Job Sculpting

The Art of Retaining Your Best People

by Timothy Butler and James Waldroop

HIRING GOOD PEOPLE IS TOUGH, but as every senior executive knows, keeping them can be even tougher. Indeed, most executives can tell a story or two about a talented professional who joined their company to great fanfare, added enormous value for a couple of years, and then departed unexpectedly. Usually such exits are written off. “She got an offer she couldn’t refuse,” you hear, or, “No one stays with one company for very long these days.”

Our research over the past 12 years strongly suggests that quite another dynamic is frequently at work. Many talented professionals leave their organizations because senior managers don’t understand the psychology of work ...

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