The Jordan Harbinger Show - 641: How to Quit Your Job the Right Way | Deep Dive

Episode Date: March 24, 2022

Jordan (@JordanHarbinger) and Gabe (@GabeMizrahi) have helped a lot of people optimize their chances at landing dream jobs, but this is only half of the equation. It's also important to consider the way you end things with your soon-to-be ex-employer so you don't needlessly burn bridges you've built along the way. Don't be that person! Here's a deep dive into how to quit your job the right way. What We Discuss: The important questions to ask before making the commitment to quit your job. How to break the news to your employer in the right order. How to set your team up for success long after you've made your exit. Why you should take the time to craft a great goodbye email to your peers, and what you might say. How to make quitting a transition to a new phase of your relationship with former employers and colleagues rather than a final farewell -- and why you should stay close and connected long past the time you've collected your last paycheck. And much more... Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/641 Sign up for Six-Minute Networking -- our free networking and relationship development mini course -- at jordanharbinger.com/course! Miss the show we did with prolific art forger Ken Perenyi? Catch up here with episode 282: The Secret Life of an American Art Forger! Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Coming up next on the Jordan Harbinger Show. If you're going to quit, then set your course, even if you don't have a final destination yet. What kind of person do you want to be on the other side of the job that you have now? If you work backward from there, you come up with a plan. You can make that plan your agenda for your time off. Welcome to the show. I'm Jordan Harbinger. On the Jordan Harbinger show, we decode the stories, secrets and skills are the world's most fascinating people. We have high signal, low-noise conversations with Astroden.

entrepreneurs, spies and psychologists, even the occasional billionaire investor, Russian spy, or hostage negotiator. And each episode turns our guest's wisdom into practical advice that you can use to build a deeper understanding of how the world works and become a better critical thinker. If you're new to the show or you're looking for a way to tell your friends about it, I suggest our episode starter packs. These are collections of favorite episodes organized by topic to help new listeners get a taste of everything that we do here on the show. Just visit jordanharbinger.com slash or take a look in your Spotify app to get started or to help somebody else get started. And of course, I always appreciate it when you do that.

We're back today with another deep dive episode. Y'all have been loving these, and I'm so grateful to hear that. You've been sending me a lot of messages about these deep dives that are Gabriel, Ms. Rahi, and I. And, well, there's a bunch more on the way. This one is about how to quit your job the right way. A lot of people do this wrong. They burn bridges or they do it half right, and they don't maximize their goodwill and social capital on the way out.

We'll show you how to set this up so you leave on great terms, solidify your connections to your bosses and your colleagues, and leave the door open for future collaboration or other opportunities. Here we go, deep dive on how to quit your job with Gabriel Mizrahi. You know, we talk a lot about how to get a job, how to network to get a job, how to navigate inside your career and inside your job. But very rarely does anybody talk about how to leave a job, even though we often recommend that people leave a job. And if you've been listening to Feedback Friday for a while, you know we get a ton of questions. about work stuff just like this. And this is one of the most common questions we get. How do I quit my job?

Look, we've taken a few of these, Gabe, but it seems like everybody be quitting these days. Whether it's a job you love or a job you hate, quitting is just not easy. And yet it's one of the most important conversations we'll ever have in our career. The more I think about this question, the more I realize that knowing how to resign

is indeed a skill. And leaving a workplace the right way can make the difference between having strong relationships and struggling with weak ones, between generating opportunities down the line and fighting to scrounge up work, and the need to master that skill has never been more urgent.

The great resignation is upon us, and it is real. Millions of Americans quit their jobs during the pandemic. This is basically the golden age of peace in the hell out for greener pastures. And as we all know, quitting is awkward, it's disappointing, sometimes it's just flat out scary,

and that's because we don't teach quitting as a set of skills. So that's what we're doing on this deep dive, how to quit your job like a pro. But before we actually talk about the how, we have to back up and talk about the reasons to quit your job in the first place. Obviously, there are tons of reasons to leave a job. Some reasons are better than others, but some aren't really real reasons at all. They're just unresolved thoughts, nebulous feelings about your job or your colleagues or even yourself that are driving you to fantasize about firing off that I quit email, that sort of legendary

