First, a Few Questions
As the leader of a team, have you ever delayed letting a team member go? Have you finally made the decision and had the tough conversation that it was time to separate? Was the person surprised?
Second, an Experience Share
As a member of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization for the last 16 years, the concept of experience sharing is deeply ingrained in me. EO relies on experience sharing to give input rather than straight-up advice. There are a few reasons for this, the primary one being that when working with peers, maintaining a safe space is critical.
EO peer groups have everyone share their rich experiences. Then their peers take away what they think is valuable and make their decision on what to do. This ensures the decision is owned by your peer, not just following your advice/opinion. It also builds common ground with the peers because so many experiences are relatable stories.
In my client work as an advisor, I certainly give advice and opinions. I tend to start with experience sharing though, it is just my default. So, here is one of my “letting a leadership team member go” experience shares.
As a CEO of a growth company, the performance of the leadership team was my responsibility. I had a strong culture fit leader that was working hard to keep up with the company’s growth. He had excellent technical skills and was a fantastic individual contributor. The challenge was his leadership skills were not developing as fast as the company was growing. This was not for lack of effort or investment. We worked together on this topic regularly through weekly one on one meetings, through specific leadership development coaching sessions, and with an outside coach. We did this for more than two years. As the rest of the leadership team was performing at a higher and higher levels, the technical leader was just not keeping pace. It was obvious and known by the entire team. Or at least I thought so.
When I finally made the decision to let him go with a generous severance, it did not go as I expected. After all the time working together, coaching sessions, and clear misses in front of his peers, he did not expect to be separated from the company. He was surprised.
I have always worked with the principle of no surprises when letting someone go. Surprises can be good, like surprise birthday parties, surprise gifts, etc. When it comes to people’s careers though, I did not want to surprise anyone. My responsibility was team performance and individual development. So, I must have failed because this was not a good surprise for my technical leader.
Third, a Discovery
Over many years as a leader in different companies and as a leadership coach for the last few years, the situation of companies outgrowing leaders has repeated itself over and over. Every human can and should grow, get better, and increase their leadership capacity. However, there are times when the growth is not fast enough and there are times when the growth slows or just stops.
You have probably heard the phrase from Jim Collins, Right People Right Seats (RPRS). If the leader is a great culture fit (Right People) then perhaps changing the leader’s role (Right Seat) will do the trick? This can work. The leader can be moved to another role that matches their capacity. However, many leaders struggle to handle the loss of title/status. When you change the role, I recommend closely monitoring their performance supporting their new leader.
Usually, the best move is the hardest: let the leader go with compassion and generosity but let them go. The discovery is that the leaders are almost always surprised when the decision to let them go is made. And the rest of the team will say “what took you so long?”
When you let someone go and they are surprised, did you fail? Maybe.
If you really did the work and did not get the result, it is probably a shared failure. In this case, learn from it. Improve your hiring process and speed up your decision-making so the rest of the team does not have the burden of a low performer. That just holds the team and the company back.
If you did not communicate the challenge to coach to improve, then yes, you failed to handle your responsibility. Learn from it. As the CEO or leader of a team, you will work to coach and develop your team. This is essential, challenging, and meaningful work. It is also full of surprises.
2021 is a time for all of us to grow as leaders. Make a difference in your life, the lives of your employees, and take your company to the next level. To find out more, contact Rom LaPointe.