SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 190,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each week in our e-newsletter.
Last week, we asked: What do you do when you learn someone on your team is looking for a new job?
- Help by making introductions for them and offering guidance: 67.5%
- Ignore the fact that they’re searching: 21.15%
- Actively discourage their search efforts: 5.38%
- Let them go/fire them as quickly as possible: 5.97%
If they’re not happy, help them go. Most of you prefer to help members of your team look for new roles if they’re unhappy where they are. If you actively block them or even ignore the fact that they’re searching, you’re missing opportunities and causing trouble for yourself. If you actively oppose them or fire them, those actions become part of your reputation (and it’s not pretty), which will make it harder for you to recruit replacements. Simply ignoring their search doesn’t make it go away and you lose the chance to understand why they’re dissatisfied (probably you), thereby precluding you from improving your own performance.
Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS and author of “One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership.”