storm out cake. Gabe, by the way, have you seen, welcome to the show, Gabe. By the way, have you seen that cake where a co-worker made it that says something like, screw y'all, I'm out, and they put it in the break room and shared it with everybody. You have to think that's a workplace that's actually fun, and this person wasn't actually doing that in a mean-spirited way, but how cathartic must it have been to make a cake that said that and handed to everyone? It could have been a cool workplace, or it could have been, I mean, did you see that one of the flight attendant who just went absolutely apeshit on their passengers. I think it was a guy. And he just was like, he had been doing the job for like 10 years or something, 15 years. He was over it,

hated everybody like got on the PA system, slagged everybody off, chugged a beer and just jumped down the shoot down to the tarmac or something like that. The emergency thing. Yeah, he got arrested for that. I'm sure he did. Yeah. I don't know what he was trying to accomplish. But it was, that's another way to leave your job. That was one of those. clearly, dude, dude clearly having mental breakdown type job situations where, yeah, so we're going to avoid that.

So how do you know when you're quitting to improve your life and when you're just running away from a bad situation? And the answer is to really interrogate your reasons for leaving using a little exercise we've been calling getting to the bottom. And this exercise has three steps, and it starts with taking stock of the thoughts and feelings driving you to quit. Start by asking yourself a few basic questions.

which thoughts about work do you notice cropping up regularly? Which feelings are you finding it difficult to deal with? And what's the general tone or quality of your career? How is your mood most of the time at work? And how does that differ or not differ from your mood in your personal life? Now, write down these answers. Be as specific as possible. Don't just harp on the negatives.

Try and capture the positives to this is important. Then take a step back and ask yourself, what's the overall charge of those thoughts and feelings? Are they largely positive or negative, hopeful or bleak, inspired or disillusioned, or is it a mixed bag? You actually might find right off the bat that this exercise confirms your feelings about work, or you might be surprised to realize that you didn't appreciate the full picture. Things aren't as overwhelmingly crappy as you once thought, or they're not as completely amazing as they once seemed.

And once you do that, trace the thoughts and feelings backwards. figure out the root causes of these thoughts and feelings. Take each thought or feeling you wrote down and identify two or three sources for each one, going as deep as you can to the roots of it. For example, let's say you wrote down that you often feel excluded and ignored at work. From there, try to identify the sources of that observation.

Don't just limit it to external factors like colleagues or company policies. Try to include a few that are closer to home if there are any. For example, maybe you write down, Tom from Compliance is always dominating our meetings. My boss, Claire, doesn't empower me with my own projects. I have a fear of making a mistake or sounding dumb in a meeting.

For this to work, you really do have to be super honest. It's actually quite fascinating to notice how easily our mind pins the blame for negative experiences on other people and other situations. So try to identify your own behaviors and qualities here. That is so, so important. Do this exercise for all of the observations you wrote down, including the positive ones. You can't have total conviction in your decision to leave until you're in touch with both. And finally, once you do that, come up with a plan.

The final step in this exercise is to create two or three specific, practical, achievable things you can do to address the root causes of your dissatisfaction or just make the most of your satisfaction. So let's get back to those examples we were just talking about. For the whole Tom from compliance dominates meetings thing, maybe you come up with a few ways where you can approach this problem. Talk to Tom privately about making a little more room for me to speak in meetings. Speak up even when Tom interrupts me, and if nobody gives me that space, explicitly ask for a moment to finish my thought. Or ask a couple teammates if they're noticing the same thing in meetings

or if it's just me, study how they handle Tom, give that a try. Same thing with Claire not empowering me with my own projects. Maybe for that one, you write down, you know, book 50, 15 minutes with Claire to talk about not feeling empowered, get some feedback, understand her management style better, propose two new projects I can run and manage on my own, or find more ownership of existing projects, even if Claire doesn't explicitly give it to me. And for that thing about sounding dumb or making a mistake, maybe you make a plan to schedule time in my calendar to do my homework before I speak up in meetings so I'm more confident about what I'm saying. Or take a chance and speak up even if I'm afraid and just see what happens, or even read up on this

pattern and learn some techniques for rewriting it. You get the idea. For each source, there's always at least one thing you can do to change it. Now, what you're basically doing here is converting the downsides of your job into productive behaviors. You're not settling for your initial response to a tough situation, but using that situation to level up and become the best possible colleague. This is how you can push past the knee-jerk story of, miserable at work, it must be time to leave, it into a more productive story of I can change this miserable situation by showing up in a different way. And after that, your job is to actually pursue those action items. Schedule time in your calendar to work on these goals. Review them at the end of each day or week. See if you've made progress.

