Your best people are performing. They’re also already halfway out the door.
- Nicole Smith
- Jun 29
- 4 min read
by Nicole F. Smith
This is the SIXTH ISSUE of The Intent–Impact Gap™ Newsletter— a newsletter powered by the EQ Impact® Framework.
Hey you,
Did you know that your best people do not complain.
They solve problems. They deliver results. They manage up with grace and manage sideways without friction. They have been carrying more than their title requires for longer than you have formally acknowledged.
And forty-four (44%) percent of them are actively considering leaving your organization right now.
Not because of compensation. Not because of workload. Because of something quieter — and more preventable — than either of those things.
Here is what this looks like from the inside.
A high performer carries a team through a critical project.
Delivers above expectations.
Receives strong feedback.
Then...gets passed over for a decision, an opportunity, or a conversation that signals where their future here is heading.
They smile in the meeting. They perform engagement because that is who they are.
They go home and update their resume.
They do not storm out. They do not escalate. They continue performing — while quietly building their exit.
Fifty-two percent (52%) of voluntarily exiting employees say their organization could have done something to prevent them from leaving. Most never said a word about it.
They did not stay silent because they were passive. They stayed silent because experience had shown them that speaking up was not worth the cost.
Here is what high performers stop doing before they leave.
They stop volunteering ideas in meetings. Not all at once — one unrewarded contribution at a time.
They stop advocating beyond their lane. They begin conserving energy they used to spend generously.
They stop pushing back. Not because they agree — because they have disengaged from the outcome.
These are not personality changes. They are data points. Visible six months before the resignation letter — to anyone looking for them.
A resignation does not happen the day they leave. It happens in small moments leading up to the day they leave.
Here is what makes this so difficult to catch.
High performers are skilled at performing. It is literally the defining quality that makes them valuable.
Which means they are equally skilled at performing contentment. At performing engagement. At performing loyalty they no longer fully feel.
You trust them because they have earned that trust. And that trust — combined with their skill at managing up — makes the gap between what they are experiencing and what you see wider than with anyone else on your team.
The leaders who lose their best people are not always the ones who failed them obviously. They are often the ones who assumed silence meant satisfaction.
Engagement is not retention.
A high performer can be fully engaged in their work and completely disengaged from your organization simultaneously. One measures how they feel about what they do. The other measures how they feel about where they do it.
Most organizations measure engagement. Almost none measure the second gap — the one between what a high performer needs to stay and what the organization is actually offering them.
By the time that gap shows up in an exit interview, it has been open for months.
One conversation most leaders never have.
Not a performance review. Not a check-in about current projects.
This one:
“What would make this the place you want to be for the next three years and what is currently in the way of that?”
That question does three things.
It signals that you see their future here.
It creates space for honesty without forcing it.
And it gives you the information you need before the decision is made — not after.
What has your highest performer stopped volunteering and when did that change?
If you can pinpoint the moment — the meeting, the decision, the conversation — you already know where the gap opened. The question now is whether you are willing to go back and close it.
Your highest performers will not wait for your organization to figure this out.
They are already deciding.
The next step is a conversation about what keeping them actually requires.
Reply and tell me: where are you feeling the gap right now? I read every response. And I build from what you share.
If this issue landed somewhere specific — if you read a line and thought "that resonated" — that's not a coincidence.
That's the gap making itself known.
The next step is a conversation.
Share with your colleagues, peers, Human Resources Partners and/or Learning and Development Partners.
Free Gift For You! The Intent–Impact Gap™ Reflection is a free 5-minute leadership awareness tool built on my EQ Impact® Framework. It walks you through three steps: identifying where surface acting is showing up in your leadership right now, naming the specific gap between what you're feeling and what you're saying, and choosing one small, honest shift — without overexposing yourself.
No grand vulnerability required. Just one thing to stop and one thing to try.
[Download it free here → Intent-Impact Gap Guide]
Whatever gap you're standing in right now — the one between who you are and who your leadership is asking you to become — I want you to know this: The answer isn't on the other side of more preparation.
It's on the other side of the decision to begin.
Welcome to Closing The Intent–Impact Gap™. I'm glad you're here.
Next issue: Next issue: The meeting that runs perfectly is the one you should be most concerned about.
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