Is It Time to Let Go?

When we think about roadblocks to internal mobility, there’s a few that typically come to mind. 

Maybe we’re not doing a good job of making our employees aware of internal openings. We might think we just don’t have the numbers for it. It’s possible we haven’t made an effort to understand what our workers can be doing or want to be doing. These are the usual suspects. The top obstacle in the way of internal mobility might surprise you. 

When LinkedIn asked TA professionals about barriers to internal mobility, 70% cited managers’ reluctance to let go of their top team members. The thought of their team minus its best people is not one that makes managers feel warm and fuzzy on the inside. Quite the opposite actually.

Change is scary, especially when the status quo is a harmonious and high performing team. No one likes to see the good times come to an end, and in many managers’ eyes, that’s exactly what will happen if they promote their employees or allow them to move around the company. The fear of seeing their team lose its superstars to internal mobility leads a lot of managers to hold onto them tightly.

Here’s the thing, though: we can’t control our workers. They are people, and people are unique and multidimensional. They are always growing and changing. Their lives are always growing and changing. They have things they want to be doing and things they would rather not be doing. They have ideas, opinions, and perspectives. They have their own careers and their own destinies. At the end of the day, only they can decide when and where their next move is going to be. 

As the legendary poet Robert Frost once wrote, nothing gold can stay. No matter how amazing life has been on their current team, there will always come a time when employees want change. Maybe they’re looking to move their career forward with a well-deserved promotion, learn some new valuable skills, or switch to a role they’ve been interested in for a while. If our organizations can’t or won’t let that happen, they will find one that will.

The bottom line is that our workers leaving their teams is going to happen at some point, either with us or without us. By resisting the urge to hold on to our best people and allowing internal mobility to become a part of our culture, we can save ourselves the agony of losing them entirely. Even better, we get to watch them flourish… with us.