I’ve been mentoring and developing leaders for more than 30 years and its exciting to watch someone you’ve mentored grow. It’s even more exciting, though painful, to let them go.

Great managers are skilled at collecting great talent. The problem is that it’s hard to let the great talent go as their absence creates a risk – the overall team performance may slip. This is a risk that great managers accept. The worst thing that a manager should do is hold unto great that is overdue for a move. Holding onto talent longer than you should has the following negative impacts on the organization:

1. Loss of productivity: employees will start to feel undervalued and unappreciated. They will feel that they have peaked and will start to look for opportunities in the marketplace.This distraction will lead to a decrease in productivity as the employees’ focus will be shifted external.

2. Decreased motivation – if employees feel that they can no longer learn and grow and connect it to their manager’s desire to self persevere , they can lose motivation leading to drop in morale and engagement.

3. Increased turnover – if employees feel undervalued, they will look for external opportunities and the end result will be a spike in attrition.

4. Hindered Growth – Holding onto employees for too long can hinder growth of the overall oragnization. If employees are not given opportunity to learn and grow the organization may not be able to keep up with changing market trends and demands.

Here’s the solution – when talent is ready, let them go so they can grow. If progressive opportunities do not exist within the organization, look laterally and if nothing is there then look to create something.

People are like plants, they are either growing or dying. After you’ve helped them grow…don’t hold them back, let them go