Rework them in light of new information. My advice, spend at least a month, but honestly probably two or even three months, genuinely giving this action plan a try. After that, go through this whole exercise again and see how your thoughts and feelings change. So if they do change, then you'll realize that your unhappiness was actually a sign it was time for you to make some changes on your side of the equation. And then you'll know that the answer wasn't to just jump ship and ditch the job, but to better steer the ship that you are already on. Now, if your observations don't change, then you'll feel a lot more secure in your instinct that it is indeed time to quit. And you'll have a much stronger story to tell in job interviews when it's time to look for a new job.

Now, you might still have some doubts about whether it's time to quit your job. So to give you a little guidance there, here are some good reasons to leave a job. Wanting to chase an opportunity that's more exciting, more meaningful, more lucrative, being inspired to take what you've learned in your current job to a role or opportunity, feeling stagnant despite putting in sincere effort, wanting to grow as a professional, not feeling connected to the mission or ethos of your company anymore, and real realizing that a job is at odds with your core values, your interests, or your lifestyle. Those are good ones.

On the other hand, some bad reasons to leave a job include struggling to get along with a small number of people in the office, or being uninspired without having invested much effort or working on your relationship with the company, maybe feeling underappreciated or being passed over for promotion for only one or two cycles, or being unhappy for reasons that are not directly caused by the job, like major life events or mental health challenges. a recent loss, family stress, all that, and not knowing what you'd rather do, but just feeling like this isn't the job you wanna be doing.

Of course, you can have several reasons for leaving a job, like wanting to chase an exciting opportunity and not loving the mission of the company anymore. But if you look at your list of reasons for quitting, and you're like, man, I actually don't even know if my reasons are legit, and here's one principle that I've recommended to countless people through the past 10 or 15 years of life,

and it will definitely help. Namely, it is always better to be running toward something than away from something. If your reasons are primarily about fleeing some unpleasant situation, that's usually a red flag. But if your reasons are more about chasing a desirable situation, that's generally a good sign. So doing the above exercise will make the whole, should I really quit, decision, that much more clear. And if you realize that it's not time to leave your job, then it's time to come up with an action plan. figure out which habits, goals, mindsets you need to cultivate to change your experience of your job. Talk to your peers and your bosses about the changes you'd like to make, how you relate to one

another, what you can achieve together, how you want to manage or be managed, and find a new connection with your mission, your product, your stakeholders, to bring more meaning into your job, and that the change you're looking for will only come with a new opportunity, then it is definitely time to figure out your next move. Yes, exactly right. It's so important to go through that phase of figuring out if your reasons for leaving are actually legitimate and they're not just a passing whim or momentary frustration before you actually start making plans to leave. So yes, once you've gone through that,

then you can figure out your next move. And look, there are a few schools of thought out there about whether you should absolutely must have your next job lined up before you leave your old one. Some experts say that you should definitely have it locked down before you give your notice. Other people say, no, it's totally cool to leave a job without having a new one in the bag, or even knowing what you're going to do next. And I think there are some experts out there who are big on just taking that risk no matter what. That is actually an important part of your development. But as we just talked about, if you don't have another job lined up yet, that might be okay too, as long as you have some kind of direction when you quit. If it's not a new

job, it could be an experience like traveling or studying or getting a series of certifications on your own or recuperating if you've been part of an intense work environment for a while or even maybe doing an unrelated job just for fun. You know, we've met people like that. they work in corporate for 10, 15 years, and then they want to volunteer at an NGO, or they want to do a short stint in some unrelated field, whatever, go to pastry school, whatever it is. If you decide to do that, though, just make sure that you're not faffing off and buying time, but you're actually using that period to get more in touch with your interests, your goals, your needs. So look, like, if you're studying Portuguese and writing a business plan for a cool startup that you're considering

