If You Don’t Fire That Employee, You Could Be Making Them Miserable

On your journey to becoming your best in business, you’ll need to make some tough people decisions. Usually those decisions revolve around Right People/Right Seat issues. In the EOS Process we use the People Analyzer™ with GWC™ (Get It/Want It/Capacity to Do It) to identify the root cause of a team’s specific people-related issues. The most common people issues are:

• Wrong Person/Right Seat—someone who doesn’t share the core values but is in the Right Seat
• Right Person/Wrong Seat—a person who shares the core values but is in the Wrong Seat—they don’t get it, want it, or have the capacity to do it.

Sometimes the tough people decision is to fire an employee who doesn’t get it, want it, or have the capacity to do the job. One of my clients had to make that tough decision. Afterwards, the Visionary told me about the way the employee responded to being fired. Here’s the story, in his own words (shared with permission).

Handpicked related content: There Are Only 2 People Issues in Business — And You Probably Have Both

“Thanks for Firing Me!”

We hired a young man to work with our online students. He had all the proper qualifications and experience, but he proved to be a dud here. He brushed off instruction with a charming smile, saying, “You don’t have to tell me things twice!” But he wasn’t performing. We terminated him within three months. I don’t think he would ever have left voluntarily, no matter how many times we took him through GWC. But here is his email response to our termination letter:

“Well, bad news is what it is. Sorry things didn’t work out. I haven’t had the passion or the drive that the rest of the staff has, I started another online job recently, and I guess it took more of the interest than my role on your team. Without the drive to work, less pay than I wanted, and not having the same interests, I don’t blame you for coming to this decision. Take care.”

The Right Thing Is Always the Right Thing

Wow. The team got a Thank-You letter for firing someone who didn’t GWC the seat! Have you ever considered that some people just don’t have the courage to quit—even when they know that they aren’t the right person for the right seat? They can be frustrated and miserable, yet still do nothing about it.

Consider this: you’re actually doing both them and yourself a favor by letting them go. In the end, they will be happier—and so will your team. Doing the right thing is always the right thing—for you and your employees.

In your next Level 10 Meeting™, read this story to your team. Ask them for the first person that comes to mind when they hear this story. Don’t overthink it. List the names and use the People Analyzer on them right then and there. What’s your conclusion?

Make Tough Decisions a Bit Easier

Need help figuring out how to make those tough people decisions? Sometimes teams just need an experienced facilitator to help them implement the EOS process and flesh it out for their unique context. Call me to see how I can help!