What Must You Do To Fire an Employee?
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What Must You Do To Fire an Employee?

Uncategorized Nov 20, 2019

What Must You Do To Fire an Employee?

Maybe some of you have had to fire employees before, or some of you haven’t. For those of us that needed to fire people in the past, that thought might have turned you off to hiring new people in the future. It’s not something that should necessarily excite you, and it can be intimidating.

Firing Is a Process

One that that must be a part of the firing process is setting expectation. In the book Radical Candor by Kim Scott the subject of firing is addressed by asking you if your team would know if they’re about to be fired, or would it come as a complete surprise. Firing someone in a situation where they have no idea it’s coming can be an extremely dangerous process. Your

not only affecting the employee that’s being fired, but the rest of your culture internally as well. Everyone else will be watching, and when someone’s added or removed from a team it changes the team.

Firing needs to occur with full transparency and full operation. The Balanced Career mentions another thing that should never happen during the firing process is acting without warning. Harvard Business Review also backs up the analysis from Scott, and leans further into why firing should be a process.

Very rarely does someone do something so unethical, or went so far over the line, that immediate response is necessary. In those cases, sure termination will be quick. That said, most situations begin with noticing that someone isn’t a good fit, going in the opposite direction from the team, and other small things that collectively give you the idea that something’s not working.

Setting Expectations

Your responsibility here is to have open communication. As you see instances like that occur, as an individual is missing the mark, have a frank conversation and clearly identify what is expected of their role and where they’ve reached. If these occurrences happen again, then continue to take them aside and let them know how it affects the larger interest in the team. When you need your employees as a whole to work together cohesively, and consistently achieve predetermined outcomes, and someone is regularly not a part of that system be transparent with them.

These conversations set that expectation with the employee, so if firing eventually becomes part of the solution they’re not caught off guard. It won’t be an unexpected event for them, or anyone else on your team. Firing without expectation places fear in every other member of your team, which impedes confidence and hurts productivity.

However, viewing and acting on firing as a transparent process will help those team members that stay on have a deeper connection and respect for the company and you as a leader. Plus, that person that’s leaving will have a smoother transition and have more positive things to say about you as they exit— because you took the time to address issues along the way, set expectations, and your actions weren’t perceived as unexpected.

This Week’s Take Away

This week I want you to think about an employee you might have that’s missing the mark. Make the effort to talk with them, and let them know you’ve seen their progress and it isn’t quite up to speed with the rest of the team. Have that tough conversation, and let them know you’re not firing them now, but it’s a thought that needs to be there for the collective benefit of the company. Start setting those expectations.

Hopefully you don’t have any employees that are underperforming, but if you do now you can set a process in place and make sure the rest of your team can come out of it in a positive way.



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