Why Good Employees Leave and Bad Culture Stays

One of the hardest truths I’ve learned as a leader is this: if you don’t empower and reward your best people, they’ll eventually leave. And when they do, you’re left with the ones who either can’t or won’t rise to the standard.

I’ve seen it firsthand. In business, if leaders ignore top performers—fail to recognize their work, fail to give them the resources to succeed—they start looking elsewhere. The problem isn’t that they’re ungrateful. The problem is leadership creates an environment where excellence doesn’t feel valued.

The Mistake Leaders Keep Making

At one point in our company, we made the mistake of promoting great individual contributors into management roles simply because they excelled at their jobs. The assumption was: if you’re good at the work, you’ll be good at leading people. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

Management requires something entirely different—responsibility, authority, and the courage to hold people accountable, even if it’s uncomfortable. Too often, those new managers would cover for underperformers, smooth things over, or work 16-hour days to hide problems instead of leading. We learned the hard way that being a top performer doesn’t automatically translate into being a strong leader.

Culture Is Everything

During the 2020 unrest, I remember thinking about how leadership failures in cities mirrored what I’d seen in business. If you don’t support your good people—whether they’re employees, officers, or team members—they’ll leave. The ones who stay often aren’t the ones you want.

It’s the same in business culture. Leaders must reward good behavior, empower high performers, and create an environment where people can grow. Otherwise, the culture erodes from the inside out.

The Power of Recognition

Recognition is a leadership tool most founders underestimate. At Seven Corners, we built a peer recognition program to make sure good work didn’t go unnoticed. Sometimes managers miss the small stuff, but peers see it. Encouraging people to recognize each other keeps culture alive and gives leaders a pulse on what’s really happening.

I used to think recognition was fluffy, something only “millennials” needed. But over time, I realized everyone wants to know their work matters. Even people who say they don’t need it appreciate being told, “You did a great job.” It builds momentum, loyalty, and culture.

The Leadership Takeaway

At the end of the day, leadership is about people. Your job is to keep the good ones, support them, and make sure they thrive. Ignore that, and the good ones will walk. The bad ones will stay. And culture—once it slips—takes years to rebuild.