Don't fire people lightly

Leaders are inseparable from their subordinates. In fact, the performance of leaders often depends on the performance of subordinates. Selecting and cultivating subordinates is the basic skill and responsibility of a good leader. But there are always times when things don't go according to plan. So, under what circumstances should a leader consider firing?

Don't blame others or fire employees when they don't meet expectations. Think of a more human way to give subordinates the opportunity to learn, improve, and change.

Managers have the authority to recruit or fire members of the organization as authorized by the company structure. When leaders initiate change, they put authority aside. His drive to achieve his goals came not from authority, but from compelling ideas, effective communication, coaching skills, and a passion for a set of values.

Managers can certainly hire or fire people as they wish, but those managers who aspire to be true leaders must exercise caution when wielding this enormous power, because it is really about the lives and interests of employees. livelihood.

Dismissals ranged from large to small. In the case of mass layoffs, all those who meet pre-determined criteria open the way, which is mass layoffs. Leaders who make final decisions rarely have direct contact with layoffs. A middleman, such as HR, usually acts as a buffer. There are also minimal dismissals, where your boss has let you go for a specific reason. At this time, there is usually direct contact, or even face-to-face, between the boss and the laid-off employee.

Mass layoffs are often in the name of short-term goals, which are necessary to preserve profits when revenue declines and market share shrinks. Today, being able to make difficult decisions like "weight loss" for the company is what a qualified senior manager should be. However, after the company loses weight, it often presents a picture of decline, which often means a waste of time and a needless loss. This is obviously inconsistent with the concept of excellent leadership. When facing difficulties, excellent leaders should ignite hope and work hard for worthy goals. Rationality aside, mass layoffs always raise serious doubts about the effectiveness of leadership.

Why do leaders fire individual employees? The history of leadership is full of examples of this, for a variety of reasons. The most common reasons are: individual mistakes, overall incompetence, challenging authority, not conforming to the company model, lack of trust and differences in values. But there are ways leaders can turn a disadvantage into an advantage, and here are some guidelines.

For Occasional Errors:

Be More Forgiving and Open

The most common reason leaders fire people is a specific error. If the error is a matter of moral turpitude, the dismissal is entirely justified. For example, Russian President Vladimir Putin sacked Atomic Energy Minister Evgeny Adamov when evidence of corruption and large-scale illegal business activities became clear, upholding the moral standards of the Russian leadership. Only honest leaders can win the trust of their subordinates, and tolerance of misbehavior will inevitably lead to a crisis of trust.

However, good leaders tolerate mistakes and encourage subordinates to learn from them. The introduction of New Coke in the mid-1980s became one of the most publicized commercial failures. Facing the huge negative reaction from consumers, after 77 days, the traditional Coca-Cola returned to the market.

Despite a major defeat, no one in the New Coke program has been condemned, let alone fired. The project's lead, marketing executive Sergio Zyman, left the company after the fact, but seven years later he returned to Coca-Cola to lead global marketing. Company CEO Roberto Goizueta explained: "If you can't tolerate mistakes, we will lose competitiveness. If your starting point is to avoid mistakes, you are on the road to inaction. You fall because you are moving forward."

Forgive Ziman's big mistakes and let the company learn from it is a testament to Guo Sida's outstanding leadership. After the collapse of New Coke, Coca-Cola reorganized its marketing strategy and regained market share from Pepsi every year.

The key to getting your mistakes right is to make them public with good intentions. If the employee realizes that he can have an open and honest discussion about the problem, he knows that he will be supported in admitting mistakes and correcting them. Positive, face-to-face communication works better than assertiveness, rejection, punishment, or dismissal. You will eventually see a huge increase in performance, morale and team spirit.

For the incompetent:

Coaching to help them grow

It is common for subordinates to be fired for overall incompetence. Business as well as politics.

In the 1980s, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had to make a difficult decision when forming a cabinet: "I also let David Howell and Janet Young leave the cabinet. Howell Will's shortcomings as a cabinet minister have been shown in his tenure in the energy department and his performance in the transport department has also proved my judgment. Whether as the opposition party or as the chairman of the special committee, he has enough excellence Talent, but he lacks the combined qualities of creative political imagination and practical talent that prevent him from being a first-rate cabinet minister."

Of course, even if subordinates are incompetent, a great leader should be coached and guided , prompting a makeover. When coaching, it's especially important to give employees a better understanding of themselves and their jobs. This allows them to know how to improve their mindset and be more particular about how to deal with the anxiety, humiliation and frustration that comes with performance.

A patient mentor takes care not to rush too far and set too high a goal for the trainee. When he asks a question, he does not rush out an answer, but induces the trainee to say the exact meaning of the question first. With the question in mind, the answer comes naturally, and the trainee can spontaneously seek the answer without guidance.

If coaching and mentoring are not as effective as expected, leaders have no choice but to lay off staff. Even so, leaders themselves are partly to blame for their failures. As King Attila of the Huns said: "If the leader is incompetent, the subordinates of the highest rank cannot succeed him. If the leader fails, the subordinates are not much better."

For those who challenge authority:

Clarify the hierarchy and set the tone

All leaders must have had their authority challenged by subordinates. Should it be ignored? Or deal with the challenger with your heart?

