Lori HarderFounder of glōci | Bestselling Author

The Unexpected Costs of Protecting Your Team

23 Jul 2026 · 1 min

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In this brief conversational clip, Lori Harder recounts the painful experience of having to fire her very first employee, a decision that left her emotionally shaken. She describes how a 16‑year‑old team member rushed to comfort her with a hug and a heartfelt reminder that the difficult choice was made to protect the whole team. The other speaker reinforces this perspective, emphasizing that leaders must sometimes make hard personnel decisions for the greater good, even when it feels personally distressing. The exchange highlights the emotional toll of leadership, the role of empathy within a team, and the principle of prioritizing team safety over individual discomfort.

Chapters

I had a team member who had missed so, so, so much work, and I had to let her go. So I let her go, and she was my first employee I ever had, ever. So it was really hard. I let her go, and my little 16-year-old team member came up to me at work that day, ran up to me, and she's like, are you okay? And I said, yeah, I'm okay. And she's like, I want to give you a hug. And then she gave me a hug, and she grabbed my face and looked me dead in the face and said, thank you for doing that, or we were all going to leave.
Oh, have a great day! And then hopped away. You did it for the protection of the team. Even if that was a good person, they were putting you in a tough situation. So that person was putting you in a really hard situation of having to choose, and yet we can internalize it and make it about us. Like, oh, I feel so bad. I can't believe it. This was my first employee. This is awful. I hate that I have to do it. Except truly, when you are looking out for your team, just like she said, like, that's the protection of your team.