Last month, Ann wrote about how to build a team that works. One of the hardest things either of us has had to do was cut a team member. Sometimes a person simply doesn’t fit all the elements of the job.
We have been on both sides of that fence. Ann’s firing slammed her self-esteem, even though the job was a bad fit. Nancy was laid off twice early in her career, which was equally devastating because she was so ambitious and driven to succeed.
For Ann, being freed from her job turned out to be a gift. She went on to work for Harvard Business School, Bessemer Venture Partners and to co-found and run her own company. The first time Nancy was laid off, she moved to Mount Desert Island and worked for Hinckley Yachts; the second time, she started her own PR agency. It was a blessing in disguise.
Later in our leadership roles, those experiences made us sensitive to letting people go. Here are a few guidelines around terminating a team member.
When to fire someone
An investor Ann once worked with said to her, “I never fired a CEO too soon.” The point didn’t stem from general misanthropy. But once you’ve lost trust in someone, the working relationship is over. If you can’t believe their numbers or the quality of their analysis, you just can’t work together anymore. When Ann couldn’t rely on the accuracy of a team member’s work, that employee had to go. But this was only after extensive feedback.
Providing feedback
Firing someone should never come as a surprise. It should be part of an ongoing conversation. Start with one-on-one conversations and efforts to improve their performance. Make it clear where they are falling short and what you want to see them do.
If you’re in a union shop, you’ll need to follow the union’s rules. Share your concerns in writing.
The act of firing
When you have to fire someone, it’s not fun for either person. Twice, Ann was about to let people go when they told her that they’d found new positions. They had felt the mismatch between their skills and the position’s requirements. But in other situations, she had to have the difficult conversation that resulted in termination.
In that meeting, the most senior person should be present, along with the person and their manager. That way, there’s no illusion that the staff member can go over the manager’s head. Lay out the performance shortcomings, the efforts made to resolve them and the ongoing issues. Express your regrets — because there always will be regrets. You didn’t hire this person thinking they wouldn’t work out.
While some lawyers maintain that you should say nothing more than “You’re fired,” we don’t agree. You have to be able to live with yourself after firing a key person.
Final logistics
Before someone leaves, there are various logistics to address: Do they keep their computer or phone? What does severance involve? Will you provide a reference? Be sure you’ve checked with your lawyer about any forms that need to be signed — most smaller companies have employment-at-will arrangements, which makes termination logistically straightforward.
Then let them gather their things, walk them out of the building and wish them well. It often helps if you then pull the rest of the team together and tell them that you had to let the person go “due to issues of fit.”
Doing the right thing
Letting a person go is never easy, but it’s almost always the right thing. The rest of the team sees that you’re serious about the culture you’re building and that you’ll reward people who work as hard as you need them to.
Parting ways can also be helpful to the departing person.
An employee Ann parted ways with later got in touch about how he’d pursued a different path and was ecstatically happy doing work that fit his talents. Nancy has also re-hired several former employees who left on their own, only to realize later that working for Nancy’s agency wasn’t so bad after all.
