If you are in a management position, at some point in your career you will be forced to fire someone from their job. When all attempts have failed to correct an employee you have no choice but to fire them.
For many leaders, terminating an employee can be a very traumatic experience. Firing an employee isn’t fun, it doesn’t make you feel like a great person, but in many situations, it’s a necessary evil. This is one that many managers shy away from. Great managers, however, realise sometimes you just have to let an employee go. Your primary purpose as a boss is to help people to be successful. But some people will never be successful in the position they are in because it’s not the right position for them. No matter what you do, no matter how hard you try to develop or help the employee, they will never succeed in their current position because it’s not the right fit for their knowledge, personality, capabilities, interests, or aspirations.
Consequently, the best thing you can do to help this person succeed is to set them free from their current position so they can find the right job where they can be successful. The new position may be inside or outside of the company, but it can’t be the position they’re currently in because it’s the wrong job for them.
Some people may not be successful at your company because the business is not a fit for them. I’ve been surprised to find people working in a casino who are opposed to gaming or who find working with gamblers to be abhorrent to them. One might ask why they applied for the job, but many people do so without thinking of the impact the job might have on their personal values or beliefs.
Workers who struggle with conflicts between what they do and who they are, need to be set free so they can work somewhere that is in harmony with their principles. Some people may never succeed at work because they shouldn’t be working. Some elderly workers, for example, may have stayed in a position beyond their physical or mental capacity to perform the job. I once had to set free an eighty-year-old nurse who was dispensing incorrect medicines because she could not remember the proper dosage or correct prescription. She was eligible to retire, but she still wanted to work. The best thing for her, and for her patients, was to let her go.
Be human
If you are permitting poor performers to have all the same benefits as your top executives, those top executives are going to leave you pretty quickly. Just as you wish to reward great behaviour, you wish to squash bad attitudes and poor performance just as quickly. It can truly take over the team like a plague. While being a sales manager would be a heck of a lot easier if you had a guidebook for every step along the way, it wouldn’t be the great learning experience you are going through now. The bottom line is that you should manage in the same way you wish to be managed. Be fair, trustworthy, humble, and a great example for your team, and not only will they like you, but they will work harder for you too.
No one likes to be blindsided. So never make it a surprise. If you’re terminating someone for a cause, then there should be a history of engagements to try to initially correct the behaviour. Nothing breeds anger faster than feeling ambushed. For example, don’t tell an employee he is doing a great job if he’s not; and then terminate him. This naturally creates resentment and a sense of betrayal. In the same way, don’t wait until an annual review period to let someone know they are in danger of losing their job. These are conversations that you should be having on a continual basis. All companies, including those with a single employee, need to have a clear Employee Handbook that lays out company policies, guidelines and expectations. This creates a neutral reference that anyone can refer to for guidance.
Losing a job is never a pleasant thing. You are the employer and the one in charge of the situation. You need to be in charge of your emotions. Don’t fire out of anger or your own sense of disappointment. Be in control before you have the termination meeting. Get yourself to a point where you can be human and compassionate.
This is a person losing their income who likely cannot afford to not have a job. This is upsetting and scary and can lead to people doing rash things, especially if they feel provoked. You should set up the situation to be as non-confrontational as possible. This isn’t a time for the airing of grievances, or listing out all the ways the person has failed as an employee. Since there are no surprises, the employee is aware of the performance shortcomings. This meeting is short and to the point – the employment relationship is ending.
Keep performance, the only criteria – be ethical and nurture and protect human values always with no compromise. Demonstrate true leadership.
