Clear The Dead Wood Now!
Have you ever cursed yourself by noticing how good things are going with something only to have the next close look reveal...well, not so good. Recently, I felt that way about the 6-foot hedges that surround half of my corner house lot. Since a thorough pruning in the spring and a touch up trim mid-summer I was surprised how little maintenance they had needed and how good they seemed to look and be at their primary purpose, privacy.
In the Northeast we had a really dry August and not surprisingly one of the tall branches near my front entrance had died. I had watched it start withering and now was a plume of brown leaves so as I returned home from an appointment and it caught my eye (and my challenged attention span) I grabbed my trusty pruning shears and off with it's head! And body as well for that matter. Still in my business [casual] attire I saw that one of the other branches also had withered and there were actually several dead branches down low needing to be removed. Worse, a lack of attention meant that a couple of invasive vines and spreading weeds were overtaking parts of the hedge. What I had celebrated as privacy I realized was also choking the host plants.
So thirty minutes later I had surveyed my entire hedge and had a few piles of trimmings and a can to recycle. Some old and no longer rooted stems with no green and came right out. In some spots thinning an oft-trimmed knotty top was required to make room for the new straighter branches to come into their own. Now, I would imagine everyone thinks of something else while doing lawn work so I couldn't help notice the parallel to leading a company when it comes to making personnel decisions.
"Clearing out the dead wood," may seem a little harsh referring to people but in many organizations, it is a leadership failure over time that will produce its share of dead wood. It may not be obvious, perhaps hidden by more bountiful surroundings, but when you look closely you can see what belongs and what needs to be removed, trimmed or relocated.
The case for right after Labor Day as the time to look at your internal staff for "dead wood" aka underperforming, overly entitled, non-productive, or redundant staff that don't provide value (and are likely under-serving themselves) should be modified, terminated or relocated. You want to use the momentum of Summer's end to a new season while you still have time to score big before year-end and you avoid any considerations of job changes around the Holiday season and can hit the new year at speed. (Which is here in no time.)
If a close look through your company garden shows great health with room to grow and cooperative accomplishment you are lucky, or you've been watching. If you haven't looked in deep for a while sometimes little weeds spread or grow destructive and once useful pillars fall out of function. It's the way of nature, the way of a garden. It's a good analogy for your business as well. Now is the time to trim, prune, and plan for Winter.