How do I fire someone?

How do I fire someone?

When is the right time?

What obligation does the company have to an employee?

What obligation do they have to the company?

Not easy to talk about. But it’s a reality of business.

If you have clear and concise answers to these questions then you’re one of the very few leaders that does, congratulations.

Letting someone go isn’t easy and in many ways you could consider that a good thing.

Most don’t answer these questions until they’re under pressure to act and that’s rough.

You guess at how much they need the job. Your perception of their ability to get another one. You battle with yourself because of how much you like them, or don’t. You struggle because you see the effort they are putting in. You’re questioning whether you’ve done everything you could, and maybe you haven’t (that’s another question that needs answering).

It’s really not a great places to be in when trying to make skilful decisions and answer difficult questions.

You care about people though and the good of the business and the others working hard in it so you eventually do what needs to be done.

But you still don’t have answers to the questions. You’ve just got a little bit of experience in one specific case and you didn’t learn much because the brain doesn’t learn well at all when stressed.

So you carry on without clear and concise answers to the questions hoping it won’t come around again, knowing that it will.

But your nervous system knows you don’t have answers yet. So it drains your energy every time a member of staff is under performing.

And rather than seeing hiring as an opportunity to make huge leaps with amazing, conscientious, skilful, creative people you dread it, put it off, hate the process.

Yet it’s probably the biggest opportunity the business has to make things even better.

But your nervous system knows you don’t have answers yet.

Unanswered difficult questions are a leaders greatest energy drain and ultimately what defines your company.

Perhaps an even better question, how do I make it a mutually aligned experience?

It’s only possible if you start getting into the uncomfortable questions.