I have left too soon.

I have stayed too long.

What should have been a send-off ended in a break-up.

We stay too long because what we thought was comfort and a guarantee proved to be conformity and a graveyard for our soul.

We leave too soon because we jump at an opportunity for a fresh start when what we need is to forge our own maturity.

After a while, you come to recognize that there is a rhythm to coming and going, to beginning and ending. It’s not a matter of right and wrong or best and worst.

There is a then. There is a now. What is helps until it doesn’t. What frees is great until it binds.

The past has provided for you systems in which you grew. And then you outgrow them. Something happens in you that no previous form can contain.

Something must change.

When Not To Leave

• You don’t quit in the middle.
• You don’t leave just because times are tough.
• You don’t give up because of relational conflict.
• You don’t end things for more money elsewhere.
• You don’t escape problems. They will find you.

When To Leave

Great leaders know the right time to leave and how to do so with excellence, honor and celebration.

You leave for three good reasons.

You can no longer be true to who you are.

As you mature, you perfect your beliefs about yourself, about the world around you and about who and what matters.

You realize you don’t just lead - you are a leader. The noun is the identity, the verb is an expression thereof.

As a CIO, you have grown in your influence, until such time that your growth is no longer encouraged but kept distant. You have recognized your strengths, you have shaped them into the best use for the business, and you have significant influence with exceptional people and it’s an ever expanding sphere of influence.

Sadly, some companies are not ready for you to bring the business impact that they need. Trust your sense to know when waiting is no longer a virtue, when you aren't really a leader.

You can no longer accomplish what must be accomplished.

The days of being a glorified fix-it center are behind you; but the days of being a business transformation specialist are not necessarily in front of you.

You are too aware of possibilities to be stifled by decisions that consistently hold you back. You are too artful with processes to be slowed down by financial restrictions and personnel restraints.

You can be too nice for too long. Windows of opportunity are meant to be climbed through.

What matters most to you is minimized

We influence what matters to us. But what matters to us does not always matter as highly to others. When who and what we want to influence is kept away from us, it’s time to leave.

I put the word reconsideration in the title of this article because I wrote on the subject several months ago.

But since then, I’ve watched friends and colleagues struggle in companies where they want to serve faithfully and not bail too quickly, while at the same time they are losing their sanity because they cannot lead as they want, do what they want or influence where they want.

I am bent towards staying. But I am reconsidering my instinct. Because, for my friends:

It is time for them to leave.

It might be time for you to leave.

It’s not faithful to stay when you should leave; that’s being fearful. Faithful is being in the place where you are true and accomplishing what matters to you.

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