manager filling the shoes of a popular, well respected predecessor?

“Then you have a team that wants their manager like this but their manager is only like that.  You can’t reinvent a new manager.  You (the new manager) can’t change 100 per cent, but perhaps you can prioritize issues that need to be changed.  If this is the shopping list of changes, what are the top two areas the team would really like to see?

“Look at the team and see what the needs of the team are.  If you can anticipate their reaction, then you are in a better position to plan.”