Change Happens in Pairs

Three Exits. One Story. Your Job is to Tell It.

In the past month, I have had three leaders transition out of my organization. Not performance exits. Career moves. Good people making good decisions for themselves.

I want to be honest about what that feels like from the inside. The first one, you manage. You build a transition plan, you redistribute scope, you move forward. You have done this before.

The second one is different. There is a moment, even for experienced leaders, where you ask yourself: is this about me? Is this about the org? Is there a signal I am missing?

By the third, you are not managing a departure. You are managing a narrative.

Here is what I have learned: the second one hits different. The first one is a plan. The second is a test. The third is a pattern your team will interpret however anxiety fills the void.

Your job as a leader in that moment is not to fill the gaps. It is to own the meaning of the moment before anxiety does.

For me that meant getting in front of my team before the rumor did. Not a town hall. Not a memo. A direct conversation.

Here is what is true. Here is what is not changing. Here is what we are building toward.

No spin. No over-explanation. No performative optimism. Just clarity delivered with conviction.

Anxiety does not need facts. It needs a vacuum. Your job is to fill it first.

If you let each departure create its own story, your team writes a story about instability. Every exit becomes evidence. Every quiet hallway conversation adds to the case. And by the time you realize what is happening, the narrative has already been written without you.

If you tell one consistent story, your team writes a story about leadership. About a leader who is honest, who does not disappear when things are uncomfortable, and who trusts the team enough to tell them the truth.

That is the choice in front of you. Not whether to communicate. How, and how fast.

The org chart is temporary. The culture is not. Protect the second one.