The Manager's Handbook

7Never Waste a Last Goodbye

The British nation is unique in this respect: they are the only people who like to be told how bad things are.

—Winston Churchill

I was once on the board of a healthcare company that was reporting unusually high turnover. The CEO said it was a function of a tight job market, and in response, the company needed to pay people higher wages. But after almost a year of losing good people while raising pay, the board asked me to conduct exit interviews with a handful of people who had recently turned in their resignations.

I learned that none of the people I spoke with were leaving to chase a higher salary. The reason for their discontent was that the CEO had created an intimidating work environment. But instead of dismissing the CEO, we curated the information in a form that would maximize the chances the CEO would accept and act on the information. It was a hard pill to swallow, and to his credit, he embraced the feedback and made lasting adjustments. Within a year, turnover dropped, and he went on to build a large and successful business. But the earlier cost to the organization was undeniable and could have been avoided had the company used the subskill of exit interviews.

A Competitive Weapon

In today's highly competitive labor market, the exit interview is one of the easiest ways to improve your ability to attract and retain great people. The best news of all is that most of your competition will be too insecure to take advantage of this subskill, ...