Knowing When To Walk Away From Your Job

Be your own kind of leader — one who knows when it’s time to go.

Previously published on Forbes

The question of when to walk away isn’t always an easy one to answer. When you’re starting out, you’re full of optimism and hope. You see that bright, shiny job, relationship or fresh pursuit over there and you move toward it with abandon. New beginnings are fun.

But endings, not so much. It takes guts to leave with that same level of self-assurance.

Jacinda Ardern’s bold decision to resign as prime minister of New Zealand is a recent example of what it looks like to walk away with personal clarity and courage.

“I’m leaving, because with such a privileged role comes responsibility — the responsibility to know when you are the right person to lead and when you are not,” she said. “I know what this job takes. And I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It’s that simple.”

It’s that simple, and yet, as we all know, it’s not that simple at all. It’s a brave act to know yourself, to lay it all out there, and forgo your own ego in service of something bigger than you, to be confident in your choices and trust your instincts.

Ardern went on to allude to her legacy, as a leader and a role model, saying, “I hope I leave New…