“I’ve executed every thing I can right here,” Alex informed me. “However each time I take into consideration leaving, I really feel a large sense of guilt, like I’d be abandoning my crew.”
Alex is an govt vice chairman at a expertise and manufacturing firm, and he or she leads one of many highest-performing divisions within the firm. However Alex is caught. The founder can also be the CEO, so there’s no clear path upward. She’s a revered and results-driven chief, and since she has a protecting nature, she worries that leaving would possibly imply that the enterprise palms her crew off to somebody much less impactful.
A Gartner survey reveals that over half of C-suite leaders are more likely to go away over the subsequent two years and an LLH report discovered that burnout rose to 56% amongst leaders in 2024. As govt tenure shortens and burnout rises amongst senior leaders, many leaders need the reply to “What’s subsequent for me?” However too few leaders look at how emotional loyalty, particularly to groups they constructed, could also be clouding their judgment and maintaining them trapped.
Right here’s easy methods to transfer ahead, even when it feels emotionally difficult.
ASK WHETHER YOUR LOYALTY IS STRATEGIC OR SENTIMENTAL
Loyalty is without doubt one of the most valued traits in management, however when it overrides objectivity, it turns into a legal responsibility. A revered senior chief who stays too lengthy out of loyalty can stall succession planning, miss the chance for artistic new approaches, and danger eroding their edge and engagement. In addition they usually expertise burnout and resentment from doing work that they’ve outgrown. A study on entrepreneurial leaders discovered that when their cognitive type didn’t match the construction or calls for of their work, they reported considerably increased burnout, decreased job satisfaction, and stronger intentions to go away.
It’s price contemplating whether or not your present position nonetheless aligns together with your progress, or in case you are staying to keep away from letting somebody down. Loyalty exists on a spectrum. On one finish, there isn’t any loyalty. This seems like low dedication, few crew relationships, and fixed churn. On the opposite finish, there’s extreme loyalty. This will appear like staying in roles too lengthy (generally at excessive prices). The place do you sit on the spectrum?
BE WARY OF COMMITMENT BIAS
One in every of my purchasers repeatedly evaluated whether or not her dedication to her group was nonetheless precious. She did this by assessing whether or not she was actively rising, if the work nonetheless mirrored her values, and whether or not her efforts have been creating the sort of impression she wished to have.
When these benchmarks now not align, think about whether or not staying is actually serving to your crew or just maintaining you each caught. Loyalty, unchecked, turns into dedication bias: the tendency to remain dedicated or stay in place out of obligation, even when this habits isn’t producing the outcomes we would like. Behavioral science shows this bias usually retains gifted leaders in roles they’ve outgrown to keep away from the discomfort of change, as a result of leaving appears like discomfort and disloyalty. Deepening the entice, organizations grasp on to long-term leaders within the title of loyalty and exploit it to place increased calls for on them, leading to additional hours or extra unpaid work.
SHIFT FROM A NARRATIVE OF ABANDONMENT TO ONE OF LEGACY
Staying too lengthy in a misaligned position isn’t service-minded; in the long term, it may undercut each you and your organization. A company instance of that is Steve Ballmer. He took over from Invoice Gates throughout Microsoft’s peak, following 20 years of working carefully to construct Microsoft. Within the early years of his leadership, Microsoft noticed important income improve, constructed a strong gross sales and operations system, and launched the Xbox. Nonetheless, throughout the later years of his 13-year tenure, critics argue that he was too targeted on defending Home windows and Workplace income, somewhat than embracing disruptive innovation. Because of this, Ballmer missed the cell revolution and was overcommitted to legacy merchandise. Critics also declare that he created a inflexible tradition that killed collaboration, and his emotional blind spots clouded his objectivity.
Staying too lengthy in a misaligned management position can undermine the instance you set as a frontrunner and shift your legacy from considered one of impression to 1 overshadowed by burnout, resentment, and even failure. You may not want to go away instantly, however you do have to provoke a plan for succession, delegation, or redesigning the position in a means that reinvigorates your management and helps your crew’s sustainability.
DISTINGUISH LOYALTY FROM OBJECTIVITY
Contemplate that the other of loyalty isn’t disloyalty or being a traitor, it’s objectivity. The flexibility to be goal about the precise resolution in your profession and the group begins with taking your ego out of the sport. As you attain the best ranges of management, it turns into more durable to get direct and sincere suggestions. Your crew might withhold sincere suggestions, creating an echo chamber of overly constructive knowledge. A way of wholesome loyalty consists of the flexibility to objectively consider your efficiency in opposition to enterprise outcomes, future enterprise objectives, and sincere worker suggestions. Contemplate how usually you invite uncomfortable suggestions or various viewpoints in your views or efficiency. What important analysis do you invite frequently?
The leaders who go away the strongest legacies aren’t those who stayed the longest; they’re those who know when their continued presence limits what is feasible subsequent.
