Should they stay or should they go?

One of the most difficult things to wrangle with as a line manager is the decision about whether to let someone go or not. Often when we’ve had that thought there is an erosion of trust and we don’t feel like we can step back from the ledge, but equally we dwell on the decision because it weighs so heavily. In my career, I’ve worked with hundreds of line managers navigating this maze and as a leader myself there have been times when I’ve had to make the same call.

Ultimately people have value beyond just what they bring into the workplace, with lives and people who depend on them. Whilst our primary consideration is towards the business, we can’t cultivate the right culture if we’re too quick to cut the cord we run the risk of eradicating any safety within the team. As we know, psychological safety is one of the most critical components of a high-performing team and by letting a team member go, we run the risk of creating some uncertainty with those that remain. I’ll come back to this at the end.

There’s no silver bullet when it comes to making a decision, but I try to break down the thought process into three parts — me, us, them. By ‘Me’ I relate to my own feelings and intuition on the decision. By ‘Us’ I mean the relational interactions you’ve had with the individual. With ‘Them’ I mean what they do when they’re away from you and either working independently or with others.

Me

I’m a massive believer in the power of self-awareness and I also have a strong belief that as a leader you have to take accountability for your own actions. Take some time to really explore how you’re feeling, and be honest with yourself.

The journey I’ll frequently go on is:

· Why am I contemplating the decision to bring their employment to an end?

Often there isn’t a straightforward answer here, but it’s important to really understand your own motivation as to why. Is it that it’s having an impact on a customer? Is it that it’s affecting your own reputation or that of the team? Either way, taking some time to reflect on this question is really important and will allow you to better approach any discussions you have.

· Do you find yourself thinking ‘They’re not a good fit’?

Great — you’ve got to this point, but it should be a red flag for further introspection. A ‘good fit’ can mean many things, but it could also be laced with bias. A difference of styles to the individual or someone who brings a different perspective could feel prickly — but you want to avoid monocultures. So leaning into this and exploring it further can be really helpful — insights tools like personality profiling can open up windows of awareness and I’ve worked with some leaders who have achieved some incredible results by opening themselves up to the perspective that actually their way of doing something doesn’t equate to ‘team fit’.

· But you still sense something isn’t quite right.

Go ask others! The likelihood is that they don’t work in a vacuum. Ask really open, non-leading questions — like “Hi X, I can see you worked with Y on the project recently, how did it go? What were they like to work with? What were the outcomes?”

Equally, have they got KPIs or measures? How are those looking and do they marry up with what you’re seeing?

Us

So you’re comfortable that your decision isn’t based on deeply-held personal needs which aren’t affecting their actual performance or your feelings aren’t laced with bias or a clash of styles. You might have got some feedback and it’s not been great and you’re thinking that seals it.

But how did you get to this point? The ‘us’ part of the consideration is thinking about where you and the individual have intersected. Where you’ve spent time, discussing expectations or about performance. If you take the decision to let them go, it’s likely that you’re going to have to re-hire for the position, so how do you avoid being in the same position in the future — or worse realizing that there was something you could have done to prevent taking the difficult decision in the first place.

So I’d suggest thinking about the following questions:

· Am I crystal clear about what my expectations are? With the particular issues or concerns that I want to raise, have I emphasized these sufficiently, or have I treated them as a periphery item?

We’ve all been there. We need to give some feedback and before we can stop ourselves it falls out of our mouths…..” It’s no big deal but….”. Damn, we’ve already trivialized it. But in managing expectations have we been really clear on what’s expected? When we’ve gone off track have we expressed this to the individual and been clear about where and how you’d like to see it done differently? Traditional HR departments will ask for a copy of all the notes and where they’ve been shared and to some extent there’s value in this. It allows us to think look over what we’ve said and explore where the gaps might be.

It’s true too of behaviours — have I shown what good looks like? With behaviours it’s also essential to ensure that you too model them!

· Are you rewarding the right things?