while you volunteer with Habitat for Humanity while you're in Brazil or something like that, that could be an amazing investment worth your time. But if you're, you know, quote unquote, recuperating by getting turned at Dave and Buster's three nights a week with your college pros while you sleep on your LinkedIn messages, then I would check in with yourself and make sure, you know, you're really moving in the right direction. Again, it's all about that North Star, right? What are you moving toward? The other good reason to jump ship from a job without a plan is if a job is taking a major toll on you, or it's putting you at serious risk. For example, if you're part of an objectively toxic workplace and the office is creating

real mental stress, real physical stress, I'm talking like panic attacks or depression or recurring bouts of illness or waking up with a sense of dread, which we hear about in our feedback Friday inbox all the time, then it might be best to remove yourself from that situation. But I would still encourage anybody in a workplace like that to find ways to manage. that environment, cope with that environment before you decide to bail. Because honestly, some organizations are just high pressure environments, just the nature of the job. Like, Jordan, I imagine that there are people who work at SpaceX who don't wake up every day feeling totally calm, or people who work in like really ambitious departments of Amazon or something. Like,

there are places that are just so ambitious and the stakes are so high that you're not going to always be comfortable every moment. But that doesn't mean that it isn't worth working there. It doesn't mean that you should quit as soon as you feel stressed. Sometimes what we need to improve is our response to these places. It doesn't mean that we need to remove ourselves from them. But there is another scenario where I do think it's wise to quit without having another job lined up. And that's if you discover that there's something illegal or unethical happening at your company. You're listening to The Jordan Harbinger Show. This is a deep dive on how to quit your job. We'll be right back back. Thank you so much for listening to and supporting this show. You know the

advertisers keeps us going. I know those codes and discount code URL things are kind of hard to memorize. we put them all in one place, Jordan Harbinger.com slash deals is where you can find it. Please consider supporting those who support us. Now, back to our deep dive on how to quit your job. Yeah, true story. There was one of our listeners.

He was once indicted for insider trading. But the thing is, he was 27 years old, maybe even younger at that time. So the other guys at his firm, they just pinned the whole thing on him, basically put all this evidence, you know, on him somehow. and they wiggled out of it and hired lawyers, and they kind of threw him to the wolves.

His parents had to hire a lawyer to fight the charges to prevent him from going to freaking prison while the A-Holes who actually profited from the whole insider trading thing, they just walked away. I mean, this is like a junior, junior banker with, I guess he had access to documents and just didn't do or say anything,

and the other guys were going to fight hard. So he was the most vulnerable party, and they went after him. These are truly dangerous situations, even if you're just tangentially involved. So if you're near something like that, it's usually best to just document what you see, quit, and then get as far away from the mess as humanly possible. Right, exactly. So it's not worth sticking around to try to fix a situation as messed up as that. It's not like if you find out that your colleagues are insider trading or they're scamming customers that you should go and do our exercise and be like, well, I think it might be on me. I can try to fix this environment. Not worth it. Just leave. So bottom line, if you're going to quit, then set your course, even if you don't have a final destination. yet. And that means getting clear on your goals, your intentions, your interests. It also means coming up

with a basic plan for how you're going to spend your time off. You know, who do you want to meet? Who do you want to get closer with? What skills do you want to hone? Which ideas do you want to explore? What spaces do you want to understand better? And also which mindsets and habits on a personal level do you want to develop? In other words, what kind of person do you want to be on the other side of the job that you have now? If you work backward from there, you come up with a plan, you can make that plan. You can make that plan your agenda for your time off. So by this point, we should have already really done our homework on why we're leaving, and now we can get into the nitty-gritty of how to actually leave. And that really starts with Jordan, I think, given your notice, right? Yeah, and that's probably the most stressful

part of quitting, to be honest. No one likes hurting people's feelings, letting down their boss or a boss, having to break some bad news. But there's a good way and a bad way to do this. So let's get into it. First, you have to consider your audience, of course, the content and format of your notice. It should reflect the person that's receiving it. The stronger your relationships in your workplace, the more care you should put into your notice. That usually means breaking the news to your boss in a one-on-one meeting and then following up with a larger email to your other coworkers.

