Dear Reader
“You helped me grow. And when I left, you celebrated it.”
A former colleague said this to me this week. It stayed.
It captures something I believe strongly:
You do not own talent. You are borrowing it.
If you grow people well, some of your best people will leave.
That is not failure.
But there is a second truth that sits alongside this, and it is where many organisations struggle:
If one person leaving creates real disruption, the issue is not the individual. It is the system.
Where this often goes wrong
Most organisations try to do one of two things:
- Hold on to talent for as long as possible
- Or invest in growth, but without managing the risk that comes with movement
Neither works well on its own.
You need both:
Grow people deliberately
And manage critical roles deliberately
On talent: grow, do not hold
Strong organisations are intentional about how they develop people.
That means:
- Being rigorous about talent mapping, not relying on instinct
- Having real career conversations, grounded in trust
- Building development through experience, not just plans
- Creating movement across roles, teams and geographies
- Supporting the right external moves when they come
And importantly:
- Letting people leave well
- Backing them publicly
- Treating their exit as a reflection of strong leadership, not loss
On roles: manage risk, not hierarchy
At the same time, you need to be clear on where you are exposed.
Most organisations get this wrong.
They assume critical roles sit at the top.
Often, they do not.
A critical role is one that:
↳ Delivers disproportionate value
↳ Would create real disruption if vacant
↳ Is hard to replace quickly
↳ Sits at a point of failure in your system
If you do not define these roles clearly, you are managing risk blindly.
Where the two come together
This is the part that is often missed.
If you are growing people well, movement will happen.
So the question becomes:
Are you set up to absorb that movement without disruption?
That means:
- Knowing your critical roles
- Planning for near full coverage in those roles
- Building real succession, not paper plans
- Investing more in hiring and pipeline where it matters most
- Reducing single points of failure
Talent development without role clarity creates risk.
Role clarity without talent development creates stagnation.
You need both working together.
A simple test
Ask yourself:
- Do we know who our strongest talent is and how we are growing them?
- Do we know which roles would create the most disruption if vacant?
- If one of our best people left tomorrow, would we be ready?
If the answer is no, the system needs work.
Final thought
The goal is not to prevent people from leaving.
The goal is to build an organisation that:
- Grows people well
- Uses their time effectively
- And is resilient when they move on
That is what strong leadership looks like in practice.
Warmly,
Liz
Strategic Advisor | Former CEO | Founder, Volante
Based in Kenya, available globally
