Moving On

Having witnessed many farewells over a period of four years which ranged from the joyous of "I am so excited to be moving to a new position coupled with this is a good offer"  to the quiet departure of realising that  this did not quite work out the way we planned, I had become attached to the expression  "I realised that I needed to grow and this move will allow me the opportunity to do so". Almost everyone expressed appreciation of the opportunity to work with the company and the people, the belief and expression that all will be well with both the individuals and the company.

With each departure, we looked at the organisation with which we were engaged  to determine where was it heading, what were the signals which were being given. Granted  that those with access to finance either on a big scale of several clients or those who worked on a client with a large fee would understand the timing in which fees were collected, the probability of fees being received in a month and how this impacted on the volume of additional work which was required in terms of follow up with clients.

In most organisations, it was rare that  there was sufficient succession planning to allow for upward movement internally, either with the move allowing for a change in style of management  or to meet the changing needs of the organisation. Some years ago, in a meeting with a Finance Director which was supposed to be an interview but which turned out to be a conversation, we talked about selecting a successor to the position which was held and I stated that a person will tend to select someone who is not much different to "themself" because they would not believe that there was anything "wrong" with themself. Of course this was said in jest, as one would not say that to someone whom they were expecting to be hired by. However in reality that may be the concept underlying interviews for certain positions being conducted by the members of the Board as usually there are internal views which may be predisposed towards certain candidates and the selection may need to be based on where the organisation needs to move towards.