diff --git a/docs/content/en/docs/documentation/operations/leader-election.md b/docs/content/en/docs/documentation/operations/leader-election.md
index a8b33a2084..ba82632cb1 100644
--- a/docs/content/en/docs/documentation/operations/leader-election.md
+++ b/docs/content/en/docs/documentation/operations/leader-election.md
@@ -44,7 +44,16 @@ See details under [configurations](configuration.md) page.
    the lease.
 2. Once leadership is acquired, event processing begins normally.
 3. If leadership is lost (e.g. the leader pod becomes unresponsive), another instance acquires the lease
-   and takes over reconciliation. The instance that lost the lead is terminated (`System.exit()`)
+   and takes over reconciliation. The instance that lost the lead is terminated (`System.exit(1)`), so
+   that it is restarted by Kubernetes and no two instances reconcile the same resources in parallel.
+   This does not happen on a graceful shutdown (`Operator.stop()`), only when the lead is lost while
+   the operator is running.
+
+{{% alert title="Note" color="primary" %}}
+Exiting on lost leadership is always on in production. `LeaderElectionConfigurationBuilder` exposes
+`buildForTest(boolean exitOnStopLeading)` to turn it off, but as the name says this is only meant for
+tests, where terminating the JVM would kill the test run.
+{{% /alert %}}
 
 ### Identity and Namespace Inference
 
diff --git a/operator-framework-core/src/main/java/io/javaoperatorsdk/operator/api/config/LeaderElectionConfiguration.java b/operator-framework-core/src/main/java/io/javaoperatorsdk/operator/api/config/LeaderElectionConfiguration.java
index ca777bd2cc..c8e73db7db 100644
--- a/operator-framework-core/src/main/java/io/javaoperatorsdk/operator/api/config/LeaderElectionConfiguration.java
+++ b/operator-framework-core/src/main/java/io/javaoperatorsdk/operator/api/config/LeaderElectionConfiguration.java
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ public class LeaderElectionConfiguration {
   public static final Duration LEASE_DURATION_DEFAULT_VALUE = Duration.ofSeconds(15);
   public static final Duration RENEW_DEADLINE_DEFAULT_VALUE = Duration.ofSeconds(10);
   public static final Duration RETRY_PERIOD_DEFAULT_VALUE = Duration.ofSeconds(2);
+  public static final boolean EXIT_ON_STOP_LEADING_DEFAULT_VALUE = true;
 
   private final String leaseName;
   private final String leaseNamespace;
@@ -50,7 +51,7 @@ public LeaderElectionConfiguration(String leaseName, String leaseNamespace, Stri
         RETRY_PERIOD_DEFAULT_VALUE,
         identity,
         null,
-        true);
+        EXIT_ON_STOP_LEADING_DEFAULT_VALUE);
   }
 
   /**
@@ -79,7 +80,15 @@ public LeaderElectionConfiguration(
       Duration leaseDuration,
       Duration renewDeadline,
       Duration retryPeriod) {
-    this(leaseName, leaseNamespace, leaseDuration, renewDeadline, retryPeriod, null, null, true);
+    this(
+        leaseName,
+        leaseNamespace,
+        leaseDuration,
+        renewDeadline,
+        retryPeriod,
+        null,
+        null,
+        EXIT_ON_STOP_LEADING_DEFAULT_VALUE);
   }
 
   /**
@@ -133,6 +142,12 @@ public Optional<LeaderCallbacks> getLeaderCallbacks() {
     return Optional.ofNullable(leaderCallbacks);
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Whether the process should exit (via {@code System.exit(1)}) when this instance stops leading
+   * outside of a graceful shutdown. Defaults to {@value #EXIT_ON_STOP_LEADING_DEFAULT_VALUE};
+   * {@code false} is only meant for testing purposes, see {@link
+   * LeaderElectionConfigurationBuilder#buildForTest(boolean)}.
+   */
   public boolean isExitOnStopLeading() {
     return exitOnStopLeading;
   }
diff --git a/operator-framework-core/src/main/java/io/javaoperatorsdk/operator/api/config/LeaderElectionConfigurationBuilder.java b/operator-framework-core/src/main/java/io/javaoperatorsdk/operator/api/config/LeaderElectionConfigurationBuilder.java
index 51ee40d84c..38d0d98f6b 100644
--- a/operator-framework-core/src/main/java/io/javaoperatorsdk/operator/api/config/LeaderElectionConfigurationBuilder.java
+++ b/operator-framework-core/src/main/java/io/javaoperatorsdk/operator/api/config/LeaderElectionConfigurationBuilder.java
@@ -81,11 +81,26 @@ public LeaderElectionConfigurationBuilder withExitOnStopLeading(boolean exitOnSt
             + " instead");
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Builds the configuration with {@code exitOnStopLeading} set to {@value
+   * LeaderElectionConfiguration#EXIT_ON_STOP_LEADING_DEFAULT_VALUE}, meaning that the process exits
+   * when this instance stops leading outside of a graceful shutdown, so that another replica can
+   * take over without two instances reconciling in parallel.
+   */
   public LeaderElectionConfiguration build() {
-    return buildForTest(false);
+    return build(EXIT_ON_STOP_LEADING_DEFAULT_VALUE);
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Same as {@link #build()}, but allows turning off the exit on stop leading behavior. This should
+   * only be used for testing purposes, since without exiting, two instances might reconcile the
+   * same resources in parallel.
+   */
   public LeaderElectionConfiguration buildForTest(boolean exitOnStopLeading) {
+    return build(exitOnStopLeading);
+  }
+
+  private LeaderElectionConfiguration build(boolean exitOnStopLeading) {
     return new LeaderElectionConfiguration(
         leaseName,
         leaseNamespace,