“Do you have time for a very quick chat? Nancy let me know that she’s received two job offers recently and it seems one of them may have caught her eye”.
The moment the wheels of the aircraft touched the tarmac in Jamaica, I had switched on my phone and received this message from Daniel, my client. Nancy is the bright star in his firmament – smart, proactive, and a real go-getter. Daniel knows he can depend on her. In the last 4 months, he had already had 2 resignations from his small team, and Nancy had been invaluable in filling the void and ensuring the smooth functioning of the department.
I called Daniel:
“How are you”?
“I’m fine” he responded, sounding upbeat, which surprised me as I thought he would be quite despondent with such news. But in the short conversation we had, I quickly realised this one thing that Daniel had done: he had accepted the situation. He acknowledged that no-one, including Nancy (and himself), is indispensable. He even expressed gratitude that she had advised him early, even before receiving a formal offer. From this place of acceptance, Daniel and I were able to craft a plan to address the impact if Nancy left, including his Plan B and C.
The Great Resignation is real and is very likely to come knocking at your door. It can be disconcerting, frustrating, even triggering you to anger or despair. But you are not powerless, at the whims of this global phenomenon, if, before you answer the knock, you do these 3 things:
- Don’t panic. Remain calm. The author, psychologist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl said: “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom”. Consciously create the space before you respond: take a deep breath, go for a walk or a run, drink a glass of water.
- Accept the situation. It’s not the end of the world, it’s not necessarily a reflection of you or your leadership. It’s just the decision that someone has made for themselves. Acceptance does not mean that you are giving in or giving up trying to rectify the situation. It just means that you are able to say: “This has happened. Now what”?
- Envision the worst case – what’s the impact of this person leaving? Dig deeper and explore – what if all your team members leave? All at the same time? There is power in this “dress rehearsal” in helping you to be mentally prepared for the worst. If it happens, you have already thought about it and are better able to be calm and take action.
There’s one more thing: Frances Frei and Anne Morriss, in their book “Unleashed: The Unapologetic Leader’s Guide to Empowering Everyone”, posit that leaders must “earn the right to keep your people every single day”. You do this by committing to creating conditions where your team members aren’t even tempted to take those calls from your competitors. Be relentless in this daily quest, and chances are, the Great Resignation may not knock too loudly at your door.
People will come and go. Great people will shine. Your job as a leader is to help them shine even brighter, even whilst you are aware that others, including your competitors, will see their light. That’s a risk of having the best and brightest in your team.
