When do you fire someone?
“When Do You Fire Someone?”
My first business partner gave me some of the best advice I’ve ever heard. He asked me a question, “when do you fire someone?” I admittedly had no idea, so I responded to him, telling him I didn’t know and he said, “The first time you think about it.” Let that sink in for a second. At the time I didn’t realize what that meant but if you’ve ever been in the position of managing someone then you’re aware that most people fire themselves, you’re just the person who lets them know. I’ve learned over the years, anytime you have someone working for you and you start to think, “I should really fire them,” it’s probably the right call, people rarely change their behavior enough to warrant the second chance. Ultimately, if you like firing people then you’ve got bigger issues. It’s an interesting thought process, we push longer than we should, letting the problems stack up and making it more difficult than it needs to be in the long run. We put it off, like going to the doctor, hoping that time alone will make it better when that rarely ends up being the case.
If you take any machine and open it up, you’ll notice that there are so many parts and pieces very few people would understand what they’re all for, but you’re probably smart enough to realize that each of those pieces has to synergize and work in conjunction with the others. Take a watch for instance, an exquisite timepiece. If you open it up and examine its insides, you’ll see just how crucial it is that each cog, each gear, each rod, and each spring is placed and working in pristine order. Managing a business is a lot like that. It takes precision, commitment, dedication, and the ability to work well with the rest of the pieces in order for the machine to work properly. You don’t want to jeopardize the potential success or fluidity of your company because one of the cogs is out of place and won’t get back to clicking along with the rest of them. As hard as it may be, the time is always now.
