Written by
Larissa Zwart
Headhunter & Equity Partner
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Leaving a better place
How someone leaves a role says as much about their leadership as what they built there. This piece looks at the handover as the last piece of craftsmanship in a role.
Some guests do it without thinking. On the last morning, with the taxi already waiting, they gather the used towels in one corner of the bathroom and leave a folded note on the desk for housekeeping. Nobody asked for it, and nobody will check. A hotel room is never left better than it was found; it was immaculate when they arrived, but it can be left with care.
As guests, we hopefully all know that instinct.
When we leave a role, we rarely think about it this way. By the time the notice period starts, the mind has often already moved on: the new team, the new property, the first ninety days somewhere else. The old place gets whatever attention is left. Yet it keeps running on what we leave behind, for months after the farewell drinks.
What if a role could be left a little better than you found it?
Picture a successor's first week, a composite drawn from a pattern we have seen often enough to recognise. The team runs the Saturday without calling anyone. The handover notes match what is actually happening on the floor, including the things that went wrong. A key supplier picks up on the first ring, because the previous director made the introduction personally and explained what this house expects. Nothing in that week carries the predecessor's name, and all of it is their work.
In a sense, the successor is the next guest. Only this time, the room can be left better than it was found, and within days they can tell whether it was.
Not every departure is easy. Sometimes people leave for good reason, and the frustration is justified. That is exactly when the ending counts most, because it is the one part still entirely in your hands. Hospitality is a small world. Owners talk, teams scatter and meet again in other properties, and the way someone left is remembered long after the reason is forgotten. For employers, the same holds from the other side: how a departing leader is treated in those final weeks shapes what they hand over, and what they say about you afterwards.
A good ending is the last piece of craftsmanship in a role, and often the one that lasts longest: leaving it a little better than you found it.
So, one question to take into the weekend.
What do you want your successor to find?
