Resignations don’t arrive out of nowhere. In many cases, by the time someone hands in notice, the decision was made months earlier. The replacement cost, the lost knowledge, the hit to the team’s energy—those costs are already in motion.
The signal you can still act on shows up much earlier. Not in surveys or exit interviews. In everyday behaviour. Your strongest people usually show the same four signals before they leave. They’re visible. Most leaders miss them.
The shift to make: Treat resignation as the outcome, not the warning. Read the behaviour earlier and act on it before the decision hardens.
