Always Be Interviewing
Glengarry Glen Ross made the "Always be closing" phrase more famous than it already was, but in the talent world we have two paraphrased concepts:
Always be recruiting. Always be interviewing.
Each day, a manager -- in fact, the whole leadership team -- should demonstrate to employees the value proposition of working at a particular company. Sure, in the toughest markets, many employees don't have a lot of discretion regarding whether they continue coming to your business on a daily basis -- but sooner or later, even if they don't stop coming, they may stop producing. The joke that conflates the more traditional understanding of R.I.P. with "retired in place" is one of many reminders. Performance management can help root some of these people out. But that's not the point. The top performers are going to opt out if you are not constantly re-recruiting them. And they are the ones you really care about.
And the opposite is true. For an employee, every day you have a chance to demonstrate that you should have the position you hold -- and if the right situation arises, that you should have a more impactful, more influential position.
But it goes deeper than that. What you do, by acting like you are "applying" each day for the position you already have, and those that you want, influences the next position you will get.
And remember, as the Harvard Business Review reminds us, this is not the only important version of you (the one that's obviously on display at work) to be "applying" with. There is also the you that a complete stranger can look at that may not be related to the workplace "at all". So that even when you are not at work, you are still always applying.
Or you could think of it like this: Always be interviewing. Because you are always being interviewed.