Your Best Employees Have a “Best By” Date—Unless You Do Something About It
Before I became a leadership coach and consultant, I spent 33 years in the rubber industry,
eventually serving as a Chief Chemist. And believe it or not, rubber chemistry taught me a lot about leadership.
One of those lessons involved something we called “age limits.”
Different rubber compounds had established age limits based on several factors, including accelerated laboratory aging, historical performance, and actual product testing. We knew that time and storage conditions mattered. A rubber compound sitting through the heat and humidity of a Nebraska summer could behave differently than that same compound stored during the winter. The problem was that the consequences weren't always immediately visible.
A product could be manufactured using material that had deteriorated, yet when the finished product came off the production line, you couldn't necessarily look at it and say, “That's a bad product.” It might look perfectly fine. But its life could already have been compromised. Adhesion might be lower. Durability might suffer. Product life could be shortened. Yet determining the actual effect could require extensive testing, and we didn't have a simple, quick test that could reliably predict exactly how long that finished product would perform.
That created an interesting tension between management and leadership - Getting Product Out the Door.
The people managing production had a difficult job. They needed to manage inventory, keep production running, meet schedules, control costs, and avoid throwing away expensive raw materials. All of those things matter. Management matters. But what happens when a material reaches its established age limit and you have a production schedule to meet?
Throwing it away has an immediate, measurable cost. Using it allows production to continue. And if the resulting product looks good, proving that its ultimate life has been compromised may be difficult.
That's where something bigger than management is required. Leadership.
Management asks, “How do we get today's product out the door?” Leadership must also ask, “What are the consequences of the decision we're making today?” Management and leadership are both valuable. But when the two come into tension, true leadership must prevail because leadership drives long-term performance.
There is another word that sits right in the middle of that decision: Trust.
Will our customer receive the quality they believe they purchased? Will our employees trust that the standards we establish actually mean something? Will we follow our values when following them is expensive, inconvenient, or threatens today's production numbers? It's easy to live your values when they don't cost you anything. Leadership is revealed when they do.
Is It Really an “Age Limit” or a “Best By” Date?
Technically, our age limits were probably closer to today's “Best By” dates than absolute expiration dates. A Best By date generally doesn't mean a product suddenly becomes unusable the next day. It means the manufacturer is no longer guaranteeing the same level of quality beyond that point. For most foods, USDA explains that these dates are primarily about quality rather than safety. That's very similar to what we faced with rubber compounds. The material didn't magically become worthless at midnight on its age-limit date. The problem was uncertainty. At what point had its performance deteriorated enough to compromise the finished product?
Now consider the people in your organization.
Your People Have a “Best By” Date, Too. Your team is composed of emotional human beings, regardless of how rational, technical, or task-oriented your business may be. And in a sense, every employee has a “Best By” date stamped on their soul. Not a fixed date. Not a date determined by age or years of service. And certainly not a date when that individual stops having value. It's the point at which they begin wondering whether their future might be better somewhere else.
The good news is that leadership can move that date.
When people are learning, growing, contributing, being challenged, feeling appreciated, being listened to, and believing that what they do matters, you are continually extending their future with your organization.
But when people feel ignored, stagnant, underdeveloped, unappreciated, or simply used to produce results, something begins deteriorating. And just like that finished rubber product, you may not be able to see it.
They still show up.
They still produce.
They still attend the meetings.
They may even still smile.
But internally, something has changed.
By the time you see the outward evidence—a disengaged employee, declining performance, a resignation letter—the deterioration may have been occurring for months or even years.
Then we hear, “The grass looked greener on the other side of the fence.”
Maybe it did. But leaders should ask a harder question: What were we doing to keep the grass green on our side?
Leadership Can Reset the Clock
This is where culture becomes much more than a poster on the wall or a list of corporate values.
Culture is what your people experience. Are they Seen & Heard? Do they experience Trust & Respect? Are you intentionally investing in Continuous Learning & Development? Do they experience Support & Care? Are their contributions met with genuine Celebration & Appreciation? Those aren't “soft” leadership issues. They affect whether your best people see a future with you.
Management can schedule their work, measure their performance, calculate their productivity, and make sure the product gets out the door. Leadership does something management alone cannot do. Leadership gives people a reason to want to stay, grow, contribute, and become more.
So here's my challenge.
Identify three to five of your most valuable people. Not necessarily the people with the biggest titles—the people whose contribution, influence, character, and potential matter to your organization. Then ask yourself one question:
“What am I doing to add value to their lives—not simply extract value from their work?”
Don't wait until their performance changes. Don't wait until engagement drops. And certainly don't wait for the resignation letter. Because unlike rubber compounds sitting in inventory, your people don't come with a printed date telling you when something has begun to change.
Great leaders don't wait for the “Best By” date. They intentionally create a culture that keeps moving it.
Brian Peterson | Leadership Harbor Leadership Coach • Speaker • Culture & Growth Consultant Helping leaders and organizations create Clarity, Direction & Results by developing people, strengthening leadership, and intentionally building culture.
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