CHAPTER III
Employee Management
The Bossy Boss: A Play in Three Acts
As told by a formerly bossy boss.
HERE’S A LITTLE PLAY that comes from a real-life experience.
SETTING THE STAGE: Your new, small business has finally grown to the point where you can hire people and become a real boss. You believe in your organization’s mission and plan to grow it long-term. You love your business and will do anything for it; not just for you, but also for your new employees. In short, you feel like you are in a position to be the perfect boss.
ACT ONE: You’ve hired your first project team and want to get to know them better and share your leadership philosophy and mission statement with them (this assumes you have one—some new leaders take a year or so to develop one). Your team is as diverse as it can be. On it are people both older and younger than you; some have less experience in the industry and some have a little more. Because you care so much about the company’s success, you firmly tell them how your team will be run and that, as their leader, you will be the one making all the major decisions. From that point on, no one on the team says anything.
The Plot Thickens
ACT TWO: As days go by, you work your team to the bone. Under threat of being fired, they come in early and leave late—well beyond the scope of the hours you hired them to work. Instead of encouragement, you issue threats. You want to impose your belief system on them by force. (It works in an Army boot camp, right?) When anyone smiles or laughs, you scowl and tell them to get back to work. You comment sarcastically that perhaps one of the smilers would have more fun at home, looking for a new job.
On the day of a big presentation to a new client, a team member who took the presentation materials home to give it its final touches gets in a car accident on the way to work. While his injuries are not life-threatening, he can’t come to work for some time, and the presentation must be rescheduled.
Instead of showing concern for your team member, you openly criticize him, in front of the other team members, for derailing the presentation. Later, you sit in your new, big office with your desk and your window and your painting and your potted plant, and wonder why the other members of your team don’t share your passion for loyally delivering for your company.
Two days later, it’s time for your rescheduled presentation. You wait in the conference room for your team to arrive and set up. Five minutes before the meeting is scheduled to begin, your client enters the empty room. Before she can speak, you apologize, saying you don’t know where your team is and that you will explain the value of punctuality to them after the presentation. Unfortunately, no one at all shows up. Your team got together and agreed that none of them need any more of your abuse, so they quit. All of them.
The Climax!
ACT THREE: Luckily, your client, another small business owner (and a really good boss) knows that your heart is in the right place and that all new leaders need leadership guidance. Unlike racehorses, new leaders spring out of the gate and run in all different directions. And so far, you have been running in the wrong direction. Your client agrees to come back in two weeks after you’ve hired all your employees back, hopefully to work in a more positive environment.
THE MORAL OF THE PLAY: Your client understands the value of open, balanced, two-way interaction. If one person is always pulling rank and making all of the decisions, then why is there even a team? She also believes that if you treat your employees right, they’ll treat you right. If they need a little more work or time to finish a project (which is common), they will notice if you are there, too, suffering through it with them.
Lead your team by setting an example, not strong-arming them. As a business owner, you must recognize that your employees are not your slaves. They get work done. They can also be your 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th opinion on a given issue or decision. They are your human resources, and you’d be smart to treat them with respect, courtesy and appreciation.
Always remember that your employees are people, just like you. They are not perfect, they have their own challenges outside of work, and they typically won’t have the expertise and comprehensive understanding of the industry you have. That’s why it’s up to you to foster a positive work environment for them in order to maximize learning and productivity. It’s all about results, and an unhappy or abused team simply won’t produce them.
The End
Roll Credits
S.G.
Establishing Goals for Your Employees
Like stepping stones in a river, establishing goals will guide your employees toward the right destination without upset.
AS AN ENTREPRENEUR, it is important to foster a sense of purpose and direction among the people in your company. One way of doing this is by establishing goals. When people have goals, they are more likely to feel motivated in their work.
But first, you must first define the goals you have in mind for your business as a whole—ideally in the short, medium and longer term. For the sake of brevity, we’ll take just a short-term view. You can extrapolate how longer term goal-setting would work. Let’s look at an example.
Suppose it’s November and you want your sales to grow by 50 percent next year. What goals can you set for the company that will support this company goal?
1. You need to develop and produce a catalog to sell from by the end of January.
2. You need to acquire 40 new customers. Say you add 10 per quarter.
3. You need one new product release by the end of March, so you’ll have sales from it for the last three quarters.
Okay, now bring in the troops. Plan a meeting in which you set out your overall company goal (50 percent growth) and the three sub-goals that support it. In this phase, you should be a directive leader, but you also need to inspire your team about your vision.
Encourage discussion and questions so the goals are crystal clear for everyone. Now ask each person to identify about three to five personal goals that will support the overall goals.
Your marketing group will have specific tasks to get done in order to get that catalog out. Maybe one of them needs to learn a new software program to make the layout process go faster. There’s one goal, and for that person, it makes sense because it directly supports the goals above it in the goal hierarchy.
Your sales team no doubt will focus on the second goal, getting 40 new customers, 10 per quarter, next year. Should they buy prospect lists and do a telemarketing blitz, or attend a trade show in the first quarter? Sometimes there will be healthy disagreement as to what actions will achieve goals best, and therefore which ones better support the ones above them. But as you can see, involving your staff in establishing their own goals will give them a sense of ownership and commitment. Conversely, if you issue goals from on high, you risk getting push-back, resentment and apathy.
Plan meetings with either key leaders or whole teams, as appropriate, to guide them in brainstorming ideas about the goals that they should set for themselves. Make sure you listen to all their suggestions, always asking how a given goal ties into the larger company goal. In theory, why would anybody do anything that doesn’t support the goals?
Of course, as the final decision-maker, you may have to reshape or reject some ideas, but the give and take will be productive if everyone focuses on how to achieve those over-arching goals. Eventually each employee will have several specific, measurable goals for the year and they will see how each one ties to the bigger picture.
Don’t stop when you finally have everybody’s goals worked out. During the course of the year, it’s important to monitor progress and to make adjustments as needed to keep on course. Viewed in this way, each person’s performance gains a reason for being and a definite direction, and this can really spark performance. People usually feel great satisfaction in accomplishing their goals, but also in seeing how their personal contributions move the whole company forward.
This emphasis on performance toward a goal is much more positive than the old-fashioned “Let’s sit down and see how you’ve performed this year” scenario. If someone is not performing or is missing a goal that supports the key ones, you don’t have to explain how that hurts the company’s progress overall.
