Not all firings are created equal.
The most common way to fire people is among the worst: “I’m sorry, this isn’t working out. Your performance isn’t up to our bar so we’ll be letting you go. Sign this separation agreement and you’ll be provided severance along with X months of COBRA coverage.”
Let’s call it what it is: cowardly.
What’s missing? Accountability.
Notice how all the blame is put on the person being let go. But is it really all their fault?
Leadership means taking responsibility
If you’ve been following along, I’m a big proponent of taking responsibility for one’s actions. If you don’t look at how you contributed to a difficult or painful situation, you’ll be doomed to repeat it. Only if you look directly at the things that you’re ashamed of — your weaknesses, your fears — can you ever hope to learn, change, and improve. That’s what courage looks like.
Being an entrepreneur, a CEO, or a leader of any kind obviously requires courage. You had to have faced your fears in order to strike out on your own and dare to build something different rather than just join the crowd and take a steady paycheck. In order to be entrusted with decisionmaking power you have to be willing to stick your neck out and be wrong and bear the consequences. So why is it so common for leaders of all kinds to be so cowardly when it comes to how they fire people, and thereby undermine the very authority they seek to cultivate?
What does courage look like here?
Courage is telling the truth. And the truth, in a work separation — unless criminality or fraud is involved — is usually the following:
- You, as the person responsible for hiring, made a judgment based on your knowledge of what the company needed and your assessment of the candidate’s capabilities and potential during the interview process.
- As time passed while working together, it emerged that either (a) the company needs someone different from the person you hired (i.e. either your assessment of what the company needed was incorrect, or the company’s path and priorities changed) or (b) your assessment of the person you hired was incorrect (either their skills or potential). Either way, your judgments contributed to the current situation.
The reason why most firings suck and leave people bitter is they’re being lied to, and they know it. “You’re not a good fit” is only half the story. But people are typically too afraid to say “…and I’m responsible for some of that.”
Why should you care about how a fired person thinks? You’re no longer working with them!
This view is common — and wrong.
Everyone you’re working with sees how you let people go. And they see it as a reflection of your leadership.
If you insist on unilaterally blaming the person you’re letting go — “they weren’t performing well enough, it was time to move on” — it looks not like strength, but weakness. Unless the terminated employee was universally reviled (which is rare) at least some people on your team will see (and sympathize with) their side of it. They’ll see through what you’re saying and read it either as dishonesty or ignorance, neither of which inspires respect. Firing someone and laying the blame entirely on them undermines your leadership.
Strong, inspiring leaders aren’t afraid of taking responsibility. Here’s how you do that.
The playbook
I’ve been on both sides of the table. I’ve parted ways with employees, contractors, executives, clients, and more. I’ve also been let go several times. I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t — firsthand.
Here’s how you terminate an employee and emerge a stronger leader.
- Don’t sugar-coat it. Don’t leave any wiggle room or ambiguity. And no shit sandwich either. You’ve made the decision: you’re parting ways. You don’t need to treat this person with kid gloves. If they’re any good, they’ll take it like a professional. It’s not personal. What they’re good at and what you and your company needs aren’t aligned.
- Take responsibility for your contribution. You hired them based on your assessment of what the company needed, where the company was going, and what you understood of their skills and potential. Some elements of your assessment did not bear out and that’s not the employee’s fault. (After all, it was your assessment. And if you don’t get better at assessing, you’ll continue repeating costly mistakes.)
- Let them be upset. Even if they’re really professional they may be upset in the moment. The news can be hard to take — and surprising, too, if you haven’t been clearly and consistently communicating about the divergence between the company and the employee. Give them a bit of time to get it out of their system and don’t take it personally. Part of leadership is being the bigger person.
- Have a transition plan. You should have all the details ready and sorted about who will be assuming ownership of the soon-to-be-former employee’s responsibilities before you have the conversation. As soon as the conversation is over, enact it. The soon-to-be-former employee is now a lame duck now so it’s best to exit them as quickly as practical. This doesn’t mean same day — unless you’re letting go for cause. A week or two to hand off responsibilities, say goodbye, and — most importantly — let the team process the transition too (especially for senior leadership departures). There’s a Goldilocks zone for offboarding: move too quickly and it bespeaks insecurity; move too slowly and it looks indecisive.
- Have a communications plan. As soon as you’ve made the decision and communicated it to the person affected, it’s best to share with anyone they worked with. For any departures in senior leadership, this likely means the whole company. Take responsibility when you do this. Communicating quickly, clearly, and widely — and again, being honest in owning your contribution — inspires confidence in your leadership and ensures the person leaving is treated with dignity. I’ve seen extremely talented individuals be terminated because they just weren’t the right fit, and then move on to a new company where they saw tremendous success. Just because someone isn’t right for your company doesn’t mean they’re not good.
The team you build is the company you build
Being a leader means being decisive and accountable. The buck stops with you. Strong leaders embrace this. Weak leaders point fingers at other people.
Every decision is made with imperfect information — especially hiring decisions, which are often made when you’ve only spent a few hours with a candidate. Even if you’re 80% confident, 20% of the time you’ll be wrong. While not every decision will be the right one, owning and understanding what you got wrong is the quickest way to improve your decisionmaking. So blaming other people doesn’t just undermine your leadership authority, it neuters your ability to learn and condemns you to repeating mistakes.
Companies are reflections of their leaders, especially their CEOs. Ultimately your decision around accountability is a question of the kind of organization you’d like to create: one that relentlessly self-improves or one that places blame (and agency) outside of itself. The path you choose defines the talent you attract. On one side are those who take responsibility and on the other are those who don’t.
What kind of company do you want to build?