Why Top Talent Leaves

So why do we find this topic so interesting? I suspect it’s because we’re genuinely curious: What would make a very senior executive – someone who most certainly has been courted by your organisation and then paid huge sums of money to join – decide to pack it in? Is it greed – an even richer offer down the street? Or do our talent actually leave jobs for the same reasons as the other employees?

Top talent does indeed leave for the same reasons everyone else does, but it seems that the main driving factor is when they’re badly managed & the organisation is confusing and uninspiring.

Poor management can come in the form of people management – either systemically as in poor performance feedback, or individually as in “my boss sucks”. Or in the form of organisational lameness – shifting priorities, no vision, closed-mindedness.

It really is that simple. Not easy, mind you, but remarkably simple. If you want to keep your best people:

1) Create an organisation where those who manage others are hired for their ability to manage well, support them with training to get even better at managing, and hold them accountable and rewarded for doing so.

2) Then be clear about what you’re trying to accomplish as an organisation – not only in terms of financial goals, but in a more three-dimensional way. What’s your purpose; what do you aspire to bring to the world? What kind of a culture do you want to create in order to do that? What will the organisation look, feel and sound like if you’re embodying that mission and culture? How will you measure success? And then, once you’ve clarified your hoped-for future, consistently focus on keeping that vision top of mind and working together to achieve it.

If you do these two things, your people will stay and thrive, otherwise you may find that it’s a revolving door. And this will hold true at all levels – not just for “top talent.”