Train people well enough so they can leave

There’s a maxim I’ve heard a few times over the years that goes something like: “You should invest in your team to make them the best that they can be. This may mean that some leave for better opportunities, but that beats the opposite of just not investing in them at all.“

This came to mind while recently listening to Richard Branson on Adam Grant’s ReThinking podcast where Branson said:

“Train people well enough so they can leave. Treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”

It’s vitally important to do both.

• If you fail to train people “well enough so they can leave”, you’re stuck with a bunch of employees that aren’t very valuable.
• Of course, if you train them super well but treat them poorly, then you’re going to have never-ending churn.

The challenge is that it takes time, effort and resources for both sides of that. You’ve gotta commit to continue to train and treat them well perpetually, but if you can do it the payoff will be amazing.