As a manager, it can be tempting to do everything within your power to hold on to your best people. But that kind of thinking can ultimately backfire on you as a leader.
As a manager, it can be tempting to do everything within your power to hold on to your best people. But, said Dharmesh Arora, regional CEO for Asia Pacific at the German company Schaeffler, that way of thinking can end up hurting you as a leader.
Arora learned this lesson the hard way during his first managerial stint as a supply chain manager at General Motors. “I hired a bright engineer from a reputed engineering college in Mumbai. Within three years, he helped me fix some of the perennial demand management and supply chain challenges we had in our systems,” Arora recalled.
Then the engineer asked Arora for an opportunity to increase his skills within the company’s sales team. “I didn’t let him go. Within two months, he quit the company to work for a competitor. I had learned my lesson,” he said.
“We, as managers and leaders, are to empower and enable the best in our team members,” Arora said. “When they outgrow what they’re doing, let them go and try their hand at something that they aspire to do. Better still, help them see what more they can do.”
This is just one of Dharmesh Arora’s five biggest lessons. Watch the video above to learn about the others.