Stop Losing Your Best Talent: The Seesaw Method Every Leader Needs

You hired them because they were the best.

Six months later, they're gone. Sound familiar?

I was talking to a construction company owner last week who lost three team members in four months - all solid performers who got recruited by competitors offering what they called "better opportunities." His first instinct was to blame the money, figure they got outbid by someone with deeper pockets and better benefits packages.

It's always about the money, right? That's what we tend to default to as the primary reason.

But when I dug deeper into those exit conversations, something else emerged that had nothing to do with compensation. In those final discussions before they walked out the door, each former employee mentioned the exact same thing - they never really knew where they stood with leadership.

Here's the Uncomfortable Truth

We've become experts at pointing out what's wrong, but we're absolutely terrible at praising what's right.

Take, for instance, the construction industry, where safety violations and quality issues demand immediate correction, leaders have trained themselves to spot problems faster than a building inspector on a bad day. But somewhere along the way, we forgot that people - even tough, experienced construction professionals - need to know when they're succeeding too.

Your crew members have more options available to them than at any point in recent history. They don't have to stay under managers who only speak up when something goes wrong, and they certainly don't have to tolerate leadership that treats acknowledgment like a scarce resource.

The companies winning this war for top talent aren't necessarily the ones paying the highest wages - they're creating work environments where good performance gets acknowledged just as quickly and thoroughly as poor performance gets corrected.

To keep A-level employees in our culture, we've got to become A-level coaches, specifically when it comes to giving feedback.

Why the "Feedback Sandwich" Doesn't Work

Most of us were raised on the idea that when it's time for formal feedback, you package it like a sandwich - start with good news, give them the bad news, then finish with good news.

The intention is good, but here's the problem: your brain doesn't process positive and negative feedback equally. Negative news carries more weight than positive news, so when you bury one criticism between two compliments, guess which one sticks?

That's right - the criticism. The positive feedback gets dismissed as filler, and the person walks away feeling like they're falling short.

This might be the single most expensive mindset plaguing construction leadership today, and it's costing companies their best talent at an alarming rate.

The Seesaw Method That Actually Works

Instead of the sandwich approach, think of feedback like a seesaw. You need balance - equal weight on both sides to keep things level.

For every piece of corrective feedback you deliver, you must provide one piece of equally detailed positive feedback. Not someday when you remember, not at the next team meeting, but balanced in the same conversation.

If you're pointing out two safety violations during your morning walkthrough, you need to acknowledge two specific things they're executing flawlessly. This isn't some feel-good management theory - it's how the human brain stays motivated for improvement.

1. Make it specific. 

"Good job" dies on arrival faster than a poorly mixed batch of concrete. Your positive feedback needs to be as detailed as your problem identification:

Instead of: "Good job yesterday."

Try: "Your crew preparation work yesterday was exceptional - materials staged properly before shift start, tools organized and accounted for, safety equipment distributed and checked, and your guys knew exactly what they were doing the moment they hit the site."

2. Make it timely.

Don't wait for formal performance reviews. Two-minute conversations spread throughout the week will always beat hour-long quarterly reviews that feel more like interrogations.

"But They're Getting Paid to Do Their Job"

This might be the single most expensive mindset plaguing our leadership today.

Yes, they're getting paid to perform their job responsibilities - but rewarded behavior becomes repeated behavior. In today's hypercompetitive labor market, your definition of "adequate performance" is someone else's foundation for "excellent opportunity."

Who doesn't want to hear they're doing great work and making a meaningful contribution? Even your top performers - especially your top performers - need to know they're valued and their efforts are recognized.

Think about it this way: The average cost to replace a skilled construction worker runs $50-75,000 when you factor in recruiting time, training expenses, lost productivity during the learning curve, and the mistakes that happen while new people figure out your systems.

A two-minute feedback conversation costs you nothing except the commitment to do it consistently.

"We Don't Have Time for This"

I hear this objection constantly, and I get it - deadlines are crushing you, projects are running behind schedule, the weather's refusing to cooperate, and you've got owners breathing down your neck.

But here's what's actually costing you exponentially more time than brief feedback conversations: constantly replacing experienced workers who walk away feeling undervalued.

You're already spending time every single day correcting problems and addressing issues - spending equal time acknowledging excellence isn't additional work piled on your already overwhelming schedule, it's simply balanced leadership.

Start Tomorrow Morning

Pick one person on your team right now, someone whose performance matters to your success. For the next seven days, you're going to practice the Seesaw Method without fail:

1.     Balance every correction with equal recognition. If you point out one problem, acknowledge one success in the same conversation.

2.     Make your positive feedback as specific as your negative feedback. No more "good job" throwaway comments. Be as detailed in your praise as you are in your problem identification.

3.     Find at least one legitimate feedback opportunity every day. Not forced or artificial, but genuine recognition for work that moves your project forward.

Watch how their engagement level changes throughout the week. Watch how their performance shifts when they know their efforts are being noticed and valued. Watch how their attitude toward challenges improves when they're not operating from a constant deficit of recognition.

The best leaders don't just build exceptional projects - they build exceptional people who want to stay and grow with the organization. And people who feel genuinely valued don't spend their evenings scrolling job boards looking for "better opportunities."

They create those opportunities exactly where they are.

What's one specific thing your team executed flawlessly this week that deserves detailed recognition? Start there, and watch what happens.