Kenny Chapman's four-question framework for firing decisions: Do they understand expectations? Have you trained and coached them? Is it willingness or ability? He argues most leaders fire too fast without proper training, and should retain willing employees even if they need more coaching.
Hey, my friend Kenny Chapman here, the blue collar coach with a question for you. To fire or not to fire? That is the question, right? It's a question that all of us leaders have to deal with at different times, different points in our careers. And it's never easy. It pulls on our heartstrings. Most of us in small business communities feel like, you know, we spend as much time with our team members as we do our families. And a lot of time builds strong bonds and relationships and we get to know families and all the different things that pull on us. If a team member gets to a point to where we really feel that need to let them go. So what I want to do today is free you from this and help you become more objective and think about performance versus the heart for a moment. Now, that doesn't mean that it's going to be easy every time. It doesn't mean that it's going to free you from anything. What it does mean is that it will help you become more objective. So here's four questions I want you to think about when it comes to should I let somebody go? Should I set them free to find another opportunity? Here's what I think. I've had to fire a lot of people over the course of my life. 22 years in leadership and management. However, I've come to a place where I don't believe I've fired anybody. I believe that they fired themselves. And I can believe that because of running through these four questions. Number one, do they really understand what's expected of them? I do a lot of on site coaching training, you know, see consulting, doing things within the business. And what I see is frontline team members sometimes really don't know what's expected. You might have a goal board, you might have something going on, but then your compensation plan doesn't play effectively with what's really expected. Do you want more reviews? Do you want more sales? What's the deal? Get clear with the expectations so they really know how to win on a daily basis. Number two, have you trained them effectively? You know, just because somebody walks in the door and they kind of understand the system that we all play with. Whatever, you've got to train people, you've got to let them know your company way train, train, train from the moment they walk in, from the onboarding process to weekly to multiple times a week, whatever that looks like, so they really get trained in your particular processes, in your system. Don't take that for granted. Number three, have you coached them effectively? Think about this. The average NFL team has 53 players and 18 coaches. Less than 3 players per coach. Now, that doesn't work in the math for our men. We don't have a manager for every three team members. But what does that mean? That's the importance of coaching when it comes to peak performance, right? They're at the highest game of the football league and yet they have multiple, you know, multiple players, small amount of players per coach to get peak performance consistently coaching performance. If you haven't coached them just because you train them once or coach them once in a while, you've got to go on and on and on. And lastly, and possibly most importantly, is it willingness or is it ability? If somebody's willing and they have a desire to be on your team, they fit your culture, they bring an attitude to the game, a good attitude that is, you know, they're trying, they're doing their best. If they have that, then I'm willing to work with them. I'm willing to continue to train and retrain. As long as they're showing some momentum and they have massive commitment, I'll continue to work with them. But if they say it's, you know, they've got the ability and they're simply not willing to play along, then we have an issue. And then it's probably time to set them free so they can go ruin somebody's else, somebody else's culture, their clients. So think about these things, right? I want you to just set yourself free a little bit when it comes to these difficult things. Do I fire or don't I fire? Run yourself through these four questions and make it easier on yourself. I'm Kenny Chapman, the blue collar coach. Until we talk again, have a better than fantastic week and I'll talk to you soon.