Listen carefully in these discussions. There could be hidden reasons why someone isn’t going to hit a target, and it’s your responsibility to remove as many obstacles as possible.
With time, people get better and better at goal setting. If you insist that goals be SMART (Simple, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely), you will define excellent goals from the start. The key is the linkage between each level of goals and all the others.
Healthy Internal Debate and Competition
Intelligent people disagree. As a leader, how do you help them work productively together?
A BIT OF HEALTHY DEBATE, and sometimes, even more than a bit, is one sign of a group that can really produce results. However, there are risks and pitfalls you need to spot and steer around as you encourage people to speak up.
Healthy debate—the free exchange of ideas with the intent of arriving at the best possible outcome—both releases and creates energy. Sullen compliance, gossip, behind-the-back griping or ill-intended input is unhealthy both for the people doing it and for your company. If it gets out of hand, it can debilitate the rest of a well-intending team.
Domination and passivity
Think for a moment of your company as a wolf pack. The dominant Alphas suppress or intimidate the less aggressive, more compliant Beta people, perhaps from natural leadership skills, but sometimes because they need to feel like they are the best in the room and they get that feeling when bullying others. The Betas may feel threatened by the Alphas or may secretly dismiss them, but either way they will tend to withdraw and shut down in self-defense. Now you face a “pack” that’s only getting the benefit of Alpha talk and thought, with undercurrents of resentment or apathy swirling beneath in the Beta’s minds. The result: disengagement, low productivity, and growing disrespect for you, as the top Alpha, for tolerating this imbalance.
Your challenge is to redirect the Alphas so they treat Betas with respect and give them time to speak. You also must redirect the Betas, encouraging them to move out of their silent comfort zones and push back (with your support) against Alpha dominance. This coaching is best done one-on-one, probably repeatedly, with a lot of neutral patience. Emphasize to everyone, Alpha or Beta, that you expect everyone to work and contribute as a team.
If an Alpha resists change, you may have to say something like this. “I appreciate your input. You are good on task, but you are not good at something we also expect here: professional teamwork. And you are creating problems: Others are not functioning at their best because they feel defensive when you are dominant or aggressive toward them.” The Alpha will notice that you admit that she is “good on task”, yet hear your need for her to become a better team player.
If a Beta doesn’t start contributing (and you know she has good ideas), you may need to say something like this. “You say you feel like Hans doesn’t respect you. Your silence in meetings invites people to think less of you, and then they treat you with less respect than you deserve. Take pride in yourself and show that a bit by speaking up. You do your tasks well. We need your input so we can do our very best as a team. In meetings, if I ask you what you think, I expect you to speak up, not shrug and smile. Do you think you can do that?”
Then in group situations, make sure you invite the Betas to speak, and don’t hesitate to shorten the talk time of the Alphas. Remind the group that silence as well as too much talk are no help in achieving your goals.
Internal competition
Here’s one approach: Ensure that you don’t foster a work environment that rewards internally focused competition. It’s fine to award “top seller” prizes, but consider keeping the participants’ sales tally private, posting only the team’s total progress toward your sales goal. Announce only who won, not the winner’s total, at the end of the competition. Even if it wasn’t a photo finish, imply that it was. This way, while the competition is going on, people won’t worry about what their fellow employees are doing; instead, they will focus on doing the best they can. The Betas won’t be threatened by the Alphas’ in-your-face attitude, and the Alphas will get their beloved competition.
If you sense, however, that you aren’t dealing with an Alpha-Beta split in your sales team, then sharing the individual sales results can spur an even more intense competition. Just be aware that this approach is much more likely to spin out of control, since selling is such a complex process and combines personal effort and skill with many external factors.
Here’s another real-world scenario: You have two people who work great alone but refuse to work together because they dislike each other. You feel like firing both. Should you? NO! Well, not right away, at least. There are a few tactics you can try with which I have had success in the past.
Sometimes, when two Alphas have to work closely together, it doesn’t go well because they are competing against each other instead of focusing on their task or goal. We see this very often in sales or marketing teams. The salespeople want to have the highest numbers and the marketers want to be the most creative. With such intense internal competition and maybe even animosity going on behind the scenes, how can anything get done? The short answer: It can’t. And you can’t choose Alpha A to be the boss of Alpha B, because B will shut down and say something to himself like, “Well if she’s the best, then why do I even try?”
A little-known reality in business is that Alphas perform so well because they are extremely emotionally-driven people. Their emotions are so strong and they crave being the best so badly that they will practically do anything to win. When they feel rejected, they almost always shut down. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
So what’s the solution? How do you get them work together? The answer is laughably simple: Give them a common goal. Seriously. They already have a common desire (to be better than everyone else, but especially the other Alpha), so force them to rely on each other to be super successful. If they are your two best marketers, put them on a project and assign one the slogan, and the other the graphic. Tell them that when they make the final presentation, they have to do it together. Make it clear, however, that if one fails to produce something of quality, the other fails for not helping. Both of their egos will be on the line for the whole of their output. So in order to create the best slogan and graphic, they will just have to figure it out together. (If you want to be really tricky, you can assign the slogan to the Alpha who you is better at graphics, and the graphic to the Alpha who is better at slogans. They won’t be able to avoid helping the other, because they are driven to be the best!)
The psychology behind this is that their “Alpha-ness” will kick in and they will care more about delivering a stellar product (since it will have their name on it) than they will care about competing with the other Alpha. Typically, somewhere along the way, they will realize how much they actually have in common. Over time they probably will develop, if not a friendship, at least a mutual respect for one another. Their former perception of each other as a threat that could keep them from being the best may fade away.
As an entrepreneur, particularly in your start-up phase, you must ensure that your team functions as a well-oiled machine. Your customers and the bank don’t care what kind of internal cohesion problems you’re having. All they ultimately want from you is quality products and services and positive results. Emphasizing common goals is a proven technique for turning negative competition into successful cooperation. Allowing two Alphas fight to the death does not qualify as good leadership!
In the end, you may have to look this philosophically and with a tough hide. If you force two people who don’t work well together to work as a team, one could immediately quit (which solves your dispute but cuts into your talent pool), or more likely, they both will just think you’re nuts, forcing them to work together. That shared opinion could be the first step to developing cohesion between them!
S.G.
Presenting Problems with Solutions
The only thing worse than a problem is a problem without a solution.
IF YOU CAN MAKE ONE THING CLEAR in your enterprise, you can transform it overnight.
