I'll never forget the day I quit my job to pursue my startup full time.

My manager's office was two floors above mine. The morning I decided to give my notice, I took the stairs. Turns out, two floors is a lot of time to think. Was I making a mistake? Had I lost my mind? My legs felt leaden as I climbed, and by the time I reached the top, my heart was pounding in my chest — and not just because of the stairs.

Making the leap into entrepreneurship will never not be scary. But my manager didn't give me a hard time about the fact that I was leaving. He asked where I was going, and when I told him about my plans to build my own product, he didn't sulk, get angry or try to talk me out of it. Quite the opposite: He was excited for me. We shook hands, he wished me luck and he told me I was welcome back any time.

No leader ever wants a good employee to quit. But the truth is, people grow. Their goals change. And if you've built the kind of team you're proud of, you can't be surprised when someone on it starts to dream bigger. What matters most is how you respond when that moment comes.

That conversation with my manager stuck with me — not just because it gave me the confidence to take a leap, but because it modeled the kind of leader I wanted to be. Years later, when employees started leaving my company, I remembered his reaction. And I made a decision: I would always treat departures with respect, encouragement and an open door.

Because

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