Know that how you handle the departure of a team member is mission critical to your cultural integrity.  As part of the team member life cycle in your organization, you need to honor departure with the same depth as you do arrival.‍

However this culture tip does not detail how to handle voluntary or involuntary turnover nor how to support your team after someone leaves.

Rather this culture tip gives you literal talking points to support you in pro-actively communicating with your team TODAY regarding future departures of team members.

The below, when shared authentically, will support you in heading off voluntary departures and garnering the chance to respond to job-leaving worthy concerns. It will also set an empowering context for the team for all future departures.

(KEY: make sure to share the below talking points in your own voice)
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• Whenever someone leaves our organization, I take it very seriously.
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• If it’s voluntary, I want to understand what had them choose to transition.  I get curious. Of course, if it’s due to life-changing circumstances or a beautiful new opportunity then I want to celebrate and wish them well in their next endeavor. While we will miss them, we as a team can acknowledge they have been a part of our journey and us a part of theirs.
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• Now if it’s voluntary because they didn’t enjoy working here, I'm still very curious.   While the feedback may be hard to hear -- this is a powerful opportunity for me to learn, adapt and improve.  I also want to honor their contribution and wish them well on their next phase of life.
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• The hardest part about this experience for me, as your leader, is when a departure comes as a surprise -- especially knowing I could have done something sooner had I known this person’s concern and been able to address it.
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• It's hard on all of us when someone leaves our team - no matter the circumstance.
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• I have a request.  What I ask from everyone on this team is courageous courtesy.  Please let leadership know your concerns BEFORE you go looking for another opportunity.  I commit to you that if you give us this chance, I will either address your concerns to the extent they fit within our cultural integrity, or support you in finding another opportunity.
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• Now let’s talk about when someone leaves involuntarily -- when we let them go.  We address egregious and malicious actions swiftly.  However, this is rarely the case.  Often there is either a character mismatch that hasn’t had success in being coached, or a competency gap that hasn’t had success in being trained. Know though that coaching and training have been attempted.
   
• We don’t give up on people easily.  We invest in our team.  We care about those individuals who choose to be here and that we choose to have here.  These decisions are never made lightly and require tremendous thoughtfulness.  Just as I’m asking you to have courageous courtesy, you can know that at no point will anyone be “surprised” by being asked to leave due to a character or competency concern.  That individual will have had sufficient opportunities to try and improve and address their character or competency gap.
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• We also honor one another’s dignity -- which means we don’t share when someone is struggling. Unless a co-worker shares with you their journey, their departure may come as a surprise to you.  Basic human nature doesn’t do well with surprises.  You may even feel a sense of betrayal towards the organization.  Your co-worker, your colleague, your team member, maybe even your friend, has just been fired.  Here’s what I ask of you in those moments.  Give leadership the benefit of the doubt.  Assume our positive intent and know that the person had both ample notice and support.
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• As I stated before, I don’t take the departure of someone from our team lightly.  We are a conscious community, brought together to fulfill on a shared purpose.  It is our responsibility to make sure this community has integrity in both character and competency.  To lose a community member is hard.  To keep one on board that isn’t a fit is careless.
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Here's to creating an empowering context (and culture!) around team member departures before they happen!