Friends – you will want to know about my close friend Sasha – who is a project manager in a Big 4 bank.
Over the last 6 months, I noticed that she was posting and making connections on LinkedIn. I saw that she had started her own blog. And she was setting up community meets.
I asked her what was going on – why the sudden interest in LinkedIn and community connections?
Now here is what I know about Sasha. She is a people person and was a huge advocate of her workplace – almost like a cult member! She was always trying to get me to apply for roles at her orgs action. She was always doing things at her workplace to create community and uplift engagement. She seemed to be the most engaged person I had ever met.
Then she told me this. She said that despite all she had done,
- at her last performance review, none of those impactful things she had done was considered. This was not valued.
- people had started seeing fault with the visibility she was getting (envy? jealousy?)
- some of her best ideas were taken from her and executed by others to great acclaim – while she was overlooked, unrecognised and unrewarded.
- she no longer felt like she belonged in the organisation any more.
Sasha said she thought about the situation and recognised that she had been giving ALL her discretionary effort to an organisation she loved. She showed me her pie chat of how she structured her day as an ambitious overachiever.
She demonstrated how she now turned ALL of her discretionary effort toward finding herself a new role and doing things for herself.
So friends, this is a cautionary tale for people leaders everywhere. Top performers are called talent for a reason. Learn how to hold onto them – they are yours for as long as they decide they are yours. The switch to leave happens in a heartbeat.
