Oddly enough the original question is what a CEO can do, but after discussion how hard it is for the CEO emotionally the all of the specific advice is aimed to

Oddly enough the original question is what a CEO can do, but after discussion how hard it is for the CEO emotionally the all of the specific advice is aimed to the valuable employee who's leaving. I'm not clear on how exactly the post author missed the point of the question so impressively and then submitted it here - perhaps he couldn't think of anything else to write in response? The tips for the employee are good, though a bit patronizing and basic, but it's not exactly very useful to a CEO. I've been on both sides of that table (though as manager for the employee who was leaving, not CEO) and post that actually answered the question would have been more than welcome. It's usually too late to keep the employee when they're resigning, but there's often some room for a positive relationship when they leave. In my experience keeping up morale, keeping a potentially valuable contact (you wanted to them for some reason, right?) available, avoiding a reputation hit with other potential hires & partners, and maybe being able to tap them for tribal knowledge or the occasional bit of consulting is well worth a lot of effort for the CEO. How you do that tends to be a bit less clear...