Chad Silverstein tells managers to move fast on personnel problems: write down expectations, set measurable milestones, and fire underperformers quickly instead of letting them linger. A bad $150,000 hire costs far more than the salary if you wait to act.
Questions this video answers
June 17, 2024
90 days
$150,000 and $200,000
Chapters
One of the things I learned early on was that the quicker you can pull the band aid off, the better. Chronic problems with people and having the wrong person on your team is just deadly. It's a killer for a culture. And leaders have to do a solid job from the beginning of the relationship. Setting the tone, creating the expectations, putting it in writing. Make sure that you understand you're on the same page. Having them play it back and, and knowing how they will get fired, knowing how they will move up, what path are you gonna give them? They need to know that. Otherwise it's just waiting for some conversation down the road where someone's gonna be bitter and there's gonna be a bad surprise, and you gotta clear that stuff up at the beginning of the process. And when leaders are dealing with issues with people on their team, sometimes you just gotta just accept the fact that it's not gonna get better. It's just not. You wanna give people a chance to change, but you gotta just study the people around you. And if they have given you a pattern and you're expecting a miracle for them to be different, then that's on you. So you don't want to be caught too long. Delaying the inevitable and then having your team wonder what's going on, it just says everything about your leadership. So sometimes you just got to put it. You got to make a decision, period. And I think being clear with what your bar is and giving people measurables that are specific and concrete, there should be no problems or conflict because everyone knows what to expect. And if you're not meeting this bar, you can't stay. And then if you need to lower that bar, then you lower the bar. You want to, you want to increase the bar over time, for sure. And if people want to make more money, they have to understand that they have to deliver above the bar. They can't just be paid more because they've been here for a long time. And I think again, you got to cut the cord. And even if it's a high performer, sometimes that's the best thing for the system. You know, Never stop recruiting. Never stop looking for people. My old partner used to teach me, you find that a player, you hire that person, find a place for them because it's rare. And, and the answer to the problems are usually the right person. When a right person comes in, especially after you get rid of someone who's not been a right fit, you just realize how unbelievable it is and you kick yourself in the butt and then you do it again. And you wonder when am I going to learn? But the reason is because we avoid the pain. The loss aversion is a real thing. We tend to not want to lose something that we've poured ourselves into, that we've invested in, that we want to believe in. But you also have to be realistic. And you've got to be able to just look back and watch the patterns unfold and see if that's going to lead towards whatever result that you need and that you're willing to pay for. Remember, if you're hiring someone that is very expensive, you're not spending $150,000, $200,000 unless you decide to keep them the whole year, meaning that if they're not good after 90 days, you cut the cord. Then you've only spent 15, 20,000, and that's a lot better than losing a year's salary because you wanted the person to work out. So be clear with what you expect and create milestones so that the either person does it or doesn't. And if they don't, then you can't keep them, and you just make that front so it's not a surprise later on. And I think this is one way that you can help your team feel united. And it's also an easier and better way to untie the relationships that you have to part with.
