You’ve built a great place to work. What more do they want?

With your bold purpose the company should inspire them. They should appreciate the stability, the freedom, the growth paths. They should see how many extra miles leadership goes to “create belonging.”

It’s super unfair, isn’t it? On paper, your team really should love working here.

Plus, in the end, it’s also a professional agreement.

Which it is. But professional agreements don’t override human nature.

The thing is, loyalty is not persuaded. It’s felt. It needs to resonate.

And yet, most companies do exactly that: they try to persuade people to stay. With ever more shoulds.

But how does resonance look like?

Patagonia is a great example. Their founder, Yvon Chouinard knew that if the surf is up, a surfer cannot focus on a spreadsheet. No matter how fair the salary is, their mind is out in the water.

That’s why he didn’t come with ever more good reasons why being in the company should be what employees want. Instead, he leaned into the reality of who his people actually were.

He wrote the policy that became a legend: “Let my people go surfing.”

He realized that if people can live the life they love, you don’t have to bargain for their attention. They would bring that energy back to the work. They would get the job done, not because they should, but because the work allowed them to be themselves.

Loyalty doesn’t follow should. It follows would.

Especially if you ask it like this: Why would they never want to work anywhere else?

That question isn’t answered by a checklist of everything your company does right. It requires understanding what kind of people your employees are.

But don’t get distracted by Patagonia’s mission of saving the planet. It draws people. But my point is independent of their mission: It draws the kind of people who would feel out of place anywhere else.

They wouldn’t want to work for a company with lower environmental standards.

Your people might be different. Maybe they wouldn’t want to work for a place with lower quality standards. Or with lower ambition. Or with lower pay.

It may not be your people, but these people are who they are and they stay where they don’t have to compromise.

Now, this is not about bending backwards. It’s about knowing who you’re unmistakably right for. The clearer you can articulate what kind of person will want to do their best work for you, the stronger you can resonate with them.

And when they come, they will likely stay.

Do you know who is the perfect fit for your company?
Why they wouldn’t want to work anywhere else?

And can you articulate it?

Keep lighting the path,
Michael

PS: My newest essay on “What the Best Leaders Say” digs much deeper on this and explores how to shift from “How do we keep them?” to “Who are we built for?” and why that single question changes the entire game.