The Great Resignation
The Best Way To Resign From a Job
Is this story for you?
Do you like or have you liked your employer? Do you want the business and your work to thrive after you have left? Are you a CEO or a founder thinking of leaving the organisation you established? If you are looking to resign from your job, get a new one or start a new venture then this story is for you.
Personal context: Dementia Adventure
I co-founded Dementia Adventure in 2009 with my wife Lucy Harding. During my time as CEO, I led the organisation through ten successive years of financial and beneficiary growth, collecting national and international awards along the way. In 2019 DA surpassed the £1M income mark, which took the organisation into the ‘large’ charity band and the top 3% of charities in the UK by Income.
In the same year Lucy and I both resigned and relocated our extended family to a small coastal town, we had no previous connection with, in the North East of Scotland. We had no jobs to go on to and had two young children, two ageing parents and two houses to bring together in this puzzle of a relocation.
Two years on and settling into our beautiful Nairnshire community, here are my tips for the best way to resign from a job. Whilst you may be ready to leave it is important the organisation and your work go on to thrive after you have left.
Reasons for leaving
What are your reasons for leaving? These can be helpfully divided up into push factors and pull factors.
What is pushing you out of your job? For me when I look back I was spending more and more time doing tasks which the organisation needed me to do as CEO but which neither played to my strengths nor did I enjoy. The organisation needed a new type of leader.
What is pulling you forward? For me it was the thought of living by the sea, being part of a small tight-knit community. Running in the forest, swimming in the sea. Walking down the high street and meeting people I would know by name and who would know me.
Write down your list of reasons for leaving. Are there more push factors than pull factors? Try weighing these factors. For example, the weight of the pull factor of me swimming in the sea in my new coastal home was ‘heavier’ than the push factor of another HR conversation. Weigh up your reasons for leaving, where is the most weight of decision making? What would be your top three reasons for wanting to leave?
It is important you are clear about these reasons for leaving before communicating them to your boss, or your team.
Who comes next?
Something we don’t really think enough about when we leave a job is who might fill our shoes. The more senior you are in the organisation the more you will be thinking of this step. In sustainability terms, you want to have an idea of what sort of person can take the organisation and your role into a bright future. Imagine a future in which you have successfully exited your organisation and someone else is now in your role. What type of person would they be? What skills, experience and capabilities would they have? Creating a clear vision in your mind of your successor is a helpful task which can really help future recruitment.
Telling your boss
Everyone has a boss. As CEO my boss was the Chair of the Trustee board. The relationship between a CEO and Chair is pivotal in the success and failure of an organisation. Your boss may or may not be expecting the news you are about to share, that you are leaving. Put yourself in their shoes. As well as coping with the shock of your departure they are going to be thinking about how to tell the team. Whether there is someone internally that can take your place. And they are going to start sweating about the inevitable time and effort of future recruitment and any handover.
Always tell your boss face to face. Be open, honest and kind. Consider what is in the best interests of the organisation in terms of how it can sustain itself and thrive during this transition. Agree on a timeframe and exit plan and how this news is going to be shared with the team.
Telling your team
Equality matters. You don’t want to have repetitive conversations with different people about your departure and your reasons for leaving. Undoubtedly the listener will hear subtly different things each time. And you run the risk that people take different views of why you are leaving. You can’t fully control how people think and feel or indeed what they hear. But telling the team in one go can help mitigate this risk.
In advance of this gathering draw up a list of questions you anticipate people asking and write down your answers. These FAQ’s can be delivered verbally and then shared via email afterwards to keep messaging consistent. Try to arrange the team, together with your boss. Get your messaging straight and clearly across, so as many people as possible hear the news equally. Address people’s initial concerns at the meeting and provide them with someone senior they can talk to about the pending change. You will feel a lot better once you have told everyone. The decision to leave is not necessarily the hard part, telling people can be much harder. But once done, it is done.
Handover
As a founder and CEO, I was conscious of how much organisational knowledge and experience resided in me personally. I had worked hard over time to introduce systems that could be repositories of that knowledge and could be used in future handovers. For example, I wrote and authored research for the organisation. So I introduced a research database that replicated the piles of papers in my office which the team could access in the future to evidence the work of the organisation.
Often the person taking on your job won’t need detailed handover notes or even necessarily a handover period with you. What they will need is a way of finding things so they can bring momentum into getting started in their new role. Having an administrative system that functions well and is eminently searchable, such as G-suite, are one of the key tools they might need. Leaving behind a trail and links to software where things can be found may well be enough for the next person to pick up.
Finally, don't take too long to leave. Don't walk out the next week either. But your departure shouldn’t go on for months on end. If you have been with an organisation for a very long time there may be an argument for an extended date for departure, but even then people will be psychologically moving on before you have actually left. This can cause problems for strategy and momentum in the organisation. Decisions in your role and for the organisation will become harder and harder with the knowledge you are going. Pick a date for your departure, agree on this with your boss and focus all of your energies and daily tasks on getting to this date in the best possible shape.
Create an ending
We all like a story to have a beginning, middle and end. Part of your responsibility in leaving the organisation is to create a suitable ending. As painful as you might find this personally it really helps people staying in the organisation to have a chance to celebrate your achievements with you, wish you well and buy you a drink. Call it closure or call it cliche, the leaving party is not for you, it is for them. People will miss you, some more than others, but they will all feel better for a good ending.
Don’t look back
Once your train has left the station (or your boat has left harbour) don’t look back. Years ago when people chose to find a new future in another country and they set sail for a new life, they had no way of going back. They had to look forward to the land they were going to arrive at. That is your job now. Look forward. Remind yourself of all the pull factors you identified in your reasons for leaving. Smile and paint your vision of your life to come in magnificent colour.
Do offer to write references, do offer to talk to recruiters and do continue to be an ambassador for the organisation in a general sense. But by fully leaving you will create space for the next person to fully fill. Don’t be tempted to stay on in an advisory or non-executive role. You want to give the person coming after you the best possible chance to thrive. It is highly unlikely your successor will value you ‘hanging around.’
In conclusion
Leaving an organisation you love or have loved can be done badly. I certainly learnt a huge amount from leaving Dementia Adventure. If you want your work and the organisation to go from strength to strength after your departure there are some key steps to take before you throw in the towel.
- Identify your push and pull factors. Weigh up how important these are to you.
- Talk to your boss and your team. See it from their perspective. Prepare and be ready for lots of different questions about your departure.
- And make sure to actually leave, wave goodbye and close the door behind you.
We often like to think we are irreplaceable and that we have some unique set of inspirational skills but the reality is that there are a host of people that will be well placed to do your job. Your moving on will give them a chance to shine.
What small step could you take right now which will make your resignation a positive experience?
“Sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the most important step of your life. Tiptoe if you must but take a step.” Naeem Callaway
Neil Mapes Bio
Marathon runner, sea swimmer and aspiring dinghy sailor. Social entrepreneur & founder of Dementia Adventure, currently leading Green Hive in Nairn, Scotland.
Find and Follow @neilmapes
View his previous and current work projects on his LinkedIn profile
Watch and share his TedX Talk called Thinking Differently about Dementia
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