I’ve seen people being held out as heroes one moment and then under-performers the next. I always question how those two things can co-exist so quickly. But think about the things you’ve re-enforced, the goals you’ve set, then things you’ve publicly praised. Have you inadvertently rewarded the wrong things and created some unintended consequences?

· Have I been open and candid in my discussions?

I touched on this before, but tools like Radical Candor allow you to create an environment where you can demonstrate care for the person (and protect the safety) whilst simultaneously giving objective, direct feedback. One of my key takeaways from the book is that by being clear you are being kind, if you water something down the only person you’re serving is yourself in that arrangement.

You might have got to this part of the article and thought “Hang on — where do they take personal responsibility”. And you’re right — the best employees do take personal responsibility. They take ownership, they’re self-sufficient and they respond to feedback well. However, we’re not talking about our best performers here and we’re exploring our role in how we might have contributed to their poor performance. I love the exploration of 5th Level leadership in Jim Collin’s seminal work, Good to Great in which he introduces the window and the mirror concept. About great leaders, he writes:

“[They] look out the window to apportion credit to factors outside themselves when things go well (and if they cannot find a specific person or event to give credit to, they credit good luck). At the same time, they look in the mirror to apportion responsibility, never blaming bad luck when things go poorly.”

Them

If we’ve got this far, we’re now looking at the individual. There are some things that are absolute red lines and mean we could likely skip through much of the start — unethical decisions, things that cause harm or an act so bad it’s unforgivable. But broadly these are few and far between and much of the decision lies in the nuance.

Thankfully when it comes to this section, this is where policies and others have written a lot more frequently, it’ll be easy to find advice and guidance. That said, my golden rule is “Are they coachable?”. What I mean by this is when you’ve given them feedback, asked for improvement or held up the mirror— has this led to change? If the answer is no then it might be time to think about letting them go, but first explore:

1. Have they previously been a good performer? If this has changed, why? Have they taken on too much or are there personal matters which are interfering with their ability to perform their role? Taking some time to be curious in this space can yield magical results.

2. Are there new people in the team or are they working with a new set of stakeholders? Could there be some stylistic or interpersonal challenges?

3. Is this a one-off or a repeat? If there is a pattern have you raised this with them previously to encourage a change in behaviours? Using pattern feedback can be a fantastic way of highlighting default behaviour patterns. For example saying “I’ve seen you’ve done x, but we spoke about this on date, date, and date. It looks like a pattern here, what’s happening here?”

4. What are their relationships like away from you? What do their stakeholders and colleagues think of them? Whilst the broader community shouldn’t be the complete decisive factor, getting a temperature check through feedback is really important to understand the potential impact on others. Understanding their personal brand within the organisation might give you clues about other skills or strength areas you’ve not seen.

5. Do they exhibit some really positive behaviours? If so do they have strengths that might be of value to the organisation still and is this worth exploring with them?

Of course, if you arrive at the end of this process, it’s important that you’ve followed your own procedures in line with one of the 5 potentially fair reasons for termination (when considering this from a UK perspective). I’ve deliberately not gone into that in this article to save some space and time for the reader.

But what next?

So you’ve taken the decision and the individual has left the team, but what next? Two things:

1. Think about those left. It might have eroded some trust if they had close personal relationships or it may have left some people feeling unsure or unsafe in their position. At its worst I’ve seen line managers ignore the topic completely, leaving a very awkward elephant in the room. Be as clear as you can, whilst respecting the departing person and ensuring you’re providing adequate reassurance to those that remain. A great exercise to follow is to go through the process of re-affirming the vision, values, and expectations and inviting lots of questions and refinements. This will also speed up the process of someone else settling it.

2. Reflect. Even if you are comfortable in your decision and there were some very obvious signals that it was the right call — could you have seen those earlier or could they even have been filtered out during the recruitment process? Taking the opportunity to learn and take away tangible actions is the only way to get iteratively better.

Of course, maybe you’ve arrived at the decision that you think that they can get there. I’ll write shortly about how to bridge this, particularly when it feels like the trust has been eroded, in a future article.