Graceful Departure
Special Goddess guest post today…
When I was eight years old, I joined the local swim team. I knew how to swim, but I’d never done it from a competitive standpoint. I took to it, literally, like a duck to water. Over the next two years, Coach Bruce helped me refine my strokes and increase my speed and endurance. I rose in the ranks of my age group and became a very good athlete.
Around age eleven, Coach Bruce came to me and told me that even though he cared about me, he knew that I had reached a level of competition beyond which he could not coach me. If I stayed and continued to be coached by him, I would not see my full potential as a competitive swimmer. He told me he did not want to see me leave his team, but he encouraged me to join another division of our swim club, one in which I would be further challenged and develop into an elite competitor. He told me the coaches of this particular group would stretch me and continue to help me become better at my sport.
This was a sad moment for me as Coach Bruce was a great guy, but I admired his grace in admitting that I needed more than he could offer me. I went on to become a Florida Junior Olympic caliber swimmer and by age 13 was fractions of seconds away from Junior National qualifying times in my long-distance events. Had I not heeded Coach Bruce’s advice and pursued advancing my skills further, I might never have reached those levels.
I still stay in touch with Coach Bruce today, 20 years later. In fact, in 1997 I became an employee of his as a lifeguard at his pool for four summers. He still receives a Christmas card from me every year.
Graceful departure can almost seem an oxymoron when talking about careers. Sometimes, unfortunately, things can get ugly when an employee chooses to further their career elsewhere. I personally think it’s in the best interest of both employer and employee to make that time as gracious and professional as possible because a peaceful parting can be beneficial to both parties involved if you do it properly.
From the employee’s perspective, I think giving appropriate notice of departure is the first step. Leaving your company hanging by giving no notice is unprofessional and can come back to haunt you. Make sure you do your best to tie up any loose ends before you leave – complete your current projects, or if that’s not possible make sure you transition them smoothly to someone else. Also do your best to not make your departure personal in any way. Even if you feel you’ve been wronged in some manner, be the bigger person and don’t let that already difficult conversation become any harder by making it personal.
From an employer’s perspective, it’s always hard to lose a valuable member of your team. If someone comes to you and says they wish to depart, respect their decision. Sometimes, people outgrow an organization and need to be further challenged in ways their current situation simply cannot provide. Obviously, you’d wish for a good person to stick around, but if their mind is made up to leave, let them do so with grace and dignity. As with the employee, don’t make things personal. Offer to provide a good reference if appropriate. Let them know the value they brought to the organization and that you wish them the best at their new endeavor. Most importantly, stay in touch with them after they leave and keep up to date on how they are doing in their new venture.
As written in Entrepreneur.com, lots of companies have adopted this type of mindset. Technology has become readily available to develop a sort of corporate alumni program to keep in touch with former employees. Back in 2001, WashingtonTechnology featured several companies that were currently capitalizing on staying in touch with former employees, including formal programs such as Sanford Rose Associates’ alumni program and KPMG’s Alumni Boomerang Campaign, and several informal programs from companies like Accenture, Ingenium Corp., and Electronic Data Systems Corp.
The networking possibilities of maintaining a good relationship with former employees is probably the most valuable reason to make a departure graceful. In Careerjournal.com’s August 2006 issue, Booz Allen Hamilton, a management consulting firm based in McLean, Va., instituted an alumni recruiting program called “The Comeback Kids.” and rehired 166 former employees because according to program manager Jerrod A. Wheeler “we know these people and know what they can bring to the table.” In the same article, Alice Snell, vice president of San Francisco-based Taleo Research, says ex-employees “can become an excellent source of referrals or come back themselves.”
Check out two examples of well-established alumni networking sites:
Digital Equipment Corporation’s DECedOut
Dow Chemical Company’s Corporate Alumni Network (press release)
If you are interested in starting a corporate alumni networking site, Glenn Gutmacher outlines several good places to begin in a post about corporate networking services.
From Fast Company’s 1998 article Hire Today, Gone Tomorrow, the new goal for business today is not lifetime employment, but lifetime affiliation. According to issue 58, “talented people have so many opportunities that you can’t keep them forever. But even if they stop working for you, they can work with you.” Make your departure as professional and graceful as possible because you never know how maintaining that relationship may benefit you down the road – from both the employer AND the employee standpoint.
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Comments
First, congrats on the new job!
Second, great to meet you in person finally at SourceCon!
Third, thx for the mention of my corporate alumni networks resources page.
Fourth, when the heck will somebody post who the SourceCon grandmaster challenge winner was? (Though a birdie did mention who, I would like official confirmation.)
Amybeth,
You go girl!I love how you think and you will go on to do even greater things than you already have proven to do in the past.