Part One:  Reasons 1 - 5

1.  Big company bureaucracy

2.  No project that ignites their passion

3.  Poor annual performance reviews

4.  No discussion around career development

5.  Shifting whims/strategic priorities.

6.  Positive:  Top talent likes accountability and regular touch points.

Negative: Lack of accountability and/or telling them how to do their jobs.   

Top talent demands accountability from others and doesn't mind being held accountable for their projects. Therefore, have regular touch points with your best people as they work through their projects. They'll appreciate your insights, observations, suggestions - as long as they don't spillover into preaching.

What are the rest of the people around your top talent like? Many organizations keep some people on the payroll who rationally shouldn't be there. You'll get a litany of rationales explaining why when you ask. "It's too hard to find a replacement for him/her...." "Now's not the time...." However, doing exit interviews with the best people leaving big companies you often hear how they were turned off by some of their former "team mates." If you want to keep your best people, make sure they're surrounded by other great people.

8.  Positive:  Make sure your future is exciting; your strategy is visionary

Negative:  The missing vision thing.

This might sound obvious, but is the future of your organization exciting? What strategy are you executing? What is the vision you want this talented person to fulfill? Did they have a say/input into this vision? If the answer is no, there's work to do - and fast.  

The best people want to share their ideas and have them listened to. However, a lot of companies have a vision/strategy which they are trying to execute against - and, often find opposing voices to this strategy as an annoyance and a sign that someone's not a "team player." If all the best people are leaving and disagreeing with the strategy, you're left with a bunch of "yes" people saying the same things to each other. You've got to be able to listen to others' points of view - always incorporating the best parts of these new suggestions.

If a few people have recently quit at your company who report to the same boss, it's likely not a coincidence. You can try to "fix" someone who's a great sales person, engineer, or is a founder, but who is driving everyone around them "nuts." However, executive coaching usually only works 33% of the time in these cases. You're better off trying to find another spot for them in the organization - or, at the very least, not overseeing your high-potential talent you want to keep.

 Source:  Eric Jackson, Contributor to Forbes 

When the Adult Congenital Heart Association began its search for new leadership we interviewed 8 search firms who located in the U.S. Northeast.  It became clear after our initial calls that the majority of the firms had extremely long ramps to hiring and offered few specifics as to where their search would focus.

We chose the Batten Group because their expertise mirrored our parameters for our National Executive Director industry experience and skill set.  Batten initiated the search promptly, maintained clear and regular contact with our search committee and was very respectful of our committee and board process in the search.

I would highly recommend the Batten Group for searches in our nonprofit sector focused on chronic disease, education and research.

John Fernie

Chair

ACHA Board of Directors