Firing Team Members Is Hard: 8 Steps to Guide You

In 5 Steps to Hiring & Firing for Growth, I gave you a process to determine if you have some wrong people on your team – perhaps an employee who may have been great for your start-up but is detrimental (or at least not a fit) for your organization today. Instead of continuing to try to fit this “square peg” into a round hole, decide to make a change.It won’t be easy; this person may have been with you since the beginning, or is a member of your family! How can you possibly say goodbye? You know it’s the right thing to do, but the thought of it is giving you an ulcer.So how do you have this critical, personal, tough conversation?

1. Don’t hesitate. You have the information; you know the answer. If you’re just now figuring out that this person isn’t a fit, his or her team members have likely been suffering in silence for months – or maybe several of them have already quit. Take swift action. It will be tempting to put this off until after the holidays or (insert excuse here).
2. Keep it quiet. A corollary to “Don’t Hesitate” is to be very respectful of this person’s privacy. You would hate for him to find out about their separation from someone else; don’t even get the rumor mill started.
3. Have a severance plan. In confidence, talk to your CFO and/or HR advisor to have a specific number and plan in hand before your meeting. Most of the time, if you’re asking someone to leave, you will want it to happen immediately. It’s not fair to keep him around. But your situation may be different. If you need this person to transition out, have a plan for this – and have a plan for if he wants to leave immediately. Don’t be vague about what you need and what you are offering. For example, if you need him to close out reports, etc., offer six month’s severance pay; but if he chooses to leave immediately, offer three month’s severance.
4. Plan for the exit. This person will likely want to leave the building quietly. Don’t meet in the fishbowl conference room; consider meeting in his office or outside the building, so he can leave without a “walk of shame” through the building.
5. Keep it brief. Again, you know the reasons this person must go: He doesn’t have the right skills or experience for this phase of the company’s growth; he has had performance issues, etc. Line out the reasons at a high level – you don’t want to do a line-by-line review; your decision is final and you don’t want this person to think they can negotiate to “do better” at specific things.
6. Be calm and respectful. If you’re angry at this person, take a breath and calm down before having this meeting. Think about if you were in his shoes; how would you want to be treated?
7. Keep your promises. If you say you will write a letter of recommendation or refer him to another colleague, write it down and do it. If you don’t plan to do something like this, don’t say you will. If you want to feel better about the issue, use severance pay. If this person is a family member, address how this may impact the relationship in the short-term (you may not be invited to Thanksgiving this year) but that you hope in the long-term you can still be close. Again, severance, respect and honesty go a long way here.
8. Tell the team. If this person led a team, go to them as soon as you can and let them know that he is gone. Say no more than the bare minimum. Create or have a plan for how work will continue without him and/or if you plan to fill the now-open position.

There is no doubt this will be a tough conversation for everyone. Do your best to prepare and remember that the only way you – and this person – can grow is to take the steps to put the right people in the right positions.What do you think of these 8 steps? What you have seen work/not work in your career? Join the conversation by commenting below.