The more distant and transactional your relationships, the less you have to worry about sparing their feelings. But honestly, even in those workplaces, I still recommend being respectful. no matter the organization, it's always tough when a boss loses a good employee, and most bosses deserve a thoughtful goodbye. So if you're breaking the news to a distant senior VP who oversees 50 friggin people in a call center in another country or something like that, and there's turnover every dang day, you can probably give them your two weeks by email. But if you're breaking the news to the founder of a family-owned business who personally hired you three or four 10 years ago,

you probably want to schedule a face-to-face chat and share your reasons for leaving. And also, by the way, break the news in the right order. Years ago, I worked with a young lawyer. Well, we were all young lawyers. And he told everyone over drinks that he was weighing a job offer from another firm. And of course, you know, loose lips sink ships, one with a partner's the next day, calls him into the office. He's hurt.

He's surprised. Frankly, he's pissed off about it as well. And he confronts him. And my friend was just sideswiped. he then has to tell the partner who was the one who, by the way, hired him and pushed for him to be hired in the first place, why he was leaving after the partner had already gotten wind of it from a bunch of other dude bros, probably via email or DM or whatever, right? You just showed up on his Blackberry. It's just obviously not an ideal situation and not the mood you want to jump into when you're talking to your boss. If you've decided to leave, your best policy is to keep that information to yourself until you've told your direct. bosses. They deserve to know first, and then you can tell other executives or whoever needs to know, and only then can you break the news to your coworkers. Yes, even if y'all are really tight. If you tell anyone else in advance, you better make damn sure it's somebody you already

absolutely trust and still know that you're taking a risk. The water cooler is real, man. Word travels, and it could seriously compromise the tone of your exit. Yeah, totally. That is sound advice. And look, when you do talk to your boss, you're obviously going to have to share your reasons for leaving. And if you're leaving to take a new job, that'll probably be pretty straightforward. I'm leaving to take this new position. This is what it is. Thank you for everything. I'm excited. If you're leaving because you're unhappy, though, that's a little bit of a trickier conversation, and you will have to be a little bit delicate. So the question we get asked a lot is, how honest should I be about my reasons for quitting? It's a great question. Again, I do think that

depends on the nature of your relationships with your colleagues, your history, with your company. If you've worked closely with a boss you really like, you really admire, you probably owe them more of an explanation for why you're deciding to leave. If you're not as concerned about honoring your relationships or protecting them, then you can't afford to be vaguer about it. But in general, my advice would be to share your reasons for leaving, even if they're a little bit hard to hear, up until the point that they start being hurtful or they stop being useful. So, for example, telling a boss at a really difficult workplace that you're taking a new job with, you know, a more supportive culture, a better work life balance. That's a very diplomatic way of saying, this place is like toxic

for me. I can't be here anymore. I need to find a different place. But if you unload on them for 45 minutes about everything that you've hated about their office for the last three years, that probably isn't doing anyone any good. So unless your boss explicitly asks you for pointed feedback, I'm not sure you're obligated to tell them every single reason you have for bailing. In most cases, your best bet is to just share the headline. I'm leaving to go do X. It's calling to me because Y. These are my reasons.

I decided to pursue it because of Z, whatever it is. If your boss says, okay, but tell me more. I want to understand. What led you to this decision? Were you unhappy? What's going on? Then you can share a little bit more. And then you can see how it goes.

Read their cues, answer their follow-ups. You know, only go as deep as they want. want to go. But whatever you do, make sure that what you share with them on your way out is in a spirit of helpfulness rather than spite, regardless of how tempting that might be when you wrap up a job. Yeah, that is a great point, Gabe. Years ago, after a summer associate ship at a hoity-to-to-dy law firm, the partners asked me for some candid feedback about my experience, and I held my tongue sensing they didn't really want to know the truth. Also, like, what was in it for me to give them feedback about how crappy the program was, right? I was shocked.

when they ended up giving me a job offer, just given how horrendous the whole summer went, but it was helpful to have that offer in hand when I actually went into the job market because I didn't end up taking it. So you also have to balance the value of candor with the need to protect your own interests, which brings us to the question we get a lot.

