Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
I’ll never forget the day I quit my job to pursue my startup full time.
My manager’s office was two floors above mine. The morning I decided to give my notice, I took the stairs. Turns out, two floors is a lot of time to think. Was I making a mistake? Had I lost my mind? My legs felt leaden as I climbed, adn by the time I reached the top, my heart was pounding in my chest – and not just because of the stairs.
Making the leap into entrepreneurship will never not be scary. But my manager didn’t give me a hard time about the fact that I was leaving. He asked where I was going, and when I told him about my plans to build my own product, he didn’t sulk, get angry or try to talk me out of it. Quite the opposite: He was excited for me. We shook hands, he wished me luck and he told me I was welcome back any time.
No leader ever wants a good employee to quit. But the truth is, people grow. Their goals change. And if you’ve built the kind of team you’re proud of, you can’t be surprised when someone on it starts to dream bigger.What matters most is how you respond when that moment comes.
That conversation with my manager stuck with me – not just as it gave me the confidence to take a leap, but because it modeled the kind of leader I wanted to be. Years later, when employees started leaving my company, I remembered his reaction. And I made a decision: I would always treat departures with respect, encouragement and an open door.
Because the way you say goodbye says everything about your culture.
Related: What You Should Do If a Valuable Employee Decides to Quit
How you part ways matters
Founders often see employee departures as threats or betrayals – especially in the early days, when every hire feels critical and every exit feels personal.But that mindset is short-sighted and, frankly, unsustainable.
The truth is, people will leave. Sometimes it’s for a better prospect.Sometimes it’s for personal reasons. Sometimes they’re just ready for something new.And that’s okay. When I lose a valued employee, I always refer to the wisdom of Don Miguel Ruiz’s The Four Agreements, which I recommend everyone read.In it, Ruiz argues for the value of not taking anything personally: “Nothing othre people do is because of you,” he writes. “When we take something personally, we make the assumption that they know what is in our world, and we try to impose our world on their world.”
The opposite of this, which I don’t at all recommend, is burning a bridge out of pride or frustration.
The way you treat someone on their way out sends a clear message to the rest of your team. If you respond with resentment or