Ask a Coach: What are early warning signs your high performers are job hunting or job hugging?

Something’s shifted in your high performer—the one who keeps everything running. She used to challenge assumptions before you even finished your sentence, but now she’s sitting silent, taking notes, hidden. Physically present, but not mentally there.

The initiatives she’s championed for years are suddenly in the rearview mirror. The high-visibility project that has her name written all over it doesn’t even get a nod from her. Maybe she’s taking more sick days or has sudden doctor appointments.

And it all has you asking: What happened? What’s wrong? She might be actively job hunting or she’s job-hugging, flying under the radar doing just enough to stay employed.

The warning signs of this show up as:

• She’s doing the bare minimum
• She’s gone quiet when she used to speak up
• She’s actively disconnecting from anything long-term
• She’s suddenly unavailable or hard to pin down

But before you assume the worst, consider this: these same behaviors could signal something personal going on with her. A health issue, family crisis or burnout. Before jumping to conclusions, pause and get curious.

Take her aside and have a real conversation about what is going on with her. No project updates. A heart-to-heart. Ask what she needs and listen.

Because when your top performer disengages, others notice and they start to follow. Whether she’s job hunting, job hugging or struggling personally, you can’t ignore these signs. You need to immediately reconnect before you lose her.

This is the first in a series called Ask A Coach. If you have a question for a career coach, send it to us at Marketing@AssociationForum.org and we may publish the answer in a future issue.