Throughout my career, I have seen great employees leave from every level in contracting firms, for every conceivable reason.

Maybe they were pissed off at the owner; wanted to launch their own gig; got caught stealing gear; offered a pile of cash from the sinister evil integration pretender down the street; won the lottery; got a gig from a supplier or rep; or perhaps they got seduced by a kitchen contractor to start an ‘AV Division’…

The point is, I’ve heard it all. One even scored a minor role in the Hobbit movies.

And the ‘perpetrator’ could have been anyone – the best programmer at a company, a great project manager, the perfect field tech, a great salesperson and/or system designer, a business partner, the warehouse/scheduling guy, the janitor, or the office administrator.

You name it – we’ve seen them leave.

This is, of course, the basis of a lot of fears and concerns for business owners.

Well, you’re not alone. When an elite team member defects to the dark side or starts their own gig, the drama and internal turmoil is hard to overstate.

And you can’t help but feel betrayed.

You may think a major chunk of business will walk out the door with them. You feel vulnerable and threatened.

That ingrate, with self-righteous indignation, screams: “You’ll be sorry – you effin’ belligerent, hypocritical @$$_H%$*!”, as he storms out the door, with your cell phone, and $800 worth of tools, wire and connectors in his truck.

What next?

Thinking about this situation before it happens (again) can go a long way in getting you through the ordeal without going postal on your dog, family or rep.

The first thing you must do is calm down.

You need to recognise that the days of lifelong employment are over, and our employees won’t stay with us forever. This means that at some point they will all leave… they will go somewhere else. And when they do, it is never going to be a convenient time – for you, for the company or the project.

It’s kinda scary.

If your current and future talent is in the continual process of leaving, why bother investing in them at all?

Well, the answer to that is another question: ‘What happens if you don’t invest in them and they stay?’

People (generally) don’t leave jobs, they leave people. So, dear reader, are you a jerk? Just how big of a jack-wad are you to your best folks? We all have some degree of this and are in some form of denial, including me. But it’s important to get to grips with this fact… quickly.

Every member of your team is the very extension of you and they have the ability to influence new work. Are they evangelicals for your company? Are they curious about the design elements and how programming works? Do they understand what your business stands for?

You need to share with them.

How interested are you at growing in this people management arena? Are you really willing to slow down and share? How about even learning a little more about the skill? Perhaps the real question should be: “How urgent are you about this?”

Let’s unwrap the ‘skill’ concept.

Managing as a skill

According to Webster’s Dictionary, ‘skill’ is generally defined as:

1. The ability to use one’s knowledge effectively and readily in execution or performance.
2. A learned power of doing something competently:  a developed aptitude or ability

“A learned power of doing something competently… a developed aptitude and ability…” umm… the operative words here are ‘learned’ and ‘developed’.

Most people are really comfortable taking classes on building better, more robust networks, audio calibration or the latest in control programming, but what about a session or two on effectively managing people?

In my opinion, this is an area that your keaster ought to find itself parked in… often.

Focus on developing and coaching staff in those Navy Seal-like team qualities – laser like focus, shaping and supporting highly engaged clients and systems, growing your quality/luxury footprint and harvesting evangelical referrals.

You have an opportunity to maximise your employee expense (or investment) by making small changes that will explode their positive journey, deepen their loyalty and bond them to the gig.

LinkedIn senior vice president of global talent Pat Wadors says that one of the biggest reasons someone leaves an organisation is the lack of professional development from their manager, supervisor and company.

Professional development

PD means understanding each member of our staff’s level of curiosity and sharing with them our business plan, our data, vision and company direction.

It’s not just technical instruction or seeing how they fit in. It should include what their next step could be and what needs to happen in order for them to get a raise or promotion. Most employees understand that in order for them to grow, the company must grow too – and they share in that success.

Conversely, those who are intentional and transparent about developing the team will harvest longer employee engagement and a lifelong colleague, wherever they land.

When one of your trusted lieutenants walks out the door, what we really fear is that a major chunk of our revenue and expertise will go with them.

Well we did some research, spoke with several reps, a few branch managers of famous distributors, some integrators, several epic readers and old colleagues. We were looking for any example of where an organisation was financially damaged in the mid- and long-term.

Sure, we found that the odd departing cat took a client, working for free or at a damaging discount, but the damage was very short lived and not sustained.

More importantly, though, we looked for an example, of a ‘success trajectory’ that was negatively altered by an employee going to another firm.

So far we have found no evidence supporting these fears. In the mid- and long-term there was no measurable damage. We did hear a load of emotional drama about betrayal, knives in the back, angst and all around stress. We also heard about the amount of work required by the other staff to undertake ratcheted up, temporarily.

There is undoubtedly a sample or two out there, but we looked and couldn’t find any. (We would love to hear about it if you know of any!)

The fact is they are rare. The fear of death and destruction is really not valid.

Now, there are plenty of stories about how owners were piloting their firm directly into a crater, which led to a lot of staff jumping ship, but again that trajectory was already well established. It was the owner’s fault.

Look, you know that someday your best staff will leave you, so take a breath or two, slow down… the sun will come up in the morning. Honest!

As you sit and dwell on all this, start thinking about how to launch a professional development program that won’t rock the boat too much, while magnifying your team’s abilities and deepening your own people management skills.