I originally posted this on Linkedin in 2023. I decided to move it here and expound upon it.

This is something that I think is important to understand in any work environment, culture, remote/hybrid/RTO conversation and are reasons I have seen consistently in my career. Note, when I say Top Talent, I do NOT mean the most senior talent. Top talent comes at any level of an organization and is as important in a person new in their career as it is in someone who has been working for 30 years.

I listed these in the order I see them in importance. This post on LI received a lot of visibility and there were some good additions. So I’m adding one more section for other considerations:

Other Considerations (crowdsourced from comments):

• Leadership behaves differently than they say OR differently than the stated values of the organization

• Lack of transparency. This can present as faking positivity when it’s obvious there is an issue, ignoring issues and pretending they aren’t there, giving half answers when the answer is obvious, etc.

• Allowing silos to exist and operate

• Tolerating back stabbing, drama, sabatoge

• Failing to acknowledge and praise

• Expecting long hours - there is a good chance, that when its necessary hours won’t be an issue, but wasting them on bad planning, “emergencies” as in not real emergencies (not incidents), setting last minute deadlines

• Misusing tech in a wasteful way i.e. automating reporting and dashboards that have to be copied into a spreadsheet and then copied in to a PowerPoint or some such nonsense.

• Punishing performance by just adding more work

10 - Fickleness - Top talent hates doing something that goes to waste or doing something that has no value. They know each immediately. Don't be fickle in decisions, they need to go full speed, and constantly having to shift prevents that.
9 - Crappy Tech - Top talent has seen how things should be, or they wouldn't be top talent. If you provide subpar tech, misconfigured tech, or partially deployed tech or bastardized tech, they are either going to fix it or constantly point out how it could be better.
8 - Not Listening - Top talent understands that they won't always get their way, they also understand their opinion only matters sometimes, and they also understand that they aren't the expert in everything and sometimes they just have to do what they are told. But ignoring them or not considering their position will kill their drive quickly. (you don't have to use it, just listen to it)
7 - Bog Them Down in Bureaucracy - top talent moves fast, be prepared for them to leave your org behind if process, decisions, or action take a long time. They aren't going to slow down, they are going to become jaded.
6 - Under Pay Them - life is so much easier when money isn't a concern. You can't nickel and dime top talent, it just doesn't work. (Notice this isn't at the top of the list). Top Talent generally knows their worth, and so do other organizations. Let hiring be the last time you worry about money, pay them what they want/need and are worth, and measure them on performance.
5 - Stick Them Doing Something They Weren't Hired To Do or can easily be done by other - this one might sound harsh, but it's true. Every other skilled professional understands the adage 'the right tool for the right job.' If you hire a talented engineer and then have them mostly doing paperwork, how long do you think that is going to last?
4 - Refusing to Delegate Work - if you want them to own something let them own it, don't second guess every decision they make, or make them get approval or buy-in to do every little thing.
3 - Micro-managing Work - don't hire top talent and then tell them how to do something
2 - Micro-managing Time in an Office or in a Seat - top talent gets shit done. Trust them to do it.
1 - Celebrating or Tolerating Mediocrity - top talent latches on to this faster than anything. If you pay, award, tolerate mediocrity or worse apathy equally OR don’t call it out and tolerate it, they will know. It comes across as, “why should I take on extra work”, “why should I try so hard”, etc because it is not getting one any further.