If you have any employees at all, make every one of them responsible for proposing the solution they favor when they report a problem.
It’s that easy.
If, like so many entrepreneurs, you started your business and played all of its different roles yourself, you know it through and through. As your business expands, you bring in extra hands, and before long you have departments and managers.
Ideally, you have delegated considerable responsibility to every one of your employees. They treat their areas with an attitude of responsibility and ownership. They are the company expert and achieve the best possible results for their business area. But in reality you have may have young, inexperienced workers; workers who are in new roles, still learning the ropes; and a certain number of timid types who may not feel comfortable with responsibility.
Every day, when a problem or question comes up, your employees make a choice. If they can resolve the issues, they will. When they need approval and input from others, they often carefully lay out the issue and then sit back, waiting for others to start coming up with answers.
It’s up to you as the leader and founder of your business to make it clear that that’s not how your team operates. Every problem or question must arrive with the issue owner’s best guess for a solution. In practice, this may mean that you say to an issue owner, “Thank you for bringing this up. Please come back in two hours with what you think we should do.” It won’t take too many variations on this theme to get your team into a pro-active problem-solving habit.
Sometimes you may have to bite your tongue because the solution is crystal clear to you, thanks to your experience. But ask yourself: How else will this employee ever gain that experience if you keep jumping in with answers?
Of course, complex and high-stake issues call for group work and creative problem-solving collaboration. That’s a different situation. As is the rare situation that has literally everyone stumped. But for the garden variety problems that arise day to day, your people can and should take ownership and free time and energy for leaders to work at those complex levels.
It’s natural that you’ll worry about the risks of this set-up, and you and others need to invest a certain amount of teaching and coaching to equip people to define problems and work out solutions. But if you do, you’ll avoid the traps of micro-management that creates a culture of mediocre performance with limited ability to execute.
So hold a company-wide meeting or some smaller group ones, explain the way this will work, clarify your expectations, and get everyone moving forward in every aspect of your business. The great thing is that when it becomes your corporate culture, things can really move along fast.
Fostering a Productive Work Environment
Getting consistent high performance is an art. How skilled are you?
MOTIVATING EMPLOYEES can sometimes be an uphill battle, especially if you employ people from the younger generations (though not always), or if the work your employees do is boring, monotonous, or otherwise unpleasant. It’s human nature to avoid the unpleasant, so as their boss, it’s up to you to motivate them into performing well.
Punctuality can be a really frustrating issue for employers. If you live in an area that has troublesome traffic conditions or bad weather for several months of the year, it can be hard or may seem a little harsh to harp on your employees about showing up to work exactly on time. Look at it this way, though: Did you get to work on time? If you can, why can’t they? If five employees show up ten minutes late, five days a week, and if they each make $15 per hour, you’ve just paid out $63 for literally nothing. Perhaps $63 doesn’t seem like a lot, but that’s $250 per month, or $3,000 per year; and that’s just for five people, ten minutes late each!
The moral: Either they can learn to get there early, or other arrangements should be made. Why should you pay out-of-pocket for your employees’ punctuality failures, especially when you managed to get there on time, yourself? The reality is that it’s not so much about the money as it is about the attitude. While money is important, if you allow your employees to cut corners one way, they’re going to think it’s okay to do it all the time. I can assure you that if you want to stay in business in this economy, that’s not the type of environment you want to foster, especially on your budget. Below are a few ideas to get the most out of your employees while they’re at the office.
Encourage 10-minute breaks. The key here isn’t in the number of minutes. Five or fifteen minutes does the job, too. This idea might seem contradictory to what I just said about punctuality, but another performance motivator to take into consideration is boredom and fatigue.
A quick stretch or scheduled break times to refill a coffee cup or chat with coworkers will work wonders on your employees’ focus and productivity. Remember, you control their hours and pay scale, so adjust both of these so that the company doesn’t lose money from this. Six ten-minute breaks per day equates to an hour of paid time, so factor this in when running the annual numbers on how many employees you can afford to employ, or figuring how productive your team has been.
Another option is a simple punch clock. Pay your workers for the exact time that they are actually working. This might seem old fashioned, but the concept still holds true, today. Tell your employees that it benefits them because they will be fairly compensated for the hard work that they put in. They can’t really argue with that.
Block non work-related websites during work hours. This will benefit you in multiple ways. For one thing, it will keep your employees off of Facebook and ESPN.com while they are supposed to be working. But it will also free up all the bandwidth they are eating up, allowing everyone else who is using the Internet for work to be more productive. You can block such sites through a simple adjustment to your network’s firewall settings.
Think outside the job description. Sometimes, all anyone needs to jump-start their performance is an adjustment in responsibilities. As a boss, you can’t play the cup game with your employees’ tasks, but getting creative and engaging your employees’ talents could pay dividends for you. Here’s where knowing your employees personally really pays off.
Don’t be afraid to reward positive performance. Occasionally, employers are hesitant to reward positive performance because they don’t want to be accused of favoritism or prejudicial activity. But consider: If you have an employee who is setting an example, working at 110 percent, and really contributing to your company’s success, I think that by not rewarding them, you are setting a bad example. Don’t be afraid of giving credit where credit is due; if objections arise, cite your rewarded employees’ positive performance as the justification. Just ensure that if you reward one employee for excellent performance, you reward everyone who delivers commensurate performance equally.
Set a good example yourself. Remember that as the leader, you are essentially responsible for everything your organization does or fails to do. It’s hard to campaign against negative performance when you don’t perform yourself. Your employees look up to you. If you choose to play a passive role or cut yourself too much slack, be prepared for the consequences. I can tell you from experience that if you have an office at your company and seldom use it, your employees won’t respond well. If you feel like you’ve done your time at the helm and want to take a more inactive role, that’s your prerogative. Just ensure that someone is there, running the show and monitoring performance.
S.G.
Ensuring Top-Quality Work
Ever frustrated by poor performers? A simple conversation can turn things around.
HERE’S A COMMON problem: Some of the people who work for you are either lazy or they think they’re smarter than you. They cut corners and think you don’t know about it. They cleverly cover their bases and have an excuse for everything. You think of firing them, but they do just enough real work to make you feel guilty about pursuing that option. Yet, it frustrates you because you pay them, they owe you good work, and you know they can do better.
As we’ve said, the market doesn’t want to hear about your problem; it just wants your company to perform and deliver. If only you could find a way to control these team members and motivate them to care as much about their performance as you do!
