My Promise to You (Our Employees)

On average, an American professional changes jobs 11 times in their career. In the United States as in many other countries around the world, the idea that we will work at one company for our entire lives has been dead for a long time.

Why is it then that most managers feel it is taboo to talk with their employees about what they want to do with their lives after they leave their current employer? This attitude of conscious denial has never made much sense to me. In fact, I have found that one of the best ways to create unique value for my employees is to help them plan for the life they aspire to lead after they leave my team one day. One of the most important themes in “The Alliance,” the new book by LinkedIn’s co-founder/chairman Reid Hoffman, Ben Casnocha and Chris Yeh, is that managers build trust through honest career conversations with their employees. This is something I’ve been striving to do for as long as I’ve been a manager.

From the very beginning of my relationship with an employee- often during the interview process before they’ve even joined my team- I draw them a picture and make them a promise.

The promise sounds something like the following.

“Let me start with the bad news. The bad news is that you’re going to leave LinkedIn one day. I know you just got here and so it may be strange to think about leaving already, but I want to bring your attention to it so that you and I can partner together on making the most out of the time we spend together in this company. I don’t know if you’re going to spend 2 years here, or 5, or 10 or more, but I want to make sure that however much time you spend here with us on this journey, that when you look back on your whole career 20, 30, 40 years from now that you will look at the years you spent here as the most transformative years in your career. The years where you learned the most, grew the most quickly, were exposed to the most incredible people and the most innovative thinking. I want these years to be the years that literally change the trajectory of your career. I want you to enjoy more success in your life directly due to the experiences you had here at LinkedIn than you would have enjoyed had you never chosen to work here. My promise to you is that I will dedicate myself to creating and nurturing an environment where career trajectory change happens and to give you every chance to be exposed to the ideas, people, experiences, and opportunities you need to make this happen in your life. When you leave LinkedIn one day, I want you to be truly transformed. What I seek in return is a promise from you that you’re going to throw yourself at the opportunity to transform yourself, our company, and the world. And that you will run after the opportunities here with courage and persistence. If we both deliver on our promises, not only do amazing things happen for your career- both here and after you leave- but this company, our company, becomes even stronger than it is today. “

The picture I draw looks like the one below:

By having this conversation early and then supporting this promise with consistent actions, open communication flows. Trust develops. Relationships deepen. We create an atmosphere where people do their best work.

My employees and I are totally aligned in a collaborative partnership – an alliance – where we are all focused on each others' success. My employees re-choose to work here every day, as I do, not because there are no other career options but because we are so excited by the LinkedIn opportunity to transform self, company, and world.

Job opportunities are not pursued in secret; rather, they can be discussed in a trusted and safe environment. I’m deeply grateful that many of my employees have come to me over the years to bring me into the loop on their thoughts of leaving LinkedIn. They have honored my commitment to them by, first and foremost, making great progress on their mission at LinkedIn, and then courageously allowing me in on their thought process about leaving. In some of these conversations it’s become clear that the employee was thinking about leaving for all the right reasons and had truly found an opportunity that was worthy of their potential. In these situations I do everything I can to help them to enter the new company on the right foot- including coaching them on compensation negotiations. In exchange, they do everything they can to leave our team the right way- with a competent successor in place, their projects on solid ground, and any commitments they made around accomplishing objectives achieved. Today, we now also welcome these departing employees into our alumni network, so that we can stay in touch and continue to help each other over the long term.

Other times, after deep discussion and further introspection, the employee realizes that their best opportunity for continued transformation exists within LinkedIn and they choose to stay for another tour of accomplishments and self-improvement.

In the modern “networked age,” as Reid/Ben/Chris refer to it, believing an employee is going to stay with you for life – or for as long as is perfectly convenient for you – is unrealistic. As a manager, if you lead open and honest conversations with your team, if you can work to align your company’s interests with your employee’s interests, you will forge high trust relationships that will benefit everyone involved. For advice on how to do this, I’d encourage you to check out the The Alliance. It’s an incredibly important topic and a very useful guide.