TALENTS START LEAVING WHEN THE BOSS STOPS LEARNING

LINUS OKORIE urges leaders to stay on the learning path

Talented people rarely leave a job because of the job. They leave because the person leading them stopped growing. It happens quietly. First, they reduce their energy. Then they stop sharing ideas. After a while, they start considering jumping ship. By the time you notice, they already moved on. This is a real problem for many businesses. Top performers are quitting for reasons they can’t divulge. They want to do more than the routine that your work has now become. They want to work with employers who push them forward.

There is another angle we often forget. Learning compounds in the same way money grows when you invest consistently as you stay engaged with new knowledge. The flip side is also true. When you stop learning, the decline equally compounds. It appears in your ideas, strategy, and then, in the energy of your team. And because the leader sets the tone, the impact spreads through the entire business. People copy what you do, not what you preach.

This is why the consequences of leadership stagnation go far beyond losing talented employees. The company itself begins to stall. Opportunities are lost because nobody is stretching. People show up to work, but nobody is truly building. These are the costs when the leader stops growing.

When Satya Nadella became CEO of Microsoft in 2014, the company was in decline. Its stock had been flat for almost a decade. Internal surveys showed low morale. Talented engineers were leaving for Google, Amazon, and Facebook. Teams competed with one another instead of building together. Many insiders even joked that Microsoft was becoming a “retirement home for brilliant people who had stopped stretching.” In a 2014 internal memo, an engineer said “We compete more with each other than with our competitors.”

Nadella identified the problem that leaders had stopped learning. And because they stopped learning, the people under them lost the drive to grow. He addressed the problem at its source by making leadership development mandatory. Leaders across all levels were to read books, attend training programs, and coach one another. Internal collaboration became a priority, and performance reviews were adjusted to reward learning.

Within two years, employee engagement and performance rose. Microsoft’s cloud business, once slow, grew rapidly because teams began sharing knowledge instead of hoarding it. By 2018, Microsoft passed Apple to become the world’s most valuable company for the first time in years. Engineers who once left for competitors began returning.

The lesson is obvious. When the leaders grew, the people followed. Nadella modeled and built a culture of continuous development. This changes the leader and fosters productivity. This is the agitation point many leaders avoid. We say “the people leaving are not loyal”, “they lack patience”, or “they are merely ambitious and restless.” Sometimes that is true. Many times, it is not. They simply outgrew a leader who refused to outgrow old habits. You may not want to hear this part, but I will say it anyway. If your best employees keep leaving, the common factor is YOU. It is not the economy, the generation, or the industry. It is YOU.

This applies to every business, no matter the size. Your team wants to know you are learning. Nobody enjoys being led by someone who is stuck, tired, or proud of yesterday’s success. The good news is that the solution is within your reach. Like I have always said, leadership flows to the one who knows. Below are practical ways to grow again before you lose another staff.

One, Remain a student. Great leaders stay on the learning path. They read relevant materials and take appropriate courses. They ask questions without pretending to know everything. Your growing wealth of knowledge impacts your decisions and leadership style.

Two, Create growth conversations. People want to talk about their dreams if you are willing to listen. They want to know their work connects to something they care about. Sit with them and ask what they want in the next few years. Help them see how their future can fit into your bigger picture. When you create those conversations, you show them you pay attention to them.

Three, Model what you want to see. Your behavior teaches louder than your words. If you want focus, show focus. If you want integrity, show integrity. If you want energy, show energy. Your consistency shapes the culture more than any speech. People watch you even when they pretend not to.

Four, Keep your vision fresh. A leader without a clear direction becomes a leader without followers. Revisit where the business is going. Update your plans. Share why the direction matters. People stay when they feel they are moving toward something meaningful. When the direction becomes stale, they drift.

Five, Invite feedback on your leadership. Many leaders fear this question. What can I do better as your leader. It feels uncomfortable, but it works. It tells your team you care about their experience. It also reveals blind spots you may never see on your own.

Six, Build emotional intelligence. Learn your triggers. Understand how your reactions affect the room. Respond instead of reacting. People stay with leaders who create psychological safety. They leave leaders who become unpredictable when stress rises.

Seven, Invest in your circle. You also need people who constantly challenge your thinking. You need peers who understand the weight you carry. When you surround yourself with sharp minds, you become better. When you isolate yourself, your growth slows. A strong circle keeps you accountable.

The message is that your employees do not expect you to be perfect. They only want you to grow. As you grow, your team grows. If you want people to stay, give them a leader worth staying for. Let your quest for learning and growth become the culture the team inherits.

It is important to add that your learning cannot be random. It has to be structured and intentional. And it has to match the weight of your responsibilities. A CEO running a multi-million-naira business does not need the same learning rhythm as someone running a multi-million-dollar enterprise. The stakes and complexity are different. The decisions carry more consequences. As you rise in leadership, your learning must rise with you. Your goals demand a certain level of knowledge and insight. If your learning does not match the size of your ambition, you create a gap that the business pays for.

This is why staying on the learning path is not optional. The moment your growth falls below the level of the results you want, everything slows down. But when your learning rises to meet or exceed the future you are trying to build, your leadership expands. And when your leadership expands, the team moves with confidence.

Leadership is responsibility. Growth is the one thing that keeps your choice to lead meaningful. Keep growing, not for applause or image. But because the future of the people you lead depends on the quality of leader you are becoming.

Dr Okorie MFR is a leadership consultant