“Big deal. The economy’s in the tank, there are other people eager to work here, so I should just fire them.” If this is your first thought, I suggest you reconsider. Typically, a high turnover rate indicates poor management, in this case yours. Firing the laggards is just short-term thinking.
Have you ever been to a restaurant whose staff all seemed unhappy and lost? It’s probably because everyone started working there last week and they neither know each other, nor know how to work together. How well can they work together, thinking that they will probably lose their job next week because of something stupid someone else did anyway? It’s not a pretty picture.
Although your employees may seem like they don’t listen to you and are cutting corners to get the job done as quickly as possible, I’m ready to bet that they don’t actually know what their job is. They don’t know what they are supposed to be doing. (It’s either that, or they just don’t like you. Don’t laugh: If your subordinates don’t like working for you, they will go through the motions. Getting productivity out of them will be like trying to coax a cow down some stairs.)
Here’s a practice you can apply both with these troubling employees and with any new ones you hire. Invite the lagging employee to your office. Describe the behaviors that you see that trouble you. Do not attack the person or the person’s character. “You are lazy” isn’t going to get you anywhere. Instead, for example, say: “I notice you’re always early for work, and that’s good. But I also notice that you take about 20 minutes each morning to chat with your team. I’d rather have you come in on time and get right to work.” Then ask if the employee can tell you what his job is and what he’s supposed to do. You’ll be surprised the first few times you do this at how poorly many workers understand what they are doing and why it matters to the company. That’s when you pull out a job description—and for the rest of this scenario, follow the script below for new hires.
For a new hire, the very first thing I do is sit down with them and ask them lots of questions unrelated to work. Without getting too personal, I get to know who they are as people, before I try to get to know them as employees. This accomplishes two things: It shows my employees that I care about them as people as well as employees, and it shows them, quite frankly that, although I’m their boss, I’m not a bad guy. I might even know a joke or two!
Typical topics that I like to inquire about are schooling, hometown, children, five-year professional plan, hobbies, favorite music, that kind of thing. I share a little about myself on the same topics, but the focus is on them.
I do this because I’m genuinely interested in them, but I’m also starting to establish trust and build a relationship. I believe that if my employees know just a bit about who I am, they will be more apt to understand my leadership philosophy and feel comfortable asking me questions. The reality is that people who enjoy their work and like who they work for (after all, they applied for the position) are more productive than people who hate their jobs and/or live in paralyzing fear of their employer.
Once the new employee and I spend a few minutes getting to know each other, I get down to the main reason why I invited them to my office. (If you’re zoned-out from reading too much or too fast, please take a sip of coffee and focus: This is important.) When employees first start working for you, you must tell them what their job is. I know that might seem dumb, but studies and practical applications have shown that a staggering number of employees have never actually been told what to do when they come to work. They know that their position is “warehouse assistant” or something, but they don’t actually know what they are expected to do. So they come to work and try not to mess anything up or get in anyone’s way.
An employee who knows exactly what she is supposed to do is likely to be motivated and productive. People naturally develop patterns and become more efficient the longer they do something. We become more comfortable with our tasks, we learn things, and we feel good about our output because it has transformed from being a series of tasks to being our job. We feel pleased with the results of our efforts.
In the initial meeting, you can tell your new hire what her job is in any way you wish. If you are partial to spreadsheets, use them. I prefer a simple Word document with a complete job description (over time I’ve created a series of templates on my computer for every position we have). Also included on the sheet is a list of names and the contact info of people the new hire will be working with frequently, and how they fit into the big picture.
I give her a copy of her job description and encourage her to take notes, telling her to feel free to stop me with any questions she has along the way. We go line by line through the document. I encourage her to make use of our mandatory open-door policy, and tell her it’s her responsibility to ask questions whenever she needs answers.
Once that’s done, I conclude your meeting with this: “What are your questions?” If she says that she doesn’t have any—very well. I just remind her that when one comes up, she knows who to ask, pointing to the sheet.
Once this task is accomplished, you will find that your employees and new hires will be much more productive. That’s because they have a connection with you. Thanks to your investment in getting things clear, they know exactly what they are supposed to be doing, where they fit in the grander scheme of your business, and that their efforts will make a difference.
Would Someone Please Take My Meeting Out Back and Shoot It?
Consider meeting efficiency as the difference between life and death.
FOR THE MOST PART, I hate meetings, mostly because I don’t plan many of the ones I attend. It didn’t always used to be this way; it just kind of happened little by little, over time. Early in my career, I thought meetings meant people who were invited into the conference room were really important people—critical to the success of the company. Apparently, that was not the case.
My indoctrination
Early in my career, working for my first big company, I was assigned a desk in a small cubicle. Working from this confined space, my cube-mates and I were known as “box people”, in reference to our solitary confinement-like work space. From that vantage point, I watched managers, department heads and outside visitors filing into the super-sized conference room across the aisle, and then closing the door for their Big Meetings.
I had been in that room before, strictly to dope it out. It was a big, fancy space full of large-scale furniture, rock-and-twirl leather chairs, impressive presentation gizmos and fancy snacks.
There were several lengthy meetings in that room every day. “How could there be such a need for so many meetings in one company?” I asked myself. I mean seriously, we only had a couple hundred employees in that office. But it seemed everybody important was taking their turn in those big chairs.
Then one day it happened. I received an invitation (more like a summons) to attend a meeting in the big room. I blocked out part of my day on the calendar and told all the other box people about it. It was like one of us from the wrong side of the tracks was moving out into the expensive neighborhood.
I was riding high that day when I came to work. Although I knew everyone at the meeting, it was still strange walking in. My boss’s boss was leading the meeting. He explained that the people present were named to form a team to handle a new project for one of our biggest clients. I remember him saying, as I devoured the last bite of my scone, that the pressure was on us and we needed to perform. He told us to expect lots of meetings. Before I knew it, that meeting was over.
So that was my first experience with a Big Meeting. Apart from the announcement, nothing really happened. Nothing was discussed. This perplexed me. No note-taking, no reminders, no tasks… nothing. I thought that maybe in the next meeting we would get down to business.
The following week, we met again. This time, we got a little deeper insight into the project. However, the meeting leader said that the parameters of the project and our job descriptions would be emailed to us. Two days later, we met to discuss our emails, only to adjourn with no more info or next steps assigned.
My altered perception
After four such meetings, I was fed up with this “getting ready to get ready” approach. Others on the team laughed at me. One of the regulars of the meeting circuit explained that the meetings held in that room never really had any substance—that they were more about show than tell and had little to do with action.