How can I quit without destroying my relationships? And the short answer is, be as helpful as you can on your way out. Do everything in your power to set your team up for success, after you're gone. And depending on your role and workplace, that could mean wrapping up open projects or action items and handing them off to the right people, automating or systematizing your responsibilities so that they can continue without you, find and train your replacement,

transition key relationships to new people so there's no interruption, you know, make those warm intros. You hear about when people leave the White House and a new administration comes in, there's like binders that the person makes for the next person in that role. You've got to anticipate problems that will arise after you're gone as well. So make yourself available for questions and ideas on your way out. And honestly, open the door for the new person to email you even weeks, possibly even a few months, depending on how complicated your job is while you're at the new place. Because it could be really hard for them to find something or know who the right person is. What you don't want to do is end up sort of inadvertently punishing the next person who takes your job.

Even if you hate the company and they've wronged you, it's not the person's fault who's sitting in your chair. after you're gone. You know, why make their job harder? Also, take out a few of your colleagues for coffee or lunch and just thank them for their contributions, discuss your transition and cement your relationship. But even more important than the logistical stuff is adopting the right attitude during your transition. For some people, the last few weeks of a job are just a chance to run out the clock while they collect a paycheck. But employees who focus on being helpful on their way out the door are employees you just can't help but love, even when they're disappointing you by leaving. And adopting that mindset is hands down the best investment you can make. It'll

pay dividends with your old managers for years, your old colleagues. You can then build on that goodwill and invest in those relationships long after you leave. Yes, I totally agree. And one of the best ways that you can be helpful as you wrap up is to share some thoughts with your boss or your managers or your other colleagues on your way out the door. So Jordan, I actually know this guy. I met him in college, and he worked at one of those electric vehicle startup competitors to Tesla, and he actually has one of the greatest quitting stories that I've ever heard. So he worked with the CEO of the company directly for five or six years. This guy actually hired him out of college, and then they became really good friends. And then my friend decided to leave to start his own company.

and before he officially wrapped up, he sent this CEO a brief kind of email slash memo with some ideas and some insights for the company that he felt were really important that he wanted to share as he left. And in that memo, he basically was like, here are my predictions for the industry. These are the challenges that I think you guys are going to face in the next three to five years. Here's what you guys are going to have to change operationally, strategically, if you have a chance of surviving. He was pretty blunt about it. And the way my friend told me the story, he was actually, like, like brutally honest about some of the mistakes that the company had made. And some of these mistakes were actually part of the reason he decided to leave. But he felt that being honest with the CEO was actually one of the greatest gifts he could give his boss on his way out the door. And it turned out that he was right because, again, the way he told it to me, maybe he was glorifying it a little bit, but I think it pretty much went down this way. The CEO read the memo and then he called him a few hours later to talk about it and the CEO was like, listen, dude, this was not the easiest thing to read, but it was one of the most important things I've read in a long time. And apparently the CEO incorporated a lot of his

ideas into the new strategic plan after my friend left. And then they stayed close over the years and they kept talking and they would catch up by phone once a month or whatever and share thoughts. And then I talked to my friend a few months ago and he told me that the CEO, the same CEO, invited him to come back and consult for the company. And this was years after he quit. So that story always stuck in my mind because I think it's such an amazing case study in how far generosity and candor will get you when you're leaving a job. And how your ideas, when you share them on the way out the door and the right spirit, can really pay massive dividends in ways that you really don't expect.

