So why are we so reluctant to fire people? Aside from the paperwork annoyances involved, we are traumatized by the thought of firing someone for two very unnecessary reasons: (1) we think replacing them will be difficult, and (2) we think we will be doing them great harm.
Let’s look at the first mental obstacle—the difficulty in replacing a person. The truly masterful hands-off manager must be a (not good, but) great recruiter and attractor of talent. Talent is everything today. The company with the most talent wins. Hands-off management is wasted on mediocre people. You want dedicated people who love what they do, and you want to be great at bringing them on board. So releasing a person who is unhappy and underperforming and not a team fit is a pleasure—not a problem. It is a pleasure because of who you have waiting in the wings! You are always making your team better and better. You understand that talent rules. It is not that you are always looking to replace and upgrade people who work for you. The opposite is true—you are constantly looking for ways to help them succeed. And a big part of that commitment to their success is the willingness to remove obstacles in their path. Sometimes those obstacles are people on the team who are simply not a fit—people who are not aligned with what the team is committed to.
The second mental obstacle is that thought that you are harming someone by firing them. You are not. If that person is unhappy and unproductive, you are harming them by keeping them. Letting them go will set them free to find work they like to do. In the end, that’s the greatest gift you can give. Even current HR surveys show that people who are fired are more likely to improve their financial standing in life than people who quit. That’s the proven career value of a wake-up call!
Football coach Vince Lombardi was famous for saying, “If you are not fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.”
Duane lets people go who won’t contribute and are misaligned with the team. He lets them go! He says to them, “You’re my friend. I really care about you—and you’re in the wrong position. You will be much happier when you find a job that you love to do. Even if you feel disappointed right now that I’m letting you go, even if you’re angry, I still want you to have an opportunity to find alignment for yourself somewhere in a job that works for you. You’re the right person for that. This is the wrong job for you.”
Duane says that through the many years of working in his company he and his colleagues are unanimous on one point—“We’ve never let a person go too soon.”
It’s hard to keep creating a better team. We get distracted from the challenge by the daily problems of the workplace. Soon we think we’re too pressed and swamped to recruit and interview properly so we hire people quickly to “fill immediate needs,” and the quality of the team goes downhill. We have become distracted from our original vision. Therefore, vision-renewal is a daily activity of the hands-off manager. There can’t be exceptions to the vision of excellence.
“You have to release people who are not right for the team,” says Duane. “Because you care for them in a more elevated way than just trying to please them or be their buddy. You can’t let the rest of your team suffer because of that one person. You end up working through a fair amount of people before you get the team you want, but once you do, they’ll serve you for a long time. It’s not like a sports team where athletes have short careers. Bodies wear down. But the mind lasts for a very long time.”
Under the supervision of a hands-off manager, the mind grows stronger, more imaginative, and more excited about doing great work.
Mariano was a powerful CFO of a company with a good-sized accounting staff. He had been on my Website reading about the breakthroughs that hands-off management was achieving.
“I don’t agree with your theories at all,” he said, as we sat down to chat at an outdoor restaurant.
“Really?”
“Really,” he said. “In fact, I told my partner that I was angry with you after reading your theories about hands-off guidance or whatever it is.”
“That is okay with me,” I said, “but remember that they’re not theories. They are experience. You don’t need theories about success in the workplace; there’s enough actual experience to look at.”
“Well, whatever—I got angry because I know it wouldn’t work. I could never trust my people that much.”
Mariano had always had problems with his people. He hired people in a hurry to meet needs and then spent most of his time furious with the mediocre work coming from his people.
“I have mediocre people,” he said, “who need to be watched and monitored every minute.”
“They are not mediocre people,” I said. “In the right job, with a trusting mentor, they could be magnificent. Every last one of them.”
“So you say.”