Once my team finally started work on the big project, these damn meetings actually began getting in the way of progress. I began to dread them—and besides, how many scones can a guy eat during a week? My disdain for meetings in general took root.
Apparently, many other companies and organizations take the same approach to meetings as my firm did. I used to laugh at my father when he came home late, complaining about the useless meeting that made him miss dinner again. “What’s the big deal?” I would ask. He’d just reply that I wouldn’t understand until it happened to me. Years later, I was the one grumbling about the same thing during post-work happy hours with fellow sufferers.
My current, realistic view
I know today that meetings can be vital for the success of a project or to share information and ideas openly. They can motivate people, generate new ideas, be a source of good feedback, and provide a time to bond with colleagues. However, they must be planned and run efficiently. Otherwise, they are an unjustifiable waste of time and money.
Research indicates that the average employee currently spends about 30% of her time in meetings. If they are as disastrous as the meetings I endured in my early years, I wish her luck in getting anything done.
My personal research
Later, in one of my own companies, I called a meeting to actually find out what people hated about meetings. It was the best meeting in the history of the company. I became a hero for initiating it, too! Why? Because it was planned and carried out well.
Everyone in the room knew why were gathered and what was on the agenda. First, we asked participants to describe bad meetings they had attended… even ones within our own company. Every single person was able to contribute! They told stories of receiving no advance agenda or being handed one on the spot, boring monologues, bad joke-telling, horrible food, stupid slide presentations, faulty tech set-ups or thundering air conditioning, ridiculous topics, conversations veering into unrelated directions, people doing email on the sly or arriving late and leaving early, no air or unbearable temperatures, late starts and later endings, no conclusions and next steps, and more. Their stories gave me great material later for some of my training seminars and speaking engagements.
My point
There’s a growing awareness of the waste that bad meetings generate. Here are few simple tips that will kill off bad meetings and make the ones that survive a genuinely good use of everyone’s time.
• Don’t meet. Try avoiding holding a meeting altogether, if possible. If you can accomplish your objective via an email, call or hallway chat, do so.
• Don’t attend. Don’t accept a meeting invitation that wastes your time. Here are meeting requests I accept: I trust your ability to use my time well; I have seen the objective, agenda and time-frames; attending fits my priorities and goals; the meeting is a ceremony awarding me a huge prize; or you want to buy one of my companies or hire me to consult without negotiating my fee.
• Define clear and concise objectives. This will help the moderator to have specific topics to discuss and can fence out unrelated discussions.
• Announce the agenda in advance. An advance agenda is a tremendous way to allow participants to come better prepared. It is instrumental in keeping everyone on the same page.
• Describe responsibilities for all participants. Explain to invitees why they are being asked to attend and request that they prepare for the meeting accordingly.
• Start and finish on time: Enough said.
When it actually comes time to plan, organize and invite attendees, there are also a few items you will want to address regarding the actual meeting itself:
• Invite only essential attendees. Inviting a bunch of people not relevant to the proceedings just complicates everything. Use a “delegate” principle to name one person from a group who can attend and then update the rest of the group, rather than dragging the whole group into the meeting.
• Focus. Starting and ending on time is vital. Design the meeting to keep moving according to your advance agenda. Cover only the elements on the agenda, unless otherwise dictated by new or unforeseen information.
• Plan for new business. Allow time for follow-up questions, new items of concern, announcements, and so forth. Usually this is best done at the conclusion of the meeting.
• Consider comfort and completeness. Room temperature, room setup (rows or rounds?), refreshments (scones), media equipment, Internet connection, dress code, scheduled bathroom and email or phone check-in breaks, directions to the meeting facility, meeting room access, presentation materials, and items participants must bring are just some of the elements you will need to address for a productive meeting. Professional preparations set the tone and pace for the session itself.
• Conclude with actions. End your meeting with specific, actionable written points on who does what by when.
• Follow-up appropriately. If people fail to do this, much of the point of the meeting can be lost.
As a leader in your business, you have a lot of power to set or change the way meetings are handled. If you take a second to calculate the fully loaded salaries, facilities costs, food costs, and perhaps travel costs to hold a meeting, and then ask, “Is this meeting really necessary?”, you may surprise yourself by how many you can take out back and shoot. For the rest, if you establish the expectation that all meetings are run to the highest level of professionalism, you’ll earn back the investment in each gathering.
M.P.
Ideas for Office Gift-Giving
Avoid awkward situations with these helpful tips.
HOLIDAYS AND BIRTHDAYS are occasions that everyone loves—except at work. At work, they can be awkward, obligatory occurrences that nobody likes—neither the givers nor receivers. The potential for emotional discomfort, hurt feelings, and misinterpretation is staggering. If your gift is too expensive, your coworkers will feel uncomfortable about their shabby gifts. If it’s lame, in bad taste, or inadvertently hurtful, the recipient will be uncomfortable because he or she will have to fake liking it. And if it turns out you’re the only person who didn’t give a gift, good luck. We reached out to a number of contacts in an informal survey for this section, and came up with some fresh, helpful ideas. A common theme is that a lot depends on your corporate culture and the number of people involved.
Office Gift Policy. Why not be pro-active and set a company policy that personal gifts (from one person to another) aren’t expected? Consider group gifts. Making gift-giving a group event can minimize a lot of awkwardness. And let’s face it: if a group agrees that everybody chips in a small amount, you can wind up with a nice gift budget.
A nice middle ground is to have a coffee break, a pizza lunch, or similar treat on special days. For a sizeable company, holding one on the first workday of the month for all the birthday boys and girls keeps the partying in perspective.
If you don’t agree with such a policy, and do decide to get someone a gift on your own, make sure it’s not too expensive or much better than what you think others are going to get. Buying a lavish gift can make you look like you’re trying to improve your situation at work through favoritism or bribery. It’s also a good idea to give the gift in private, instead of making a big production out of it in front of the rest of the office.
Regardless of whether you’ve decided to buy the gift yourself or have agreed to go in as a group to chip in, it’s a good idea to set a budget.
