Startup Elders: “WTF! You want to resign?” What to do when your first employee resigns

If you are a Founder then you probably live, eat, breathe, sleep your company. You wake up in the night and remember something you need to do or have an idea for a new feature. You find yourself talking to friends and family but you can’t concentrate as you are thinking about your company. Basically, pretty much every moment of your day you are thinking about your company. This is fairly normal among founders.

You have executed on your passion and are making progress. You have even managed to convince some people to join you and made some hires. These are amazing things and you should be proud.

Then one day a team member comes to you and tells you they want to resign. WTF! You think to yourself. How can this person be saying that. Are they mad! Actually perhaps I am mad, you begin to question yourself. Your mind races a million miles an hour. Emotions are strong. How you act now, right now, is important.

Take a breath. You probably can't change their mind, and frankly, you probably don't want to try to. It never works out in the long run. The important thing is how you deal with it and how you learn and move forward.

• It’s perfectly normal for people to want to move jobs so don’t beat yourself up
• Show empathy - your startup may be your baby but it’s not theirs
• Treat the person with respect and courtesy - put yourself in their shoes. Resigning is hard and stressful
• Don’t force them there and then to explain why they want to leave - only think of how they feel in that initial meeting
• Ask them how they want it to be communicated and when and respect that - offer to let them go home or go for a walk or something
• Focus on the positives - the person who resigned may not be perfect but, they will have worked for your company for months or years of their finite life on this earth
• Give them some time and then sensitively ask them for thoughts and views on what they think needs to change at the company - if they were the CEO what would they do? Be grateful for whatever they say. It’s amazing what you can learn if you are prepared to listen
• Think about the remaining team and any team / process changes needed when the person leaves and make sure there is no period of ambiguity and any change is swift
• Focus on the rest of the team — double down, spend time with people, see how they feel
• Make a fuss when the person leaves and thank them and wish them good luck

How you deal with your first few leavers is an important milestone in your company journey. It will happen, it’s just a case of when, and it may cause some short term disruptions but how you deal with it and what you learn from it is important.

Dealt with properly it can actually strengthen your company. It may give you a chance to make some changes you have been putting off for example.

No matter how you feel you need to be professional and respectful. People will be looking at you during this time more than ever.

If you do this well then you have taken a step to being a better leader and actually your chance of business success has just increased a little bit.

Good luck.