What My Decision to Leave the Canadian Armed Forces Taught Me About Retaining High Performers
Last week, I announced that I am leaving the Canadian Armed Forces after more than 25 years of service.
I am excited about what comes next. I also feel regret that the path I wanted inside the CAF had reached its end. There is sadness in leaving the people and institution that shaped nearly my entire adult life, along with acceptance that staying would no longer provide the growth I still wanted.
All of those emotions can exist at the same time.
There was no dramatic incident that caused me to leave. I did not wake up one morning angry with the institution or suddenly dissatisfied with my career. The decision developed gradually as I accepted two realities.
My path to further advancement within the CAF had effectively closed. At the same time, I had begun to believe that I could operate and lead effectively in a completely different world.
Once I accepted both, staying was no longer the only path I could imagine.
When the Path Ahead Closes
Further advancement in the Canadian Armed Forces requires a specific level of proficiency in both official languages. I did not possess the required profile in my second official language, and without it, further promotion was no longer realistic.
I may not agree with the weight placed on that requirement, but disagreement did not change the situation. It was the standard, and I had to make decisions based on the organization as it existed rather than how I might have preferred it to operate.
Acceptance did not mean I had to like the outcome. It meant acknowledging what was within my control and what was not.
I could have remained at the same rank for the rest of my career. I could have continued working hard, accepting difficult assignments, and delivering results. The work would still matter, but my opportunity to contribute in new and increasingly meaningful ways was narrowing.
I still wanted greater challenges. I wanted to enter new environments, take on different responsibilities, and discover what else I was capable of doing. Remaining would have required me to accept that the professional growth I wanted was unlikely to happen within the organization.
Sometimes an organization still has important work for you but no longer offers a future that feels like yours.
That can be difficult to acknowledge after investing decades of your life in one place. Familiarity creates its own sense of security. You know the people, understand the culture, and possess credibility that took years to earn.
The easier decision is often to remain where you know you can succeed, even when you recognize that you are no longer progressing.
The Decision Happens Before the Announcement
People often treat a resignation as the moment an employee decides to leave.
Usually, it is only the moment the organization finds out.
The actual decision forms much earlier through a series of smaller realizations. A promotion is no longer credible. A meaningful opportunity does not materialize. Another assignment feels too much like the previous one. Eventually, the person recognizes that another year will probably look much like the current one.
They may still be performing exceptionally well.
That is what makes the situation so easy for leaders to miss.
Many high performers do not respond to a closed path by immediately withdrawing their effort. Their professional standards will not allow it. They continue honouring commitments, supporting their teams, and completing the work properly.
That was true for me. I still cared deeply about the people I led and the importance of the mission. Knowing that I might eventually leave did not give me permission to lower my standards.
My commitment to the job remained intact. What changed was where I could imagine my future.
Professional commitment can remain long after organizational commitment has begun to fade. Leaders who use current performance as their only measure of commitment may never see that change happening.
When the Outside World Became Real
The CAF was the only professional environment I had ever known.
I understood how to operate within it. Over the course of my career, I had progressed from a young officer leading soldiers to a senior leader responsible for complex organizations, national capabilities, and billions of dollars in assets.
My uncertainty was whether that experience would translate outside the military.
Rank does not transfer neatly into another sector, and institutional knowledge loses much of its value when you leave the institution. There was no guarantee that what had made me effective in uniform would make me equally effective somewhere completely new.
My coaching work, podcast, book, and conversations with civilian leaders began changing that belief. They showed me that the fundamentals of leadership were not confined to one organization. I could enter an unfamiliar environment, learn how it operated, and contribute there.
Then I began speaking with the company that eventually hired me.
From the beginning, its leaders made me feel wanted and welcomed. They did not see my military experience as something that needed to be explained away. They recognized its value, believed it could translate, and spoke to me as someone who could contribute immediately while continuing to grow.
Most importantly, they made me believe there was space for me to build something beyond what I had already accomplished.