What to give? When looking for a gift, thinking hard about the recipient’s interests and lifestyle is obviously smart. Popular items include these:
• Coffee shop gift certificate, coffee paraphernalia
• Laptop bag
• Concert tickets
• Coupon for lessons the recipient would love to follow: dance, boxing, gardening, writing…
• Yoga sessions
• Massage or other treatments at a spa, like manicures or pedicures
• Electronic golf scoring system
• Subscription to a favorite magazine
• Donation to a favorite charity
• High-quality pen
• Gourmet gift basket
• Restaurant gift cards
• Hotel gift cards
• Diaper service for new parents
• Gift cards: iTunes, Amazon.com, other e-retailers or local businesses
We discovered mixed feelings about whether or not gift cards were a good or bad gift for a boss. While some thought they were versatile and useful, others thought they were drab and thoughtless. Personally, I would love to get a gift card or gift certificate, because then the chances are good that I could actually get something I really want. Everyone is different, however, so feel things out before making a purchase. If our list still doesn’t spark any brilliant ideas, do some clever detective work!
It’s usually a good idea to rule out gag gifts that may offend or insult, gifts that may appear to be sexual in nature, and gifts that contain vulgar or inappropriate language. If you are unsure, err on the side of caution. Here are some examples of what we concluded were bad ideas. “Dummies” or “Idiot’s Guide” books; sexy lingerie; awkward, profane or offensive T-shirts or similar gifts; food and drink the recipient won’t appreciate; bathroom scales; or perhaps non-returnable items.
If, as the leader of your company, you want to give everybody in it gifts, ensure that they are of equal value (we exclude bonuses here because usually they reflect performance and other variable factors). Holiday gift-giving is not a good time to play favorites. A few ideas:
• One-on-one lunch with you (where you pick up the tab)
• Time off (outside of sick days or paid vacation days)
• A token gift on employees’ hiring anniversary or on their 5th, 10th, etc. anniversaries
Don’t neglect the potential for creative, sentimental gifts or mini-events that are keyed to the recipient or occasion. One employee was leaving full-time work and setting up a home office to work for her company as a freelancer while raising a family. She was astonished to receive the chair from her former office to put in her home office, so she wouldn’t forget her friends at work!
Office Relationships and Business: The Do’s and Don’ts
All good things are good—until they go bad.
I AM NOT a philosopher, but intimate relationships and business typically mix like a vegan and a veal chop or a hamburger and a heart attack. It’s your choice, but I think you’ll agree they can be dangerous.
Have you ever found yourself in a relationship with a co-worker, or do you know someone else who has been in one? Many of us have experience with this issue, in one way or another. When you look back on the experience, or you survey the research, it seems clear that inter-office romances are a terrible idea; especially if the relationship did not exist prior to the two people being employed by the same company. Here are some recent findings, including data from Spherion Staffing Services and from consultant Karen E. Klein:
• 36 percent of single respondents would consider dating a co-worker (declining from 42 percent in 2005)
• 57 percent of US companies surveyed have no written policy on the subject
• 22 percent of co-workers who dated eventually married
• Obviously, a relationship between a superior and subordinate is loaded with extra complications
• Romances in smaller companies cause more problems all around
• Even with no written policy, an employer can become involved in legal proceedings when gossip related to a romance is ignored by management
• Gossip, displays of affection, banter that offends others and the couple’s work habits can all undermine morale or even become grounds for a hostile atmosphere
It’s one thing to be involved with someone who then becomes a co-worker or business contact, but it’s a completely different animal altogether when the relationship is built after the two began working together in a company. With that said, I am not saying that a relationship built in the office can’t or won’t work. But more often than not, they fail, and when they do, it can be ugly and uncomfortable for everyone involved (including everyone else in the office). In short, a professional business environment is no place for personal issues and drama.
Just remember one thing: If the potential for a wonderful relationship exists or could exist, then at the very least, be prepared for the “what if”. Let me illustrate the “what if” by asking three simple questions:
1. Are you prepared to have the new potential flame learn intimate details about you that everyone in the office could later hear about?
2. Could you imagine working together if things go South (and I don’t mean Tijuana)?
3. If the transition were necessary, would you consider a job change in the event of a nasty breakup?
If you answered “Yes” to all of these questions, then you’re probably okay. However, if you answered “No”, then you may want to hold off building romantic relationships with members of your office environment or professional community. No matter what, be sure that you have thought about all of the possible consequences and remember that nothing is guaranteed in life or relationships, so be smart about matters of the heart while being clear about who you are and where you want your career to go.
M.O.
Delivering Bad News Quickly
If you have bad news, don’t delay or avoid delivering it. Moving forward can even have a positive impact on the outcome.
IT IS NATURAL for you to move quickly when you have is good news to report. The challenge arises when the news is bad.
A business needs to maintain momentum on a number of issues every day. Dealing with bad news quickly will protect your momentum. Drawing out bad news often makes things worse, because the longer it takes for a problem or issue to surface, the less time those affected have to react, formulate a new plan, or solve the problem. If a program needs to be terminated or changed, it is always better to deal with the issue as soon as facts are clear, rather than later. If an employee has a performance issue, it is better to discuss that issue immediately, limit its negative impact to the company, and take corrective action.
Too often, we delay taking action on a negative issue, hoping that circumstances will change or another alternative will be discovered. But the delay distracts us from our business focus, prolongs the corrective process, and often creates a more difficult outcome. It requires discipline and focus to handle things quickly and directly.
Here are some tips on delivering bad news quickly:
• With personnel issues, try to take to acknowledge any strengths or positive potentials that will provide balance to the bad news.
• For business initiatives and policy changes, recap the development of the problem, explain the value of what was learned and any options that were considered but rejected, and then describe the benefit of the action you’ve chosen.
• Depending on the situation, consider inviting group discussion to address questions, allow emotions to be aired, and explain the importance and value of a tough decision. Then, proceed immediately with the decision.
• If the decision is emotionally difficult for you, focus on the results you hope to achieve. It sometimes helps to tell yourself that this bad news session will be over in two hours, for example, and then you can begin carrying out the decision. There is always a clear benefit in getting it over with and moving forward.
• Be aware that your team will look to you for reassurance and take stock of your demeanor as they react to the bad news. You don’t want to deceive them, but if you can present a confident, informed, in-charge air, you can establish a productive atmosphere to begin the response phase.
You may not be able to eliminate the impact or reality associated with bad news. After all, in business, bad news happens to everyone. What puts great businesses ahead of the rest is their ability to react to adversity.
Lame Excuses—A Sign of Trouble?
Listening and probing, plus problem solving, can go a long way.
