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Sadly but inevitably, a common issue in my coaching practice is helping leaders decide whether or not to fire a senior team member. These decisions are always difficult ones--the clear-cut situations resolve themselves and tend not to take up time in a coaching session. Generally speaking, I see four typical scenarios:
I don't offer advice on whether any given individual in one of these scenarios can be saved or whether they and the company need to part ways. When working with a client who's wrestling with one of these decisions, it's essential for me to bear in mind how little I know about the specifics of each case and the individuals involved, and it would be presumptuous to recommend a course of action on the basis of my observations and assumptions.
Instead, the role I play as a coach in these situations is focused on helping my clients sift through all the available data (specifically including their intuitive and emotional responses) that will help them reach a decision. I seek to build a trusting relationship so that I earn the right to ask tough questions. I interpret and reflect back a client's answers to those questions, so they can assess the quality of their thinking. And I often role-play difficult conversations with them, to help them prepare for a range of outcomes. This isn't to say that I don't share opinions or provide feedback--I do. But the emphasis is on asking questions such as these:
In some cases my client has actually made their decision but isn't prepared to move ahead. Loyalty toward the employee, a desire to avoid conflict, or reluctance to admit a mistake can all prevent a leader from taking action even when they've reached a conclusion.
Note that I mean "data" in the broadest possible sense, because we're not talking about situations involving clear-cut, objective evidence. Decisions in cases like these always involve a leader's intuitive and emotional response to the person involved, their past performance, their current impact on the team, their future potential, and ultimately what's best for the business. It's impossible to reduce these complex factors to a number that will tell a leader what to do--it requires judgment.
Extensive research has made it clear that emotions play a critical role in reasoning and decision-making. [1] So it's essential that the leader is in close touch with their emotions throughout this process--not allowing frustration or disappointment to cloud their judgment, but rather accessing their full range of emotions and weighing their impact on the decision carefully.
While I don't tell my clients whether or not to fire someone, I do have strongly held beliefs about how (and how not) to manage team members who are struggling. First, "performance plans" rarely work; they exist primarily to fend off wrongful termination suits. That's a legitimate function, but let's be clear about what's likely to happen--someone who's been put on such a plan will be constantly stressed and unable to do their best work.
But having reached the point of considering a firing, some type of intervention is called for. The specifics vary widely, but the process typically involves some candid feedback [2], which includes efforts to make feedback less stressful [3] and to recognize the impact of the organizational culture on the feedback process [4].
There are many dimensions to this phase of the process, ranging from how to handle the conversation [5] to how much time to allow the person to transition out (a week? a day? immediately?) There's no one right way to do this--it depends on a host of circumstances, ranging from the reason for the decision to their functional role to the state of the business.