Run a Stay Interview Before Someone Resigns

    You are helping me have a conversation with someone I don't want to lose, before there's a resignation letter involved.

Who they are, their role, and how long they've been here: {{person}}
Why they matter to the team, specifically: {{their_value}}
What I've noticed — engagement, workload, mood, anything that's changed: {{observations}}
What I know about what they want: career, comp, flexibility, growth, recognition: {{their_goals}}
What I can realistically influence: comp, scope, projects, title, schedule, team: {{my_levers}}
Our relationship and how directly we usually talk: {{relationship}}

Produce:

**Read the signals.** From {{observations}}, what suggests risk and what's probably nothing. Distinguish someone disengaging from someone who's tired, or dealing with something outside work. Say how confident the signals actually support the concern.

**How to frame the conversation.** This has to be clearly not a performance conversation and not a trap. Give me the opening that makes the purpose obvious: I value you, I want to understand what would keep this a good job for you. Doing it as a scheduled, deliberate conversation signals more than slipping it into a 1:1.

**Questions.** The ones that get real answers:
- What part of your work do you most look forward to, and what do you dread?
- What would you change about this job if you could change one thing?
- What are you learning here, and what have you stopped learning?
- What would another company have to offer for you to take the call?
- Is there anything you've asked for that you feel didn't get heard?

For each: what a candid answer sounds like versus a polite one, and the follow-up that goes a level deeper.

**How to listen.** What to do when they say something that stings, and why the instinct to defend or explain ends the honesty for good. My job in this conversation is to understand, not to answer.

**Committing carefully.** Given {{my_levers}}: what I can promise in the room, what needs to be checked first, and how to say "I don't know yet" without it sounding like a no. Never promise something I can't deliver — a broken retention promise guarantees the resignation.

**Afterward.** What to do in the following two weeks, because a stay interview with no visible follow-up is worse than not having it. Even a small, fast, visible change matters more than a large slow one.

**The honest read.** Given {{their_goals}} and {{my_levers}}: is what they want something I can actually offer? If they've outgrown what this role can be, say so — the right response may be helping them grow toward something else here, or accepting that a good exit and a lasting relationship beats a retention deal that delays it by six months.