Why High Performers Leave, and What CEOs Must Do to Keep Them
Summary
The article argues that a long-dead employment compact — loyalty for security and steady pay progression — has been replaced by a market-driven reality where bargaining power, not tenure, dictates rewards. Rising CEO pay and rent-seeking at the top have left many high performers undervalued, driving quiet exits, reduced engagement and talent flight.
The author outlines the economic evidence for widening pay-productivity gaps and shows how employees increasingly benefit by switching jobs rather than staying put. Practical remedies for leaders include paying for impact rather than title, creating dual career ladders, enabling market-based compensation adjustments, amplifying recognition, and measuring outcomes over visibility.
Key Points
- The traditional employer-employee compact (loyalty → security → steady pay) is effectively broken.
- Pay growth increasingly follows bargaining power (job-switching), not steady tenure or productivity.
- Quiet quitting reflects rational market response to misaligned incentives, not mere laziness.
- Disproportionate executive pay has contributed to stagnant wages for many and demotivated top performers.
- CEOs must shift from rewarding hierarchy to rewarding measurable impact.
- Practical fixes: dual career ladders, market-based pay adjustments, exponential recognition, and outcome-based metrics.
- Doing nothing risks losing institutional knowledge, morale and client confidence — the real cost of underpaying top talent.
Context and Relevance
This piece sits at the intersection of labour economics and people strategy: it uses data and economic framing to explain why talent retention problems are systemic rather than purely cultural. For executives and HR leaders, the article connects macro trends (pay-productivity divergence, CEO pay growth) to practical compensation and career-framework changes that protect organisational performance.
It’s particularly relevant given ongoing competition for scarce skills across tech, product, data and specialist roles where individual contributors can deliver outsized impact without holding headcount budgets.
Why should I read this?
Look — this isn’t another fluffy article about perks. If you run a business, hire people, or sign pay cheques, you’ll want five minutes with this. It explains why your best folks are silently ghosting you, and gives no-nonsense fixes you can start using now: stop confusing title with value, pay for real impact, and give top performers non-managerial routes to progress. Read it if you want to stop losing your stars.
Author style
Punchy and direct. Katie Tamblin blends data, personal experience and practical prescriptions — she calls out uncomfortable truths for leaders and forces a rethink of long-standing pay rules. If you care about retaining talent and protecting organisational performance, this piece is worth the full read.