I’ll wait a moment for you to finish singing the chorus while doing your best Miley Cyrus impression.

Today’s topic has a management slant, due to a number of recent conversations had during our yearly review season. The idea of letting go. It’s something that’s difficult to accept, and even harder to use the philosophy to keep yourself and your teams engaged.

Say you take over a new retail operation as a manager for the first time. As a new manager, chances are you’ve worked on high-functioning teams and learned what to focus on and what NOT to do to get results. The first stage is feeling out the people and the workflow. This period is very blue sky; everything is an opportunity and the urge is there to mix things up.

After a few months, the long-term planning begins. Most of the quick fixes have occurred, and the team has a sense of your style. The schedule may have changed. Certain tasks may be assigned to different roles. New technology may be introduced. Now that the ‘newness’ and shine have worn off somewhat, you’ve settled in and are building your vision for the future.

Then it happens: someone puts in their notice. My immediate reaction used to be: ‘great, in 2 weeks we’ll be short-staffed, I’ll need to take on x, y, and z, plus hire someone, and my best trainer will no longer be here, so we’ll be playing catch up all summer / flu season / Christmas break, etc’. Does this sound familiar? All your best-laid plans are at risk, and you have no idea when you’ll get it back to this happy point right now.

I’ve talked frequently about my satisfaction in watching people learn and grow. I’ve been lucky to work with some of the sharpest minds in my field. They have made me better every step of the way, and I’ve tried my best to pay it forward. My most ambitious employees, the ones I’ve shared experiences, and pushed in new directions, have always left to further their careers. In the moment it’s disappointing, but if I’ve truly prepared them for their next chapter, then they have earned the right to choose what happens next. I will support that decision either way, even if it means letting go.

“Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it’s all over.”
—Octavia Butler

Succession planning isn’t just about looking at a roster of names and picking the best-suited. Succession planning is paying it forward. If someone has taken the time to grow you, then you take the time to grow the folks that you lead. Those goals we set every year? They represent your plan, and the path you both take to get there. If you have an assistant manager, you will be sharing financial information and business plans for the next 6 months. A people supervisor? They will need to evaluate and challenge their staff to learn new tasks and perfect old ones. The hope is that they learn from your examples, and add their own flavour to the process, which should include being an example for their own trainees. The best way to mitigate the loss of a team member is to treat it as an opportunity for another to step into the role.

So I’ve chosen to manage people as if they are on the side of a mountain with me; we’re all trying to reach the top, and everyone has their own footholds and paths to get there. If we encounter each other, my goal will be to lift you as far as I can go, knowing that it may slow me down for a bit, knowing that you may very well pass me on your journey. The end result will be that together, we will be further up the slope, both looking down occasionally to see who may benefit from our help and experience.

It’s never goodbye, only farewell. We’ll see each other again on the climb.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency, employer or affiliation.