Firing People: The #1 Question to Ask
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We have a very juicy topic on our hands this month: firing people. The simple truth is that shitty people have to go.
“The impact of keeping low-performing, toxic, bad apples on a team is destructive to morale, performance, engagement, and retention. They need to either be coached into greatness or shown the door.”
The impact of keeping low-performing, toxic, bad apples on a team is destructive to morale, performance, engagement, and retention. They need to either be coached into greatness or shown the door.
A challenging conversation
Firing someone is by far the most challenging and uncomfortable conversation for leaders and employees alike. It makes people squirm; but in order to be worthy of the badge of leadership, this is something that you have to own.
According to Patty McCord, the former chief talent officer at Netflix and the author of Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility, delaying a firing decision is ill-advised.
“Your goal is to build a great team that does great work,” she says. And to do that, “you need productive, engaged employees.”
And she’s right.
Ask this question to determine if you should let someone go
There's a test that I like to suggest when faced with potentially letting someone go.
Ask yourself this simple question:
If this person weren’t already in this role and you knew everything you already know now about them as an employee and how they show up, would you hire this person for that role right now?
If the answer to that question is “No,” then you need to take action around that, now. They either need to be coached up into greatness or shown the door. Either way, something needs to change.
“Wine and bourbon get better over time, low performing employees however, do not.”
You can’t build an amazing team or win in business by continuing to allow your worst players on the field. Improve them or replace them, and don’t wait. Wine and bourbon get better over time, low performing employees however, do not.
Cleaning out the fridge
To illustrate this idea, I really like the metaphor of cleaning out the fridge. If you have moldy food inside a fridge, it is your unique responsibility as a leader to address it and clean it out. You need to be the one to make hard choices and take action.
If you don’t get rid of bad apples, you’re essentially paying someone to slowly ruin your company.
“If you don’t get rid of bad apples, you’re essentially paying someone to slowly ruin your company. ”
I'm going to dive much deeper into this conversation over the course of this month because there's a lot to unpack and many dynamics at play in the topic of firing people.
Throughout the month, I’m going to talk about coaching people and bringing them up into greatness to avoid having to fire them so that firing is a last resort.
I’m also going to talk about the mindset for people moving in and out of jobs (because this is obviously a scary topic for many people), as well as how to run a team so that you never have to fire anyone again, which is ideal.
Ultimately what I want is for every organization to be healthy with a strong culture, and for people to enjoy their work and be successful. Letting people go is a very important element of that because you can’t achieve those things if you keep toxic, bottom rung performers around.
It is my hope with covering this topic that this can be a wake-up call to shake things up for some teams.
It’s time for unhappy, underperforming employees to shape up or ship out. It’s also time for leadership to step up their ability to address and correct these types of issues head on.
It’s time to clean the fridge.
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This content was created by Galen Emanuele for the #shiftyestribe. Free leadership and team culture content centered on a new focus every month. Subscribe to the Shift Yes Tribe at shiftyes.com