Tracy Edwards, who became the first woman to complete the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race in 1990, had a tough decision to make. A long time ago, Edwards fired the second man in the fleet, her first mate. Leaders must act when they sense someone in their ranks is disruptive. Making a decision, hard but inevitable, strengthens the leader's credibility, and avoiding problems can be even more damaging than the bad-temper of the person who picks it up.

Leaders are responsible for pre-establishing the relationship between superiors and subordinates, setting the tone for how work is to be done, and communicating this information effectively to subordinates. Challenges to leaders mostly come from disapproval of established ideas and subordinate arrangements. Once some challenge disrupts the functioning of the team, it must be faced and solved. When leaders have to choose between being a jerk and being a team player, it's easy to see how.

For those who deviate from the established model:

Break the dogma and encourage innovation

GE's Jack Welch is the most famous corporate leader of nearly two decades. During his tenure, he cultivated a large number of outstanding leaders, pays close attention to each individual's personal development, arranges them in different positions to gain relevant experience, sets challenging goals for them, and gives them ample space Exercising talent. He is also said to have set up a talent renewal system at GE to let the bottom 10 percent of employees leave.

Welch knew what a successful leader should look like and what a successful business should look like. He earned the nickname "Neutron Jack" for this reason. Anyway, Jack may not guarantee that you will never be laid off, but he will make you always able to.

But culling those who don't fit the established pattern is a dangerous thing in itself. What if the pattern itself is wrong? What if the mode is not updated in time to keep up with the times?

The consequences of deliberately shaping employees according to group requirements can be positive or negative. Positive results require employees to understand how to carve a path to success in a complex organizational environment; to have their unique, creative nature recognized and supported; Feel intimidated and lack trust.

On the contrary, if employees have to follow the rules, suppress their behavior, characteristics and personality, give up self-esteem and freedom, they are regarded as "second-class people"; or if the rules and regulations are completely dictated by the upper management, no Considering the wishes of subordinates, and the upper management can rely on their power to do something else, then the negative effects are inevitable.

A better way than building people according to established patterns is to provide them with individual help, guidance, and support so that they can do better in accomplishing their goals. That is to say, encourage them to develop their skills, induce them to cooperate with each other, and make them consciously engage in the work.

For those who do not believe in their words:

Lead by example and do what they say

Trust is a belief that what you say is true, it is a traditional virtue --- "honesty" "Abide by. A leader's actions must be consistent with, or at least not in conflict with, his verbally declared beliefs. The foundation of effective leadership is not brilliance, but the unity of words and deeds. There are many ways to express trust, such as:

●Agree on clear principles in advance, and respect the principles of others.

● Empower others to make their own decisions, or make decisions collaboratively.

● Encourage teamwork and participation.

●Listen to the voices of others and achieve empathy.

●Being able to stand up when others encounter difficulties.

The same principle applies to subordinates. For a group to exceed the capabilities of each individual and strive for optimal performance, leaders must be confident that subordinates share the group's goals and will not undermine its achievement. If it is obvious that some subordinates cannot do this, the leader has no choice but to reexamine the wisdom of relying on these subordinates.

For those with different values:

Alignment and avoid disagreement

Maintaining the alignment of values is critical to building good relationships between leaders and subordinates. The shared values of leaders and subordinates will largely constitute what is known as the team's "culture," or the way the group does things. The values that leaders and subordinates have in harmony with each other are the basis for rational behavior. If leaders and subordinates hold different beliefs, it will inevitably lead to "schizophrenia" of the group.

Thatcher was known for his ability to shape and uphold an unwavering set of values. When forming a new cabinet, she carefully selects those who share her views. In deciding to replace foreign secretary Francis Pym, she said: "I first left a man who claimed to be a pilot but had a misguided sense of direction. Francis and I disagreed not only on the direction of policy or the direction of the cabinet. policy, and even the whole outlook on life."

In a group, if people's actions and actions are not consistent with the values that are publicly promoted, they will lose themselves and lose self-confidence. The consequence is to say one thing and do another. set. To avoid criticism, they report ambiguously, respond with wariness, and even work against their own expectations. They are often divided between who they really are and their imagined selves.

Values are not the same as life skills. At different stages of life, you may believe in a value at this time and not at that time, but it is difficult to understand it through learning. So unless a leader makes a misjudgment when choosing his subordinates, as in Pym's case, differences in values can be enough to cause the leader to part ways with his subordinates.

Empowering leaders not only has power, but also great responsibility. One of the powers is to fire subordinates. With the exception of the few heartless guys who are not good leaders at all, firing subordinates is always unpleasant and distressing. While firing an employee may make sense in the group's overall interest, it always raises questions about whether leaders should also be partly responsible for subordinates' ineffectiveness.

If a leader takes office as a reformer, he will have to fire a bunch of people. However, doing what you have to do is not the style of a great leader. A truly outstanding leader will lead the same group of people who created the current predicament to break through the crisis and turn the tide.

The original text was adapted from Is Getting Rid of Followers Good Leadership? (http://www.leader-values.com) by Alan Yu on LeaderValues with permission. The author registered copyright in 2003. Translated by Yuwen.

Alan Yu has worked for American Express and Johnson & Johnson with outstanding performance and is currently the Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of CK Life Technology Group Limited (Hong Kong).