THERE ARE TIMES WHEN EXCUSES are valid and necessary, often paired with apologies. However, in business, a pattern of frequent excuses may be a sign of a larger problem. Let’s assume for the moment that you, as leader and manager of your team, are the one hearing the excuses, not making them. However, if the shoe fits….
Excuses come into play when someone didn’t do what was expected, misjudged something, or did something that had negative consequences. They may come from your team or from vendors. Of course, it’s always best to be pro-active and alert people affected by a problem before it snowballs. That not only gives everyone a chance to plan around the problem, but it also builds your credibility, even when your performance isn’t what was expected. But for now, let’s suppose you didn’t get a heads up, the problem is now evident, and all you hear is excuses.
You face a couple challenges. Is the excuse a symptom of a contributing problem that needs addressing? Is it a white lie covering up something entirely different (someone is burned out, not suitably equipped or competent to do something, or struggling with issues that interfere with action)?
It’s important not to get sucked into a lengthy, dead-end discussion about the excuse itself. Some people really believe that offering an excuse almost solves the problem, when of course it doesn’t. They don’t seem to be aware that poor or unreliable performance—the situation that makes the excuse necessary—undermines their credibility.
Here are some classic business excuses:
• Weather
• Traffic
• Equipment malfunctions, server down, computer crash
• Miscommunication about expectations or deadlines
• Illness, injury, physical impairments (to the person or a colleague or family member)
• Vacation or personal time off not planned for
• Personal issues
• Someone who owed the person essential things needed to complete the task didn’t deliver
• Slammed with other projects
You’ll rarely hear someone say,
• “I’m falling in love and can’t concentrate”, or “I’m having family problems and can’t concentrate.”
• “I just felt lazy.”
• “I hate this job and that task in particular, so I just don’t do it.”
• “We realize now that we can’t do (or deliver) what we promised.”
• “I frankly have no idea how to do what’s expected and I’m scared I’ll get fired when somebody finally figures that out.”
• “I’m having a fight with X and don’t want her to succeed, so I’m sabotaging her.”
You can begin to see why listening past the excuse is very important. Let’s look at some ways to chase down what’s needed and get to the true causes that triggered the problem.
How to handle no-action or non-delivery problems
• Say, “I notice that X has (or has not) happened. Can you please tell me when it will (or will stop happening)?”
• Or say, “I need to review the project documents you promised to send me yesterday. Can you deliver them today?”
If you get a satisfactory answer (not a fishy excuse), move on to when you can expect what’s due to happen. If you smell a fish, probe deeper, not necessarily in a bossy way. For example:
You (not focusing on the non-delivery, rather on what’s expected): I haven’t seen that report you were going to give me yesterday. Can you get it to me by 4 this afternoon?
Sally: Well, maybe not. My computer is acting up.
You (problem solving): Can you use Sarah’s to complete the report?
Sally: Um, well, maybe. It just takes a long time to do.
You (testing the story): That shouldn’t be. Do you know Excel pretty well?
Sally: Uhhh, not really.
You (taking action, not getting bogged down): Okay, let’s deal with this in two steps. Let Sarah complete the report. But starting today I want you to spend one hour a day taking the online tutorials. We’ll set up a skills test for you at the end of this month. I think you’ll like it when you can work faster.
Sometimes entrepreneurs want so badly to succeed that they become blind to the factors that prevent others from performing (as if strength of will could speed up your Internet connection speed). Or they are naïve, or reluctant to admit it when a colleague or vendor isn’t performing as needed. They may mistakenly give people too many chances to improve, or hold back valid criticism, rather than neutrally assessing the situation and taking unpleasant but needed actions. When you hear excuses, particularly repeated ones, it’s time to dig deeper and address whatever you uncover.
Severing Ties with Lackluster Employees—the Fair Way
Let your poorly performing employees go fairly and efficiently and you’ll still be able to sleep at night.
MY LEAST FAVORITE part of being an entrepreneur is having to tell someone to pack up their things and not come back. That they are fired.
Even if she turned out to be the laziest, rudest, most incompetent employee, I feel some guilt because, as their boss, there’s always a chance that I failed to warn her, advise her, make her aware of how things needed to be done, describe what she was doing wrong, or point out what she could have done to improve. If you’re like me (and I’ve discovered many business leaders are), you can’t help but wonder, as you let someone go, if the poor performance was related to your management. To combat this, I have developed a simple but thorough system to successfully coach lackluster employees without feeling like a jack-in-the-box executioner. I call it the Three-Strike Rule. The name comes out of the game of baseball, where batters have three chances to hit the ball, missing three times before they are out.
Big deal, you say: Just let her mess up three times and then fire her. Sounds easy. That would be easy, but I don’t feel good about that approach. It doesn’t seem fair to me, because as those three chances slide by, I haven’t done anything as a manager. I haven’t tried to change anything. I would have trouble sleeping at night if I gave someone the ax without helping them get better, even if I waited to count to three.
Quite frankly, if you hired her, you believed she was likely to be qualified with the skills and performance it takes to be successful at your company. The initial meeting we discussed in a previous section should have launched the employer/employee relationship with clear understandings of responsibilities and expectations. With that, you’ve given this person many of the tools she needs to be successful.
Still, despite that launch, it doesn’t seem like she’s getting it. Something isn’t quite right about her productivity, efficiency, attitude, etc. This is where the Three-Strike Rule comes into effect.
Strike One: Ground Rules. If someone isn’t performing well or has made a significant mistake, the first step should be to ensure that she understands her job description. Don’t take her word for it, ask her to tell you. Bring out her job description and review it together. If she asks if she is in trouble, say “no,” because she shouldn’t be. Strike One should be a fact-finding mission. Determine whether there is a communication disconnect. If you discover that she might not understand her role, take this time to correct her. Encourage her to ask questions or seek clarification; ensure she knows that the only bad question is the one never asked.
It’s a good idea to keep notes about the meeting, even if it’s just a brief list of discussion points on your copy of the job description. Ask your employee to initial and date it. That underlines the seriousness of the conversation and comes in handy if you need to refer to it later.
If you share a story about another employee who had the same problem or made the same mistake, avoid using names. Even if this employee seems to know exactly what she is supposed to be doing, discuss each item on her job description anyway. Wrap up your meeting with two questions:
• What can I do to help you?
• What are your questions?
Typically, you’ll get negative answers for both questions. You can feel good about doing everything you could, as a manager, to help her. More often than not, your lackluster employee will realize that she is on your radar now, and address the issues she’s been having. But in case Strike One doesn’t work and you see more of the same problem, move on to Strike Two.
