wattsnextpx - We Cannot Lose This Person (And Other Things We Tell Ourselves)

I've heard it from CEOs and leadership teams for years, including the CEO of my own business in Australia. It usually comes right before a decision nobody would make with a clear head.

In 20 years, I've never seen a business go down because one person left. Not even when a whole team walked out and took clients with them. The business felt it, and it recovered.

What I have seen is the damage done when a business organizes itself around the fear of someone leaving. It rarely sounds like fear, though. It sounds like one of these.

They're the Only One Who Knows How It Works

Maybe that's true. But it's not a reason to keep them. It's a risk you've let build up.

If one person holds the knowledge or the client relationships in their head, the business has a single point of failure. The answer is to get it out of their head and into the business, while they're still here and happy.

They're Difficult, But They Bring in the Revenue

Everyone else is watching what you let this person get away with.

The rest of the team works around them and slowly learns that your standards apply to some people and not others. You're keeping one person and quietly losing the commitment of everyone else.

If We Push Back, They'll Leave

So the feedback doesn't get given and the behavior doesn't get addressed. And when they ask for more money or special terms, the answer is yes before anyone has asked whether it's earned.

Once a team learns that the threat of leaving gets results, it stops being one person's strategy. It becomes everyone's.

The Clients Love Them

Clients love good service. Of course they like the person delivering it, but in most cases the relationship is with your business, and it can be handed over with care.

Clients usually stay when the work stays good. More often, it's the CEO who's nervous about the handover, not the client.

What to Do Instead

Make the decision on purpose, not out of fear.

Ask yourself what you're actually afraid will happen if you give them honest feedback. Then give it anyway. If one honest conversation is enough to make them leave, they were already on their way out.
Share what only they know. Get it documented, and start introducing other people to their clients.
Think honestly about how this person affects the people they work with. Who is picking up their slack or covering for them? That cost could be bigger than what they bring in.
Then ask the hard question: if they resigned tomorrow, what would you do? Whatever the answer is, start building it now.

Valuing a great person is good leadership. Being held hostage by one isn't.

PS. If your 2027 plan depends on someone like this staying, it's worth testing before the year starts. That's what my free session on October 15 is about.