So as you head out, as you transition from a job, I would consider sharing a few insights and a few recommendations with your bosses, with your team. It doesn't have to be super formal. It could be a casual conversation in the break room like, hey, here, I was thinking about this, just as I'm leaving, I want to give you something to think about, or it could be more formal, you know, in the form of a memo or a PowerPoint or whatever it is, could even be pulling somebody aside a teammate and encouraging them to go after an opportunity that you couldn't while you were there, whatever it is. As long as you're respectful and you have the other person's best interests at

heart when you do this, you'll hit the right note. But the other thing that my friend's story really illustrates is why it's so important to stay close with your colleagues after you leave. Yes, absolutely stay connected. This is the job. Jordan Harbinger Show and a deep dive on how to quit your job. We'll be right back. By the way, you can now rate the show if you're listening on Spotify. This is a huge help. I really appreciate it, of course. Search for the Jordan Harbinger Show in your Spotify app, click the dots on the upper right and make it happen. Now for the conclusion of our deep dive on how to quit your job. For many people, most, quitting is just, it's like the end of the story, right? They're often new

plays, the old place doesn't matter anymore, out of sight, out of mind. But there's another way to look at this transition, that quitting is just the beginning of a new phase of your relationship with an organization. So once you leave, pick the handful of people you like and admire and stay close with them. So keep investing in those relationships. By the way, it doesn't matter if they're above or below you in the hierarchy. Find ways to help those people out. It will always pay off. By the way, a good example of this, a listener of the show recently told me a pretty great story about how he quit his job in sales to pursue a more lucrative position as a corporate recruiter. In the last two weeks, not only did he find his replacement, but he brought in three other great candidates into the business.

So obviously his HR managers were amazed by his ability to recruit talent. I mean, who the hell brings in three other people and their replacement in two weeks? So they asked him how he found good people so quickly. And he told them, hey, this is my favorite thing to do. This is what I'm leaving to do. and he invited them to hit him up if they ever needed help sourcing more candidates. And sure enough, a couple months later, his old HR managers asked him to help fill a few open roles in the company. This time, of course, he formalized the relationship by bringing his old employer on as a client with his new recruiting firm, and he earned a bunch of commissions in the process. So in one fell swoop, he built a book of business at his new company by adding value to his old company. And of course,

you don't have to benefit in such a literal way in order to help your old company. The benefits can come in other forms like introductions to good people, access to valuable information or opportunities, greater negotiating leverage and job security, just stronger connections in general. The more you invest in your old colleagues, the more you help them grow, the more opportunities will actually flow back to you. And remember, other people leave jobs too. So if you're leaving and you're great to the people on your way out, when they go elsewhere, you never know. You might be in a position where you go, oh, good.

Tom is now at Google, and I've always wanted to work there. They've got a great opportunity. He's going to put in a good word for me. He might even be recruiting me as opposed to, oh, there's the guy where when I left, I left him like a giant stinking mess of stuff to unravel, and he kind of probably hates me now, and now he's on the recruiting panel for this Google role I want. I'm screwed.

Right? You have a choice to do this right and make an advantage as opposed to a disadvantage or a problem and hurdle that you get a jump. So my final piece of advice is to stay close and stay connected. Keep adding value to your old colleagues even after you quit. If you know they need talent, refer candidates over to them. If you'll learn they're struggling with sales, send new clients their way. If you hear that one of your old peers is looking for some guidance, reach out and offer to lend an ear. I mean, hey, if you stay close and you know your old company needs help, you might even talk yourself back into another job there in the future. That's happened to a few of our

listeners, they basically jump out and then jump back in at a more senior level, and it's kind of amazing. So there you have it. That is how you quit like a pro, like a classy pro. I know quitting is stressful. Even if your next step is exciting. It's just never fun telling a company that you're moving on. It's like a breakup, except with multiple people at once. But if you reframe the situation by just a few degrees, quitting can become an incredible opportunity to explore your reasons for making a major change, change the trajectory of your life and your career, create new forms of value for your colleagues, and deepen all of your relationships here. So as you navigate this big decision, I encourage you to think of it less as an awkward

obligation and more like a transitional state that can serve up new opportunities. The end of your time at a company doesn't have to be the end of your connection to it. It can just be a new phase of a relationship that will evolve in exciting and surprising way. So focus on nurturing that relationship, and you'll find that quitting is much less intimidating than it looks, and far more rewarding than it seems. Thanks so much, Gabriel Mizrahi, for doing this one with me. Links to this article where all this information comes from. If you need to refer to something instead of re-listening to this podcast, you can look at the

article, has some more detail on a few things. That's in the show notes at jordanharbinger.com. Also, of course, all of our articles are at jordanharbinger.com slash articles. If you buy books from our guest, please use our links. it helps support the show. Transcripts in the show notes, videos on our YouTube channel. I'm at Jordan Harbinger on Twitter and Instagram. You can always connect with me on LinkedIn as well.

