Nobody enjoys losing a top performer. As a leader, it can be a heavy blow, particularly when the person is a critical player on your team. When faced with these tough goodbyes, we might ask ourselves – “What could I have done differently? Is there a chance they might stay?”
Over the course of my career in leadership I’ve had a number employees find their next great opportunity outside of the organization. When a talented individual who had significantly contributed to the team, receives an enticing offer from a major tech company and the salary bump is substantial, there’s not much I as a leader can do. Nor should I, I have always tried to build teams that are a great place to work and a great place to “have worked”. I want folks in my organizations to be able to look back and say, “I’m glad I worked there, look where it got me”. And we as leaders can look at that huge pay bump and say, look how great our culture was that they held out this long. However it’s still hard to lose top talent, all of the experience and context can be hard to replace. But instead of dwelling on the inevitable, decide to use this opportunity to learn more about why they are leaving and if there were factors beyond the salary that motivated this decision.