2.132 Don’t Get Blindsided: How to Spot the Warning Signs Early

Have you ever been blindsided by a resignation? One minute your top performer seems fine, and the next they’re handing in their notice. It’s disruptive, costly, and leaves you wondering what you could have done differently. 

The truth is that most resignations don’t happen overnight. Employees usually send signals of disengagement well before they quit, but managers often miss them. 

In this episode, Karen Kirton shares: 

• Why resignations so often feel like a shock 
• The five most common warning signs of disengagement 
• Practical steps managers can take to respond early 
• How “stay conversations” can help you prevent resignations before it’s too late 

If you’ve ever asked yourself, “How do I prevent key people from quitting unexpectedly?” this episode will give you the answers. 

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Transcript

Karen Kirton    
Welcome to Episode 132 and today I'm diving into a challenge that so many managers and business leaders have faced, and it's that horrible moment when one of your key people says I need to tell you something. 
And then they follow it with I'm resigning and for many leaders, these resignations feel like they come completely out of the blue. You know, you think everything is going fine and suddenly you're faced with losing a high performer. You're dealing with that disruption and you're trying to figure out, how do I keep them? How do I change? 
Their mind. So today I want to help you avoid being blindsided by showing you how to spot those warning signs early. We'll talk about why managers often miss the red flags, the subtle signals that employees give before they leave. 
And most importantly, what can you do to keep your best people engaged and at the end I'll share a free resource that we've created, which is a toolkit on how you can have stay conversations and also a resignations checklist so that you can put these ideas into practise straight away. 
So let's dig into why resignations can feel like a shock. You know, often it comes down to focus. Managers are juggling deadlines, budgets, client demands, business growth, and it becomes easy to assume that as long as an employee is performing, then everything's fine. You know, they seem OK, but. 
People can look productive on the surface while quietly checking out underneath, and one of the standard questions that we ask in our employee engagement surveys that we do with our clients is if if the employee has thought about looking for a job in the prior 30 days. 
And so many business owners and leaders are stunned with the results, which, by the way we see is pretty stable across industries. About 1/3 of employees saying that, yes, they've thought about looking for a job in the last 30 days, but generally employees are disengaged months earlier than a resignation. You know, the signs just aren't picked up. 
And this is just because there's not enough time spent to paying attention to that human side of work. The conversations about how are people feeling and not just what they're delivering. Another big reason is the culture of silence. In some workplaces, employees don't feel comfortable speaking up about frustrations. 
You know, maybe they're worried it will reflect badly on them. Maybe they've tried it before and nothing changed. And so instead of raising concerns, they stay quiet and the silence continues until they've already accepted another offer. And let's be honest, sometimes it's easier to just not see the problem. You know, as a leader. 
It is, we might convince ourselves that, you know, everything's fine because it feels less confronting than exploring whether there's trouble brewing under the surface and the key point here is this. Most resignations don't come out of nowhere. They come after a gradual disengagement process. 
So if you can learn to spot the warning signs, then you have a real chance of addressing the issues before they become a resignation letter. So what are the signs that we should be looking for? Here are some of the most common signs that someone might be considering leaving. Firstly, drop in enthusiasm. Someone who. 
Used to contribute ideas, offer suggestions or take initiative. Suddenly becomes quieter. They might only speak when they're spoken to, or they stop offering their thoughts in meetings. #2 withdrawal from the team, so they might skip social events. They avoid casual chats. They stop joining in with the group. 
And even small changes in social behaviour can be a red flag. Third is a decline in inconsistency, so their performance might still be OK, but it's not as reliable as it once was. Deadline slips quality starts to go down, or maybe just the energy they bring isn't quite the same. 
OK. 
4th future avoidance. If an employee shows interest in future projects, then they're probably thinking that they're going to be involved in them, and so conversely, they're not showing a lot of interest in future projects or they're avoiding talking about long term goals. 
That's worth paying attention to people who don't plan ahead with you may be planning their future somewhere else. #5 behavioural shifts, sudden increases in sick leave, coming in late, leaving early seeming distracted. You know there can all be signs of disengagement. 
And I do want to emphasise something important that none of these, on their own, automatically means someone's about to quit. You know, lots of people have ups and downs for lots of different reasons, but when you see a combination of these changes, it's worth noticing that, you know, think of it like warning lights on your car. You know, one light could hopefully just be. 
It's a minor issue, but several lights flashing at you. You know something probably needs urgent attention and recognition plays a role here, too. You know, lack of recognition often leads to disengagement. People want to feel seen, valued and heard. And when they don't, they start pulling away. 
