Preeti Malik, co-founder of Digital Creativs, shared a story about an employee who wanted to resign, but it wasn’t about the money. When a valuable employee resigns, it often leaves the team high and dry. In most cases, companies try to retain them by offering an increment to avoid the hassle of hiring a new person and then investing time to train them.
Malik also faced a similar situation when she got a resignation which she “didn’t see coming”.
She said that during the face-to-face meeting, she was ready to flag a performance issue, but an unexpected twist led to a leadership revelation.
The employee said, “I won’t be able to continue.”
In response, she asked, “If you could design your ideal role, what would that look like?”
After listening to the employee, the co-founder realised, “He wasn’t leaving for more money. He was leaving because there was a role misalignment.”
“Turned out the automation work which is what he came in for, the stuff I never had a single problem with he loved. The tedious work we’d layered on top? He hated it. Because it made him context-switch every two seconds and taking focus away from the work he enjoyed,” she added.
To tackle the situation, she came up with a restructured role and offer. To which the employee agreed.
Here’s what she would have lost
If she hadn’t asked that one question, she would have lost a “culture fit that’s genuinely hard to replace” and “someone who’s actually good at an important role”.
As the conclusion, she said that retaining your team isn’t about “perks or pay bumps”, it’s about whether your “team feels like they do work that matters & helps them grow”.
“I almost missed it entirely. One question changed everything,” she added.
Social Media Reaction
The post resonated with many and gained significant traction. “We have a similar story where one of our employees was showing less attention to detail because expectations around her role weren’t clear enough, but after realigning, she’s now one of our star players!” one user wrote.
“This is such a powerful reminder that performance issues are often symptoms, not the root cause. That one question completely shifted the conversation. More leaders need to listen before they diagnose,” another added.