And by the way, if you are networking and creating relationships, which we talked about a lot here, I'm teaching you how to connect with great people and manage relationships using systems, software, tiny habits, the same ones that I use every single day. We've got a free course, actually free. Don't need your credit card free. It's our six-minute networking course at Jordan Harbinger.com slash course.

the well before you get thirsty, build relationships before you need them. And many of the guests that you hear on this show, they subscribe and contribute to the course. So come join us. You'll be in smart company where you belong. This show is created in association with Podcast One. My team is Jen Harbinger, Jace Sanderson, Robert Fogart, Millio Campo, Ian Baird, Josh Ballard, and Gabriel Mizrahi. Remember, we rise by lifting others.

The fee for this show is that you share it with friends when you find something useful or interesting. So if you know somebody who's leaving their job or thinking about leaving their job, definitely share this episode with him. I hope you find something great in every episode of this show. The greatest compliment you can give us is to share the show with those you care about. In the meantime, do your best to apply what you hear on the show so you can live what you listen, and we'll see you next time.

You're about to hear a preview of the Jordan Harbinger show with Ken Perreni, an amazingly talented art forger who fooled thousands of museums, experts, and art buyers. He gave me a book on art forgery. began to unlock the secrets. I was a storehouse of knowledge of how to create an illusion, presented to a experienced expert, manipulate his mind, and bring him to the inevitable conclusion that the painting is genuine.

We flooded the market with my paintings, and I couldn't believe what I did. I couldn't believe it. Then the dominoes started falling and eventually the FBI will lead to my door. They uncovered a mountain of evidence against me. But they never actually got you. Why did it go away? Why did you never get indicted?

And how are we having this conversation? I guess that's the greatest story of all. If you want to hear more about how Ken made millions forging art, dodged the mafia, and even the FBI, Check out episode 282 of the Jordan Harbinger show, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening now. This episode is sponsored in part by What Was That Like Podcast? If you're looking for a new show to add to your rotation,

something that'll make you stop mid-dishwashing and go, wait, what that actually happened? You got to subscribe to What Was That Like? It's real people telling the most surreal moments of their lives and they're not just giving you the highlights. They're walking you through it from the inside as the person who actually lived it, which means you're basically getting a front row seat to the chaos. One episode is about Scott getting locked

up in a foreign jail for a crime he didn't commit. Sure, Scott. Another is Sue's parachute failing. Wow, I'm surprised she was around to tell that story. And then there's Michael who was stabbed on a bus, which makes your commute instantly feel a little bit more relaxing. Do what you think? So if you want to hear some wild and inspiring firsthand stories, I invite you to check out what was that like. Every story is verified. Their site even has photos so you know even the most bizarre stuff you're hearing is somebody's real life. Listen to what was that like on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or whatever app you're using right now. This episode is sponsored in part by Something You Should Know podcast. Finding a new great podcast shouldn't be this hard, so let me save you some time. If you like the Jordan Harbinger show,

you'll probably like Something You Should Know with Mike Carruthers. It's one of those shows that makes you smarter in a practical, useful way. Same curiosity vibe we go for here, just in a fast-focused format. Mike brings on top experts and asks the exact questions that you'd want to ask, and the topics are all over the place in the best way. Recently, they've covered things like Why we care so much what other people think, the benefits of laughter, why sports fans get so invested, and what makes people like you or not. The through line is always the same. Smart ideas you can actually use in real life.

Something You Should Know has been featured in Apple's shows we love, and it's got thousands of five-star reviews because it's consistently interesting. So if you want another show that scratches that I want to understand how people in the world really work, itch, search for something you should know wherever you get your podcasts. Look for the bright yellow light bulb and start listening. You can thank me later. You know,