The Egress

PT Barnum, that masterful marketer, once captivated people with a sign in his circus sideshow that read “10 cents…This Way To The Great Egress” Knowing most people at the time weren’t well read, he played on a word to gain profit and used his knowledge and experience to get people to pay him for exiting the attraction they had paid to get into.

How does that play into leadership? Got 10 cents? Just kidding…here’s what I think.

I’ve recently had people on my team leave our organization. Every one of them left to either take a promotion, set off bravely on another course in their life or because they didn’t feel like they fit into our culture and vision. (That last one is NOT a bad thing, but that’s another email topic)

See, people leaving isn’t bad if they are leaving for the right reasons. It’s growth, it’s change and it’s a cycle. But how does this play into my opening paragraph? Simply, people ‘pay’ to get into your organization, not with money but with an investment of their time, their personal goals and desires and their talents. If you, as a leader, are doing it right, you’re training them and providing them tools to grow while they are with you, and you’re treating them so well that they would be willing to stay. But, if you, as a leader, have also done your job, you will be happy and excited for them to leave, to grow further and to also take your culture and good leadership skills they learned from you and spread it outward.

You, as a leader, get them to ‘pay’ you to leave by taking their contributions to the team and culture while they were there and incorporating it into ‘building your bench’ for the next person that will replace them. You have almost zero cost of time or effort in having a trained replacement for those that leave.

Leadership is an art, a skill, a talent and a business practice. But it’s a people business.

Lead forward!

Chief Chuck