How and When to Fire Someone the Right Way (This is How I Got to $2m)

Your underperforming employee: "That's it! You can't treat me this way. I'm going to call my lawyer and sue you for how you mistreated me!"

You: "No don't do that. You see we had to do this because you weren't hitting your metrics for the last few weeks. I'm sorry but--"

Your underperforming employee: "Wow, you're really the worst boss ever...I will have my revenge..."

I'm sure as an employer you've had this nightmare before.

Hopefully, it was either in a dream or a hallucination, not in real life.

Unfortunately for some people, this is reality, but luckily for you it doesn't have to be.

You see.

Hiring and training talent is really easy when done right.

Similarly, letting go of employees can be just as easy if you keep your head clear and approach the situation compassionately.

This article is all about how and when to hire and fire employees so that way you'll never have to worry about being yelled at or sued.

HOW TO HOLD PEOPLE ACCOUNTABLE

At the end of the day, if you want to fire people the right way, you also need to hire them and manage them the right way.

The way to do this is by setting the proper expectations.

If you want to make running your organization harder than it needs to be, then make your performance expectations as low as possible.

If you want to make running your organization as easy as possible, then set the bar SUPER high for people.

Anyone who knows me is well aware that I have extremely high expectations.

So much so that I want my employees to treat themselves like Olympic athletes.

That level of intensity, training, and commitment is required.

I don't necessarily think all workspaces need to operate this way, but for the ones that want to be the best in their industry this is necessary.

As such, I will make sure they have their own performance metrics at their fingertips at all times.

You'll find that the best people will thrive when you put performance data in front of them.

Here are a few examples of metrics I use to hold my team accountable:

Sales Manager KPIs

Account Executive KPIs

Appointment Setter KPIs

WHEN TO FIRE PEOPLE

I actually break down when to fire people by the top of job they have within the company.

For example:

Sales Manager = 60 days of underperformance

Account Executive = 14 days of underperformance

Appointment Setter = 7 days of underperformance

This is because each role has different success milestones and some take longer to see success.

It also depends on how early you can measure performance.

With a sales manager, you can't really tell if they are doing poorly in 30 days.

If you are a mature organization, you should have years of historical data to compare it too.

If they can't perform over the course of 60 days relative to your averages, then it's best to let them go.

For the other roles, they have shorter success timelines, because the events that indicate success happen quicker.

Account Executives, for instance, should have a deal closed the first week they get started and should continue to close deals forever.

Appointment Setters should be booking meetings right from the jump.

HOW TO FIRE SOMEONE

Okay so here's the thing, if you set the right expectations from the beginning with a hire, then firing someone should be like you are cutting a player from a sports team.

Be straight with them.

Tell them: "Hey we had agreed you would hit these numbers in this time frame. You did not hit it, and I'm sorry, but we have to let you go."

I've NEVER been sued or had ANY negative backlash following this approach.

You won't either if you get the hiring process right from the beginning.

WRAPPING IT ALL UP

Hopefully, you've enjoyed this week's article AgencyGo fam!

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Until next time, that's all folks for now! Lucas out.