There are two types of competitors:

• Competitors with similar products who want to steal your customers. Most leaders take a proactive stance when dealing with these competitors and constantly try to provide a better product or a better service. They are trying to win.

• Competitors who need more or better team members who want to steal your people. They may or may not be in the same industry or selling similar products or services. Many leaders ignore these competitors and take a reactive stance by simply replacing the team members that leave. They are trying not to lose.

While many leaders know how to effectively deal with competitors that are trying to steal their customers, only a few know how to effectively deal with those who are trying to steal their people. How can companies address this issue?

First, let's consider employee turnover. When it comes to employee turnover, low-impact leaders have a few common explanations:

It's hard to find good people. This is true for low-impact leaders, because good people don't want to work for or follow them. In this instance, job candidates are often interviewing the leader as much or more than they are being interviewed by the leader. Conversely, people want to join teams that have high-impact leaders at the helm. In fact, people are willing to transfer from other departments, other organizations, and even to relocate from many miles away.

People aren't loyal. An employee working for a low-impact leader has the right to stop following poor leadership. When this happens, the employee exercises her right to terminate (fire) the boss. How do they do this? They leave and find a new boss in a different department or organization, or they become their own boss by starting their own business. High-impact leaders have very loyal team members. However, they still experience turnover because they are growing and developing people. Indeed, the high-impact leader encourages employees to grow and go. As a result, team members are loyal and reluctant to leave, even for a better opportunity.

People aren't motivated. For low-impact leaders this isn’t an excuse; it's the truth. Low-impact leaders don't motivate or inspire their teams, because they are not motivated or inspired themselves. It’s likely that they also report to a low-impact leader. High-impact leaders, however, are highly motivated and inspired. Consequently, they are highly motivating and inspiring to others. This helps them attract and retain other high-impact people who have many options to work elsewhere.

People aren't engaged. Low-impact leaders aren't engaged leaders. Leaders who show up to work simply to get paid are surrounded by team members who feel the same way. On the other hand, high-impact leaders are intentionally and highly engaged and attract team members who want to work.

Bottom line: Turnover has always happened, and always will happen. The best-led organizations have turnover, but they don't experience excessive turnover. High-impact leaders actually create much of the turnover in their organization because they purposely grow and develop people—helping them climb to the next level and beyond, internally or externally. Excessive turnover and disengagement, though, are indicators of poor, low-impact leadership.

3 Ways to Compete

How do ensure your organization fosters high-impact leaders? Try these three strategies.

Develop the character of ALL leaders. Invest in the character development and personal growth of all leaders so they become high-impact leaders who attract, develop, and engage teams. If you don't know how to develop high-impact character among the formal leaders in your organization, you haven't developed it within yourself. That's OK; continuing that way is not OK. Start researching, reading, changing, and sacrificing. Start climbing the high-impact leadership ladder for yourself. Remember: It's not about you, but it starts with you.

Develop the character of ALL people. If you want to engage your workforce, you must begin by engaging their minds. Nearly all organizations develop the skillset and toolset of their frontline, entry-level team members. Why? Because it's required. However, only the best organizations intentionally develop the mindsets of frontline team members.

Feed the hungry. This is where most low-impact leaders drop the ball. When they introduce leadership development, some will buy-in quickly. These people will start developing themselves and may quickly outgrow the leader and company. These people are hungry, regardless of their title or position, and they have the potential to transform the organization. But a low-impact leader won't feed them fast enough, so they will leave and find another company that will nourish their leadership development needs. It takes a high-impact leader to know how to manage these hungry people—engage them, use them, and leverage them to accelerate the growth and development.

Want to learn more? Join me September 27-28 in Atlanta for ATD LearnNow: Transformational Leadership.

Note: This post is adapted from Blue-Collar Kaizen: Leading Lean & Lean Teams.