My Exact Strategy for Creating a Workplace Your Team Doesn’t Want to Leave

Excessive turnover is one of the greatest enemies to organizational health, profitability, and impact. It drains morale, stunts progress, and weighs down your team’s culture.

So how do you create a workplace your team doesn’t want to leave?

Start by asking this: What do people actually want from their work today?

4 Things Every Team Member Craves

Outside of the obvious—fair compensation, benefits, and time off—your team is looking for these four core things:

1. A mission to accomplish
   
   People want to know their work matters. They want to use their gifts to contribute to something bigger than themselves. And they want to feel that they have a purpose.
    
2. A culture to embrace
   
   Your team craves value alignment. They want their hard work and talents to support something they believe in.
    
3. A place to grow
   
   People want to get better. They want to increase their influence and be promotable.
    
4. People to enjoy
   
   They don’t just want to do a job they like; they want to do a job they like with people they like. 

These are the fundamentals. But in a post-pandemic world, three new desires have surfaced:

1. Flexibility
   
   Many people want more flexibility in when and where they work. Some prefer working from home; others still value the office. But one thing is clear: expectations have shifted. Flexibility is no longer a perk; it’s an expectation.
    
2. Less hustle
   
   Years ago, the grind was in. Now, the grind is out. People want to do their job, but they don’t want to be consumed by it.
    
3. A desire to feel settled
   
   This might be the biggest shift of all. Many team members just want to feel settled. After years of global instability, family strain, and rising mental health struggles, your team may not have the words for it, but they’re craving stability, peace, and consistency.

How to Help Your Team Feel Settled

You can’t fix everything, but you can lead in a way that brings peace and confidence to your team. Here’s how:

1. Schedule One-on-One Time to Listen

And not just for performance reviews—make it relational.

Listen to what’s said and what’s not. Ask open-ended questions like:

• “What do you love most about your job?”
• “What frustrates you most?”
• “What could I do to better support you?”
• “If you could change one thing, what would it be?
• “Where do you feel you have more to offer?”

And always end with: “What else is on your mind?”

That phrasing matters. Assume there’s more to hear.

2. When You Can Make a Change, Make It

If you learn something that can improve your team’s environment, do something about it.

Whether it’s simplifying a process, adjusting schedules, or just ordering a standing desk, when you hear a need and can meet it, meet it.

3. Be Prepared to Let Some People Move On

Sometimes the best way to help someone settle is to help them move forward, elsewhere.

If someone is toxic, divisive, or disengaged, your first goal is to help them improve. But if they can’t, you help them move on.

Set clear expectations, offer support, and if needed, make the tough call.

Because tolerating poor performance or bad attitudes will eventually hurt everyone.

4. Just Lead

Here’s the truth: One of the biggest reasons people feel unsettled is because they don’t know who to trust anymore.

So be the leader they can trust.

Tell the truth. Be transparent. Set goals. Celebrate wins. Reward hard work. 

Because your team members are not commodities to be leveraged. They are people to be loved.

Walk Through Your Doubts with The Benefit of Doubt

If you’re going through a season of spiritual doubt, I want you to know—you’re not alone. Almost all of us, at some point, have questioned what we believe and wondered whether God was real.

In my new book The Benefit of Doubt: How Confronting Your Deepest Questions Can Lead to a Richer Faith you’ll learn that the strongest faith isn’t a faith that never doubts. It’s a faith that grows through doubts.

If you’re feeling frustrated in your faith, this book will give you the tools to keep pressing forward.