Are You Serious, Bro? Part 1
Recently, during an exhausting job search coupled with a strong desire to leave my current role my supervisor has taken an active role in trying to persuade me to reconsider transitioning. Are you serious bro? I have turned to some of my professional mentors to gain perspective on how to handle this situation, and I would like to share some of the resulting insight with you.
In his New York Times Bestseller, Linchpin , Seth Godin speaks of making yourself an indispensable part of your organization; however, the desire to become such a vital part of a corporate team can make the transition process very difficult. Managers become reliant on the best members of their teams, and understand that much of the teams success or failure is due to the productivity, innovation, and motivation contributed by these linchpins. However, change must happen if one wants to advance in today's economy.
What are the best steps to effectively leave an organization in pursuit of new challenges?
- Train Your Replacements to the Best of Your Abilities
- Create a Best Practices Document
This training process effectively sets your manager and the organization up for continued success. It is vitally important that you teach the person who will take your role the ends and outs of the job. In the military we call this having a great left-seat-right-seat ride. As in driver's education class the instructor begins the course by driving from the passenger's seat, but slowly transfers control of the vehicle to the new driver. During the transition process you are the driving instructor teaching the newbie how to keep the car on the road. DO NOT SET YOUR REPLACEMENT UP FOR FAILURE!
You are the incumbent and have seen the organizations experience good and bad times. You have been involved in many projects, assisted in preparations of reports, and achieved objectives. Now is your time to impart to the organization and the management team the vital few best practices that have made you so successful. This is directly in relation to what happens here at wallstreetoasis.com. We share with novices, and experienced members alike about what has worked, and what has not in our careers. This can be an illuminating process which could also benefit your organization, and could provide a way to leave your mark. (/ul)
More to come in this series....
Unless you are transitioning elsewhere in the firm, who gives a shit about how difficult it is for your old manager/team when you leave the firm?
I was in a similar position to OP but slowly transitioned to this line of thinking. It isn't my job to make sure there are adequate training procedures in place. I tried to make the transition as smooth as possible to not be a dick but stopped short of creating training materials.
I put together a "Best Practices" document when I left. It said:
That is a great question, but there is a simple answer. First, you don't want to burn a bridge by setting your replacement up for failure. You never know when that relationship could provide an avenue for career progression or new opportunities. Second, the reality of the business world is that you should not only leave an organization on good terms, but develop a track record of professional behavior throughout your career. Professionalism is attitude and actions! We discuss network building, but must also understand how those networks are built and how to keep them healthy. Honestly, leaving correctly demonstrate respect for the staff, your cohorts, and your boss. No matter if you agree with me or not the truth is that respect matters! Statistically, professional change jobs on average every 3 to 5 years. If you do the math, this means 3 years from now, your next prospective employer will probably contact the manager at your last role. Leaving correctly will pay dividends if this happens.
I completely agree with this here. Leaving on good terms is always a good thing, you never know how or when the people who you used to work with will factor into your future. Also, its not that hard to train someone new or write a comprehensive document when you are the expert at whatever function. Hell, if you are really lazy, you can have the replacement write the procedure manual as you are training him/her to make sure he understands what is going on. Besides, being a good trainer is a good skill that any professional should develop.
It is the manager's job to ensure that systems are set up in advance of anyone quitting to ensure that things go smoothly if someone gets 'hit by a bus'. If management doesn't do that and you quit, you have a huge amount of leverage when they try to counter offer you to stay. You should only accept a ton more if this ever happens to you.
If you're a CEO, you may want to set your replacement up for failure so you look extra cool in retrospect for having kept the company together so well before it went to hell.
MoobyMoo, great post. I will say it applies more to those of us not in IB. I like my job and my boss. I have actually thought about when he will have made a sufficient "return" on me that I wouldn't feel guilty changing jobs. He certainly put effort into hiring and training me.
I wouldn't want to leave him short-handed, especially since we are in a rather niche field of ER. I hope to at least have a replacement ready (if not trained) by the time I am ready to change jobs.
Of course, if you hate your job and/or are in IB, I think running for the exit is acceptable. They don't expect you to stay. They have training programs for that exact reason.
Are you serious, Clark?
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