Leaders: A Not-So-Gentle Reminder

I’m fired up about something.

Management is hard. It requires difficult decision making, conflict resolution, risk taking, motivating and pushing others, and ultimately driving to success every year. You must be smart, tough, decisive, and confident. Failure is not an option. However, none of this means you treat people poorly. Humanity is a key ingredient to effective leadership.

I’ve had to let many people go in my career. I require a high level of performance in every role and I’m not afraid to make a change when needed to ensure our company continues to deliver and succeed. Many just weren’t doing the job. Some were just the victim of circumstance. And occasionally you get a bad seed who doesn’t have the same ethics you require. In every instance, we handled their exit gracefully.

Why? Because every single person that joins our team is a human being that has a life outside our company. They may not have worked out, and in some instances the ending was not positive, but they also took a chance when they joined our team. They have families, responsibilities, and lives outside of our workplace. And we all know that finding a new job – especially the new, RIGHT job – takes time.

Set people up for success and do the right thing. We all learned the lesson “treat others how you would want to be treated” as children. When you get into a position to ensure that happens, follow through on it. Most companies can afford to handle exits with financial grace. As President of a small(ish) company, we manage to handle it with financial grace every time – other companies should be able to as well.

I’ve heard way too many stories lately of employees being treated horribly on the way out. Even being treated horribly while still employed! It’s just not acceptable. People before business. Even if they are the wrong long-term people. Every. Single. Time.

And while I’m at it – make sure the people who are the right fit know how much you appreciate all that they do. Verbally. Financially. Publicly.