What To Do If Your Best Team Member Resigns
You’re a successful leader with a great team, one of your team members in particular is fabulous. You harbour a secret worry that one day this person will decide it’s time to move on. You try and push these thoughts from your mind as you carry on. You’re delivering results together and it’s awesome, the person is well compensated. It should be fine, right?
One day the top performer wants to chat with you. They’re looking a little uncomfortable. They know they’re about to drop a bombshell and feel apprehensive about it. As you sit down together you feel a sense of unease wash over you.
“There’s no easy way to say this – I’m leaving” 
What Do You Do?
Let’s take a step back to what you could have been doing to prepare for this moment. There are two areas of focus that you should always have on your radar.
Give Enough Reasons to Stay That They Won’t Consider Leaving
If you are proactive in providing an environment in which employees can deliver their best work, you will likely see much less turnover. Some examples of how you can do this are:
- Do your best to offer exciting projects and new growth opportunities
- Compensate them appropriately in the first place – don’t wait for them to ask
- Involve them in strategy discussions and decision making
Dig The Well Before You’re Thirsty
Harvey Mackay’s book ‘Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty’ is all about building a very strong network. This is so that if and when you need help from people – in what could be 10+ years from now when something unexpected happens. They are there for you and you’re not contacting people out of the blue awkwardly asking for favours.
Succession planning is the formal business term for how leaders do the same thing. It’s the practice of lining up excellent candidates who might be interested in roles you have to offer in the future. In other words, it’s your plan on what to do if your best team member resigns.
In it’s most thorough sense succession planning is having a written plan for the roles you have on your team. A list of potential candidates who you would approach if the person currently in that role should resign.
It’s a kind of insurance policy to ensure you’re not left high and dry when the current arrangement comes to an end. And it will come to an end!
I plan to write a more in-depth article in the future about succession planning and how to go about it.
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Back to the Challenge at Hand
So you’re face to face with your most successful team member. They’ve just told you they are leaving. My recommendations of what to do and not to do in this situation are below. I would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions as well. Please send me an email or leave a comment below with your opinion.
React Well
In this moment you will be judged on your professionalism. Make it count.
- Thank them for letting you know. If your team member is a great performer they will have put their heart and soul into their role and having this conversation will not be easy for them. Thanking them will put them at ease.
- Acknowledge that you respect their decision – until they explain you won’t understand why they are making this choice, but let them know they still have your respect.
- It’s okay to tell them you don’t want to lose them – but the way you do it is important. Avoid unprofessional behaviour like guilt trips and emotional blackmail.
Find Out More
As you will now have some work ahead to replace this high performer in short order, you are entitled to ask some questions. Keep emotion out of this part of the conversation and keep it factual. This is where you need to be thinking straight. If you don’t feel like you can do this right now or you have to be elsewhere then connect with them later for this part of the conversation.
- Feel free to ask them to tell you more about their decision. Avoid interrogation tactics though. If they don’t want to go into detail that is their choice. This is a great opportunity to learn some very valuable insights so hopefully they will be open with you.
- Tread carefully around asking them what it would take to persuade them to stay and don’t make any on the spot promises. It does no harm to ask but desperation is ineffective and so is making promises you can’t keep. If what you can offer is not in their best interests compared to the offer they have then don’t try and hold them back.
- Discuss their leaving date with them. They will most probably have a date in mind. Ask them if they are negotiable if you would like them to stay longer and give a good reason. Don’t try stringing them along in the hope that they will change their mind about leaving.
- Discuss the approach to letting the rest of the team know. You should look to do this ASAP and it’s always worth asking if anyone other than you already knows. If not then you may be able to buy a bit of time to get your plan together. Don’t drag this on because otherwise whispers will start and it’s best for you to be in control of the messaging around this.
- Keep the first meeting light, let them know you’ll have to chat again soon about logistics, if the conversation feels awkward don’t prolong it longer than necessary.
End on a positive note
I’ve mentioned before about ending with clarity. This conversation should be no different in terms of knowing what happens next.
In addition though, take the opportunity to express your gratitude to your team member for their contribution to the success of your team. Let them know that you will miss working with them if this is the case.
A warm ending to the meeting is the best outcome. This will set you up for success as you go through the recruitment process, and will set your fantastic team member up for success into the future.