Welcome back, everyone! We hope that your week brought satisfaction, fulfillment, and progress toward personal or professional goals alike! If you’ve had an ‘off week’, don’t fret as the weekend is a perfect time to unplug from the woes of work and allow yourself to resettle and regroup into a new mindset for another week.

Today, we wanted to share with you a few key points that will likely impact your career as soon as this year; are you searching for an open job? Open to new roles? Even looking at an internal transition? Well, the reality is that if your role changes at any point over the course of your career, you’re going to need to prepare an exit strategy and plan so as to leave your team in a beneficial position. Keep reading here to find out how to do so!

Smooth Exit Planning with the Below Strategies!

• Give Ample Notice (Minimum 2 Weeks)! Ultimately, managers and leaders are aware that there will naturally be turnover in their company. However, ensuring that you don’t leave your teammates or direct reports scrambling to complete tasks by providing ample notice of your departure is key to leaving on a positive note. Take stock of your current capacity – are you in busy season? Are you about to wrap up projects at quarter-end? What does your workload look like over the next few months? The more you can plan ahead, the more you can phase your work out toward other teammates in a timely manner.
  • Extra Tip: If your company expects that you provide a letter of resignation, make sure to put thought into it and meaningfully craft your reason for leaving. Express gratitude for the opportunity, your departure date, the reasoning behind your decision, and any related information that can help craft the story of your exit plan.
• Participate in Exit Interviews: Think about it like this, although you are exiting the company, there are still ways that you can provide value as you make your way out. One super attainable way of doing so is participating in the exit interview process – during this time, you’ll likely connect with an HR representative to discuss feedback you have on the culture, management, your role, etc., as well as your reason for leaving your position. Thinking through valuable feedback to share, layered with personal examples and anecdotes, is a fabulous way of ensuring that your opinions are heard and ideas are shared to shape the company’s policy and culture.
• Wrap-Up Work and Assist (with Transitions)! As we mentioned above, assisting in the process of transitioning your work off of your plate is a great way to make your exit more seamless. Think about what standard work you can create to document your personal processes. How can you share the knowledge? How can you best create resources to help teammates take over your projects? Setting up time with others who will help contribute to taking over your workload is a great way to solidify professional relationships that will last and a reputation for being a team player!
• Express Gratitude: As your final date nears, be extra mindful of expressing gratitude to your team and management. Thank anyone who has contributed to your growth and experience at the given company – this might look like a lateral teammate, leadership-level employee, executive, mentor, peer, etc. In the digital age, it is super easy to maintain professional relationships with just about anyone that you’ve ever worked with through platforms like LinkedIn, so ensure that these connections are strong, based on positive perception, and can be elongated throughout the remainder of your career. Like we always say, networking and connections are often the bridge between you and your dream role… so keep up with your professional relationships!