I Fired My Best Performer Last Year.

"I Fired My Best Performer Last Year. It was the best leadership decision I've ever made."

As a Leadership Psychologist and Executive Coach with decade of experience working with top leadership in India's top companies, I've witnessed countless leadership transformations.

But one story particularly stands out—a narrative that perfectly illustrates the complex dynamics of modern Indian leadership.

This is Vikram's story, a CTO at a leading tech firm in Bengaluru, who made a bold decision that transformed his entire organization.

?Numbers don't lie—or do they? Priya was consistently hitting 150% of her targets, bringing in the highest revenue in our IT services division, and dominating every performance metric.

Yet, something wasn't adding up. While her individual KPIs soared, team morale plummeted, and crucial digital transformation projects kept failing.

That's when I learned the hardest lesson about modern leadership in India's dynamic corporate landscape: individual brilliance without coaching ability can be toxic.

[The Problem]

In India's competitive business environment, especially in our tech-driven sectors, we often mistake high performers for good leaders.

We promote our best individual contributors, often those from premier institutes with impressive track records, expecting them to naturally transition into effective coaches.

But here's the uncomfortable truth: technical excellence and multiple degrees don't automatically translate into leadership capability."

[Personal Realization]

Watching Priya, I realized she embodied this disconnect perfectly. While she excelled at every task, from client presentations to code quality, she hoarded knowledge like it was proprietary, undermined team efforts with her 'I know better' attitude, and created an environment where juniors were afraid to speak up.

Her success was coming at the cost of our team's growth, particularly affecting freshers who needed mentoring.

[The Turning Point]

The decision to let her go wasn't about her IIT degree or performance metrics—it was about protecting and nurturing our team's coaching culture. True leadership, especially in India's collective culture, isn't about being the best performer; it's about making everyone around you better.

[Key Lessons on Coaching Leadership]

1. "Great coaches prioritize team growth over personal spotlight, moving beyond the traditional 'guru-shishya' hierarchy
2. They create psychological safety for experimentation and learning, especially important in our status-conscious work culture
3. They ask powerful questions instead of providing quick answers, breaking the typical top-down management style
4. They celebrate collective wins more than individual achievements"

[The Transformation]

Within three months of this difficult decision, something remarkable happened. It started with small shifts—like Anjali, our usually quiet product analyst from a tier-2 city, voluntarily presenting her insights in team meetings.

Then Manoj, who had always played it safe, proposed an unconventional solution to our long-standing customer service bottleneck.

The real breakthrough came during our quarterly planning session. Instead of the usual top-down approach, I watched in amazement as the team orchestrated their own innovation workshop.

They weren't just participating; they were leading, challenging each other's assumptions, and building upon ideas.

Rajesh, who used to wait for instructions, was now mentoring new team members.

Priya's former projects, which had been closely guarded secrets, were now open playbooks for the team to learn from and improve upon.

The numbers told an impressive story—team productivity up 40%, employee satisfaction scores climbing from 6.8 to 8.9, and client feedback highlighting our improved responsiveness.

But the real transformation was in the energy of our daily stand-ups, the increased cross-departmental collaboration, and the way people started staying late not because of pressure, but because they were excited about what they were building together.

One particular project stands out. Our team needed to redesign our client onboarding process for a major US-based client—a task that would have previously been assigned to our top performer.

Instead, junior team members partnered with seniors, customer service collaborated with tech, and within weeks, they had created something far better than any individual could have designed alone.

The new process reduced onboarding time by 60% and increased client satisfaction scores by 35%.

Most telling was what happened during our annual client review with our biggest MNC client.

For the first time, every team member could confidently present any part of our strategy—not because they were forced to learn it, but because they had been part of creating it.

The knowledge wasn't siloed anymore; it was shared, improved upon, and owned by everyone."

[Practical Takeaways]

To build a coaching culture in your organization:

• Look beyond IIT/IIM tags and performance metrics when evaluating leadership potential
• Invest in developing coaching skills at all levels, especially for middle management
• Create systems that reward knowledge sharing and team development
• Measure success by the growth of your people, not just numbers
• Balance Western management practices with Indian cultural values

[Conclusion]

The best leaders in modern India aren't necessarily the ones with the most impressive degrees or highest individual achievements—they're the best coaches.

They understand that their success isn't measured by their own accomplishments, but by the collective growth and success of their team.

What's one step you can take today to shift from being a high performer to becoming a true coach in your organization?

Share your thoughts in the comments below. Let's build a new generation of Indian leaders who excel at both performance and coaching."