Accept Losing Your Best

Great employees are always being lost, so prepare from the start.

The best candidates continue to grow and learn, pushing themselves and their boundaries. They’re always striving to improve; to move forward; to move upward. As a result, they’re hard to keep, hard to see leave, and hard to replace.

Instead, accept that you’ll lose them some day, either externally to another company or internally to another position. Instead, view how you can help them during this time to eventually leave, and use them to the most while they are there.

Since employees will always be moving up, we must grab these individuals at the lower level and use them the most throughout their upswing to next level. This is a win-win situation: they get to that next level, and you get the best and brightest (if only for a limited time). After that cycle ends, find that next candidate, and get that knowledge passed on by their predecessor, if possible.

The point is to find great candidates and focus on getting them to their next stage, so that in turn they will repay you with giving you their utmost, if only for that limited time. So how do you do this?

Invest in them.
Challenge them.
Be open to their feedback.
Inquire about their future plans.

By first giving to these employees, you’ll get so much more back from them, if only for a limited time.