The CLOVER Framework

Whether your team receives information proactively or has to chase it. Whether people feel like they know what is happening and why. Whether feedback flows up as easily as instructions flow down.

Uncertainty triggers cortisol. That is the brain's stress chemical. When your team doesn't know what is happening, their brains interpret silence as threat. People who feel informed feel valued. People who feel surprised feel expendable. The difference between those two states is often the difference between staying and updating a resume.

Whether your team feels like they are building new capabilities or just repeating the same work. Whether growth is happening through daily work, not just annual training budgets. Whether people feel more skilled today than they did six months ago.

The brain rewards learning with dopamine. That is the same neurochemical that drives motivation, focus, and the feeling that work matters. When someone is growing, their brain is telling them to keep going. When someone is stagnating, their brain starts looking for stimulation elsewhere. Stagnation is one of the top turnover drivers, and it happens slowly enough that most managers miss it entirely.

Whether your team can see where they are headed. Whether career paths are visible or mysterious. Whether advancement criteria are transparent or political. Whether people believe their future is here, or whether they have already started imagining it somewhere else.

Anticipation of future reward activates the same dopamine pathways as actual reward. That means a clear path forward creates real motivation right now, not someday. When the path is unclear, the brain stops investing. People don't leave jobs. They leave futures they cannot see. The moment someone stops being able to picture themselves here in 18 months, the exit process has already started in their brain.

Whether your team can say what they actually think. Whether honesty is safe or punished. Whether leaders acknowledge difficulty or pretend everything is fine. Whether someone can raise a concern without it becoming a career risk.

Harvard researcher Amy Edmondson's work on psychological safety shows it drives both performance and retention. When leaders show vulnerability, it lowers cortisol in the people around them. It signals safety. The brain shifts from threat-detection mode to collaborative mode. Employees who cannot be honest with their managers become employees who leave without warning. They are not going to tell you they are unhappy if the system punishes honesty. They are just going to leave.

Whether your team can do their best work or whether they are fighting friction that you could eliminate. Whether obstacles get removed or just acknowledged. Whether someone has the tools, access, authority, and support to actually deliver what is expected of them.

Friction is exhausting. When someone cannot do their job well because of obstacles they cannot control, their brain burns energy on frustration instead of work. That kind of chronic frustration depletes serotonin over time. The result is burnout. Not the dramatic kind. The slow kind. The kind where someone stops caring gradually and then one day accepts an offer from a company that seems like it might actually let them do their job.

Whether your team feels seen. Whether their contribution is visible to the people who matter. Whether recognition happens in real time or only during annual reviews. Whether someone feels like their work matters to the organization, not just to the task list.

Recognition triggers oxytocin. That is the neurochemical that creates connection and belonging. When someone's work is acknowledged, their brain tells them they are part of something. When their work goes unnoticed, their brain tells them they are replaceable. There is a 67-day window between deciding to leave and actually resigning. During that window, the person looks completely normal to most managers. Regular reflection creates the opportunities to surface concerns before they become departures.