Lessons from LeBron – Keeping Your All-Stars
July 14th, 2010 by Caroline Hoenk 
Whether or not you love sports, the ratings say there’s a good chance you tuned in to watch LeBron James’ announcement last week. Being a PR professional and avid sports fan, I was certainly watching. And while I could write an entire post on the 1-hour special, it was what happened afterwards that I found really fascinating.
In case you’ve somehow avoided the 24-7 reporting, here’s the quick story. LeBron became a free agent. As free agents often do, he attended meetings with multiple teams, including the Cleveland Cavs (his former team). The media circus began, building to a 1-hour announcement special (broadcast on ESPN) where LeBron announced he was going to the Miami Heat.
What astonished me is how angry people – including many people outside of the state of Ohio – were about his decision. He was called disloyal. He was called a traitor. He was called a follower, not a leader. And by his former employer, he was called much, much more (you can read the open letter here).
In an age where people frequently change jobs, move to new cities or make choices for as much for their life outside the office as inside, I admit that I found the reaction a bit startling. A recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report said that the average American born between 1957-1964 has held 10.8 jobs between age 18 and 42. But LeBron leaving Cleveland after seven years was enough to totally light up my Facebook and Twitter feeds with a lot of negative reactions – and not just from Cavs fans.
By the looks of things, no one was more upset than the owner of the Cavs – he believed he’d invested a lot in James and deserved his loyalty. Bosses around the world feel this same pain when top-notch employees announce that they are taking their talents elsewhere. But, there’s a lesson to be learned about how to create loyalty and longevity with your employees – who knows if they’d have kept LeBron in Cleveland, but they might keep some of your All-Star employees with you:
- Surround talented people with talented people. While everyone likes to feel like they’re the smartest person in the room, very few people like to feel like they are charged with carrying the whole team/department/company forward. Some say champions thrive on that, and while that may be true in athletics, I’m not convinced it’s true in the corporate arena. So, if you have one employee that always has to put out the fire, lead the meeting or save the day, it’s probably time to think about adding another superstar to your team.
- Check-in and find out how you’re doing in supporting your most-valued employees. And by that, I don’t mean once a year during a review cycle. Have regular conversations about whether your employee is satisfied, whether he or she is being challenged enough, etc. If you have these conversations early and often, you’re less likely to be caught by an unexpected departure.
- Have a development plan in place – and be proactive about executing it. For those conversations to have real meaning, they must also have action. If there are things you need to address to keep your top talent, then commit to doing them by putting a plan in place. This will show employees that you are loyal and committed to them – and they may feel the same in return.
- If an employee matters to you, found out what matters most to them. If you believe LeBron, winning is what matters most to him – not money, not individual titles, not living close to his hometown, not being the superstar of a team. And, once he didn’t feel he could accomplish his ultimate goal of winning an NBA Championship in Cleveland, he left. So, when you’re talking to employees, ask them what matters most to them – you might be surprised by the answer. Maybe it’s not money, but the ability to have a more flexible schedule. Or, maybe they need to be in a creative role to feel fulfilled. You don’t know until you ask. And, as they say, knowledge is power.
And, a final word of caution – saying bad things about a former employee isn’t likely to get you where you want to go. It certainly won’t make them come back, and it may make your other employees wonder what you really think about them. Burning bridges is rarely a smart move – life is long and often comes full circle. Remember my first post on this blog?