Peter Sorgenfrei explains when and how to fire someone. Act fast once you decide, have your documentation ready, and deliver the news directly and compassionately. Three things hold leaders back too long: wanting to be kind, worrying about replacements, and indecision.
This one is a tough one. When do you know it's time to fire someone? Somebody asked. Well, the answer is kind of when you start thinking about it, right? Because when somebody is not performing in the business, if you're considering firing them, then you need to move quickly. You need to move quickly in terms of establishing whether or not the reason you consider firing them is valid. Clearly, if somebody's stealing from the business and you have hard evidence, that's a fireable offense. You need to move quickly. But if it's just a performance issue, you need to very quickly establish with yourself, is this person not performing for reasons or because of things that has to do with them versus us? Is there a way we can get them to perform? So on and so forth. What often happens is CEOs tend to hold on to people too long. And they do that because, A, they want to be kind and nice to everybody. So firing somebody obviously has huge implications for the person who's let go, but it also has implications for the team that's left behind. The second reason is that they hold on to them for too long is, well, we'll need to find a replacement most likely, right? We'll need to find somebody else to And whether or not that's possible in the time that we need and cost and time spent doing it, it all can cause issues for you in your business. And then thirdly, the reason that they hold on to them for long is because they are not sure, right? They cannot make up their minds. And inactivity in a topic like this is actually the worst that can happen because people typically have a feeling that things are not going great. So, in order for you to respect them and respect yourself really, you need to address it pretty quickly. What does the process look like? To me, it starts with making sure that you have your ducks in a row, right? So, do you have the right argumentation for letting somebody go? Is it a performance-related issue that you've tried to remedy? Have you documented it? Can you deliver the message in a calm and collected way backed up by history of facts. When to do it specifically, then, you know, some people swear off doing it on Fridays. Some people suggest doing it on Tuesdays. You know, I don't really have religion around when you do it, but I think it's important to do it fast and properly. And the way you can do that is by saying the second the person comes into the office on the day that you want to let them go, you call them in and say, hey Bob, can I speak to you for a second? And ideally, Bob says yes and he doesn't have a lot of other things to do. You can look in his calendar and figure that out. I wouldn't schedule it because typically people then have to worry about it. I would just say, hey Bob, do you have a second? You sit Bob down, and the first thing you do is say, "Bob, unfortunately, we're going to have to let you go." You don't walk around the bush. You basically say the message immediately, saying, "Bob, unfortunately, we have to let you go." The reason we're let— I know this might come as a shock. The reason we're letting you go is X Y C. I am here to help you transition out of the company. We will do whatever we can to support you and help you in your. path forward and you will and you should. And then you basically say, okay, Bob, this was a big shock. What are you feeling? What are you thinking? Let me know what's going on. And then you're quiet. And then either Bob will react very forcefully or he will say, you know what, I had a feeling, you know, I'm upset about this. I don't think it's right. This, that, and the other. I want another chance. And at that point, of course, you have a decision to make. In most cases, you should not give people another chance. If you made this decision, you need to carry it through. They said, unfortunately, Bob, we are not going to be able to give you another chance. Here's what we're going to do. And then you have a plan for how to transition them out of the company. So that's how to know when to fire somebody and a little bit about the process. We could record hours of video talking about this kind of stuff. If you want to learn more about it, please get in touch and I'd be happy to talk details with you specifically.