Strike Two: A Swing…and a Miss. Assuming the first meeting went well and after a bit of time, your employee is back to her lackluster performance, it’s now necessary to hold a Strike Two meeting. Remember, as a manager, you are in charge of the situation. Don’t lose your temper, no matter how frustrated you may be, as that shows a lack of self-control. Your employees will wonder, “How can he expect us to follow him or rely on his ability to control this company if he can’t even control himself?”
Keep it neutral at all times, but stay firm and don’t tolerate excuses, because at this phase of the Three-Strike Rule, you could expect to be pitched some doozies. Excuses and legitimate issues are of course two very different things. Your employees are people, and people sometimes have real issues. If someone can’t seem to get to work on time, “I just can’t seem to wake up” is an excuse. “My son was just diagnosed with leukemia, his father left us three years ago, and the only doctor’s office that will accept my health insurance is on the other side of town” is a legitimate issue.
Don’t be closed-minded. Taking the time to help your employees with their legitimate personal issues is what sets great managers apart from good managers. Taking the opportunity to be a good person and a strong leader for your subordinates will instill a sense of loyalty that often pays back dividends in the other direction. If a slightly better job opportunity comes around, studies have shown that employees will sacrifice a minor gain in income in order to stay with a company led by someone they trust and respect. So be aware that you create a tangible value, as a manager, simply by being a good person.
Assuming you don’t uncover news that alters the whole situation, at this meeting, the focus should be on the employee’s shortcomings. Begin with a review of your notes from the Strike One meeting:
“On June 4th, you and I discussed your responsibilities. Basically they are X, Y, and Z. I know that you understood your responsibilities at that time because you very clearly described them to me. However, lately, your work has been less than acceptable….”
From there, go on to point to examples of the behavior and performance problems that have occurred since the first discussion and show her how she hasn’t been meeting the company’s expectations. Re-clarify what you expect from her. This doesn’t have to be a replay of the Strike One meeting, but a quick refresher of what her key responsibilities are.
Finally, warn her of termination. Don’t beat around the bush about this or try to use a bunch of flowery euphemisms to soften the blow. Remember, this is business. Ensure your employee understands what is at stake.
“If your performance does not change, you may lose your job here.”
“I want you to know that you are under review for termination.”
“Your performance has put you at risk of termination.”
A surprising number of people don’t really grasp that termination means getting fired or losing their job. Or they are a bit in shock at the moment, and aren’t hearing or thinking clearly. If you think this might be the case, probe to make sure your employee fully gets the message. Don’t just ask “Do you understand?” but rather, ask, “Do you understand that you may lose your job if we don’t see real improvements?”
It is really important that your lackluster employee give you some kind of affirmative answer here. Once she has made it clear that she understands the gravity of the situation, wrap up your meeting with your two key questions:
• What can I do to help you?
• What are your questions?
Once again, you may get a negative reply, or just a penetratingly cold stare at the floor. Although the meeting wasn’t pleasant, you can still take comfort in having done about everything you could.
If you like, schedule a follow-up meeting with the employee in a week or two. This will either give you an opportunity to praise your employee on a successful turnaround, or, if the turnaround hasn’t been complete but she is noticeably making progress, tell her what she’s doing right, and what she could do to continue to improve.
If you haven’t seen any improvement, or you see your employee’s poor performance continue, your scheduled follow-up could be a good time for Strike Three. As before, it’s a good idea to keep notes about your Strike Two and any intervening follow-up meetings, too, initialed and dated by the employee. In case Strike Two doesn’t work and your employee still fails to improve, you’ll have to move on to Strike Three.
Strike Three: You’re out. Again, this shouldn’t be a verbal lashing or loud-voice session. If you’ve been following the steps in the Three Strike Rule, it shouldn’t have to be. That’s because, due to your first two meetings, your problem employee and you should be on the same page by now. At this point, there shouldn’t be any surprises. Although I prefer the Strike One and Strike Two meetings to be one-on-one, I sometimes include an appropriate third party in this meeting.
If your company is pretty sizeable and your lackluster employee has a more immediate supervisor than you, the supervisor can be the third party. Other candidates can be a personnel or office or financial manager (assuming you don’t have a human resources department yet). Before the employee arrives, I usually advise this third person not to say anything unprompted, because I like to maintain control of the meeting. I ask the supervisor whether or not he or she wants to add anything at the end. I always remind them to keep it professional and constructive. “That’s what you get, jerk!” does not qualify.
Open the meeting with a very brief recap of the first two meetings and note what has happened since the second one. Tell your employee clearly and slowly that you are terminating her. Use your notes from the first two meetings to back up your points and talk about performance, not character. This helps prevent your employee from taking the termination personally, because you are backing up your decision with performance-based facts, figures and examples.
Depending on your employee’s reaction, the Strike Three meeting could be as long as the other two, or it could last just as long as it takes for your employee to get up and storm out of your office. Keep in mind that she is allowed to be upset, but do your best to maintain that your place of business is an office, not a circus, and only professional behavior is tolerated. If your employee starts crying, offer tissues; just don’t let it affect your decision. At this point, it’s too late for second-guessing. If you start back-pedaling, you will appear unprofessional and weak, which can damage your position with everyone in the office.
If you feel yourself start to falter, look down at your notes from the first two meetings and recall how many times you’ve not only explained your lackluster employee’s faults, shortcomings and failures, but also how many times she has said she understands the situation and its seriousness. You wouldn’t have gotten to this point if you hadn’t already heard these confirmations. Remember, it doesn’t mean you don’t like her; this is business. It is likely at this point that she will be happier working elsewhere anyway. Whether she apologizes for her behavior or not is irrelevant. You have very clearly and repeatedly set the standard, she has very clearly and repeatedly shown she has understood your terms and accepted your challenge, and she has repeatedly and conclusively fallen short of your organization’s and your own expectations.
A situation like this demonstrates why clarity and decisiveness are two skills an entrepreneur needs to lead a company. You are a rock that others trust, depend on, and follow for guidance. Make a decision and stick to it; always be fair, and keep your personal opinions and emotions out of your business decisions. The bottom line here is that it’s never fun to let someone go. If it’s a performance-based decision, however, as long as you follow the steps listed above, you should rest easy. You’ll know that you did everything you possibly could to guide your employee to success, and that unfortunately she was not able to perform as expected, or she perhaps chose to fail.