That transformed leaving from an uncertain possibility into a credible future.
I was no longer choosing between the security of the CAF and the complete unknown. I was choosing between a path that had become increasingly narrow and one that offered room to learn, contribute, and grow in ways I could not yet fully predict.
Why Strong Performers Quietly Leave
It is easy to reduce retention to compensation, workload, or promotion. All three matter, but they are rarely the whole story.
Strong performers also need evidence that they are still going somewhere. They need meaningful challenges, expanding responsibility, genuine trust, and opportunities to apply their judgment at a higher level.
Growth does not always require a promotion. Organizations cannot create positions simply to keep people satisfied, and not every employee wants the same kind of progression.
For one person, growth may mean advancement. For another, it could mean broader authority, exposure to a different part of the organization, a more complex problem, or the opportunity to lead something that matters.
Leaders need to understand what growth means to each person before deciding that their current role should be enough.
Sometimes the employee you are least worried about is the one closest to leaving. They remain dependable, meet every deadline, solve problems, and support the people around them. Continued performance makes everything appear fine.
What you cannot see is that they have stopped imagining their future with you.
When capable people can no longer see room to grow, another organization does not necessarily have to lure them away with more money or a grand title. It may simply need to offer a future that feels more expansive than the one available where they are.
Neither Side Has to Be Wrong
There is a temptation to frame every departure as someone’s failure.
Sometimes a leader failed to recognize what an employee needed. Sometimes an organization neglected a capable person until another employer recognized their value.
Other times, the employee’s ambitions and the organization’s requirements simply stop aligning.
Neither side has to be wrong for the relationship to reach its natural end.
I can respect the CAF’s standards while acknowledging the effect those standards had on my career. I can feel immense pride in my service while recognizing that remaining was no longer the right decision for me.
Those truths can coexist.
The CAF gave me extraordinary opportunities, tested me in ways I could never have anticipated, and allowed me to lead people whose service I will always respect. I leave with gratitude for those experiences and sadness over closing such a significant part of my life.
At the same time, I am excited to enter an unfamiliar environment where I believe I can continue contributing and growing.
That emotional complexity does not make the decision wrong. It simply means the decision matters.
Do Not Let Them Discover the Ceiling Alone
Leaders cannot remove every organizational constraint. They cannot promise promotions, rewrite every policy, or create positions that do not exist.
They can be honest about what is possible.
If someone’s future inside the organization is becoming limited, they deserve a conversation about it. Avoiding that conversation does not preserve retention. It merely ensures the person begins planning their future without you.
If you lead capable people, consider:
- What meaningful decisions can this person make without waiting for my approval?
- When did they last receive an opportunity that genuinely stretched them?
- Can they see how their contribution could grow over the next six to twelve months?
- Am I expanding their responsibility or simply giving them more work?
- Do they still offer ideas and challenge our thinking, or have they quietly started doing only what is required?
These questions will not prevent every departure. They may help you recognize when someone is beginning to run out of room.
That recognition creates an opportunity for an honest career conversation. You may uncover a challenge that reconnects them with their future in the organization. You may be able to expand their authority, expose them to another part of the business, or trust them with a consequential decision.
You may also discover that what they need is something the organization cannot provide.
That conversation still matters.
Good leadership is not measured by keeping every person indefinitely. Sometimes it means helping someone understand what is available within the organization and being candid about what is not.
What leaders must avoid is assuming that a strong performer will remain simply because they always have.
Before Another Organization Shows Them Their Future
Good people do not always leave because they have stopped believing in the organization.
Sometimes they leave because they have started believing in what they could become outside it.
That is what happened to me. I saw the limits of the path ahead, while another organization saw possibilities in what I could contribute next.
Now consider the strongest people on your team.
Which of them is still performing at a high level but can no longer see a meaningful future with you?
Have that conversation before another organization shows them the future they can no longer see inside yours.
Have you ever reached the point where your future outside an organization became more compelling than the one available within it? Share what made that clear for you.