What’s is the Dandelion Effect? As Leaders travel through life, we build teams. We know that you can’t accomplish great things alone. So we recruit the best people we can find and then invest our time into developing their capabilities.
But great people consistently seek new challenges. So, how do you react when your team members need to move on?
Often I see managers get defensive or react negatively. Treating a formerly trusted employee with contempt as if they betrayed the organization merely by seeking to grow.
By not celebrating the transition you undermine your position with your other employees. You clearly demonstrate that you do not want what is best for them and their families.
Instead of being upset by the loss. You could frame this moment as a great accomplishment. The strategy, tactics, and skills that they developed on your team will now be carried with them into the world. This is the Dandelion Effect.
If you are dedicated to training the best practices, and working to develop a happy, fulfilling work environment, then this moment is a gift to the world.
Your disciples are going forth to spread the knowledge and have a positive influence on others. Like a dandelion seed in the wind. When they land, they will reproduce and your cultural DNA will continue forward having positive impacts beyond your personal reach.
The common dandelion is an introduced plant in North America. In the mid-1600s, European settlers brought the common dandelion (scientific name, Taraxacum officinale) to eastern America and cultivated it in their gardens for food and medicine. Since then it has spread across the continent as a weed.
Linda Kershaw, Patsy Cotterill, Sarah Wilkinson © 2002
Originally posted at: https://www.thepartnership.org/blog/bn360/celebrating-team-member-transitions/