So the good news is that these signs give you time to act, you know, provided that you're paying attention. So once you notice these signs, what should you do? Well, the first step is awareness, so make it part of your leadership practise to observe how people are showing up and not just what they're producing. 
So some practical actions you can take one check in regularly. Don't just ask about tasks. Ask how they're feeling about their workload, their role, their team. The conversations don't need to be long, but they do need to be genuine. 2 show appreciation. So as mentioned, recognition goes a long way when people feel valued, they're far less. 
It's likely to disengage. It doesn't have to be a huge gesture, you know. Usually just a sincere thank you in the moment means more than a formal award 3 offer clarity. Uncertainty is so frustrating, so make sure that everyone knows what's expected of them and how they work. Connects to the bigger picture. 
Four, focus on growth. It's important that the employee sees a future with you, so we want to discuss career development regularly and how we're providing opportunities for learning five address issues early. If you notice performance slipping or an employee withdrawing, then don't wait. Have the conversation and not in a confrontational. 
Way, but in a supportive way. So you know, I've noticed that you seem a little bit quieter lately. Is everything OK? And let's not forget, pay. So money is not usually the main driver. Salary helps. It's not going to fix disengagement, but I discussed this with a business owner recently who was considering introducing a bonus or a profit. 
What share scheme and they'll ask in my opinion, and really it often depends on the role the industry you're in, but also that person's own personality and how they are motivated. Are they motivated by monetary awards? But here's the thing. If we feel like we aren't being compensated fairly, then that can. 
Lead to disengagement, because that's when we say, well, all these problems here and they're not paying me well enough. It's not usually the other way around, you know, because what keeps people is purpose, recognition, growth and trust. 
So if we focus on these areas and we pay appropriately, then we can create a culture where people feel engaged and valued and that significantly reduces the risk of losing someone unexpectedly. 
So one of the most effective ways to avoid being blindsided is through what we call stay conversations. So most people are familiar with exit interviews, and they're really important, but by then the decision's made the employee's gone, whereas stay conversations flip it around. So they're proactive discussions designed to understand why the. 
The employees staying, you know, what do they value, but also what might cause them to leave? So a few examples of stay conversation questions, you know, what do you look forward to most of work? Is there anything that frustrates you or makes your job harder than it should be if you could change one thing about your role, what would it be? 
What would make you feel more valued here? You know these questions. Open the door to more meaningful insights, and sometimes the answers will be simple. Maybe they need more flexibility or they'd like more recognition. Other times they might uncover bigger cultural issues that you need to address. 
The key is that we listen without defensiveness, so we thank the person for their honesty and we take action where we can, you know, even small actions can show that we care, and we're willing to respond. So this is exactly why we created that download that I've mentioned, where you can have those example questions. 
But also resignations checklist and it will give you practical steps, ready to use questions and a simple structure to make these conversations easier. Your stay conversations don't help you prevent resignations, but they can really help with knowing what's going on with the person and therefore strengthening Trust and making the employee more likely to bring concerns to you in the future so you're not going to get blindsided by resignation. 
So wrapping up surprise, resignations are really disruptive, but the truth is they're not often surprises. You know, employees usually give off warning signs long before they leave. We just have to know how to spot them. So the main things to remember are watching for changes is enthusiasm, behaviour and consistency. Paying attention to withdrawal from the Team or avoidance of future planning and making regular check, insurance and recognition part of your leadership habits. Because if you focus on clarity, growth and appreciation, that will help keep people engaged and you can use those stale conversations as a proactive tool to prevent people from thinking about Leaving, or at least to prevent you not knowing that the resignation is coming. So if you do these things, you're going to dramatically reduce the risk of being blindsided and create a workplace is where your best people want to stay. And don't forget we've put together that free download to make it easier for you to start these conversations. You'll find a link in. 
The show notes, and if you know a manager who's just lost a key employee unexpectedly, then why not share this episode with them? And if you receive value for this episode, I'd love it if you leave a rating or review over Apple Podcasts or Spotify so that someone else can also find the episodes to help with their business. 
Episodes are released on Mondays, so click the subscribe button and you'll be notified of when that's available. Thanks so much for joining me if you have any feedback, questions or ideas for future episodes, head on over to amplifyhr.com.au or connect with me on LinkedIn and we can start a conversation.