In a work world where people change jobs every 3-5 years (the world we’ve been living in for some time now) employers and employees often do this weird dance with one another, pretending that we’re still in the era of the gold watch upon retirement. This is disingenuous at best, and at worst it’s harmful to the interests of both employer and employed. A better approach, as framed by LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, is to treat the relationship as an “alliance”, with each 2-3 year stint a well-defined “tour of duty.”In the past, employees used to stay with one company for their whole careers. Today, people tend to stay with a company for only a few years.Have open, honest, constructive conversations with your employees about doing tours of duty at your company. Put forth your vision of the role for a predetermined number of months or years. Ask the employee to give the company his or her “all” during that time.In return, promise to invest in the employee’s professional develo...