Entrepreneurial Leadership

Don’t overexplain the decision. A termination meeting is a time to communicate a decision—not to debate it, defend it, or negotiate it. It’s natural for people being fired to seek more information, to repeatedly ask variations of the question why. You needn’t offer an elaborate answer; instead, give a simple explanation for the performance issues that led to the decision.

Specifically, your tasks are to (1) deliver the message that they’ve been terminated and (2) talk through the next steps, which include announcing the decision internally and externally, and severance arrangements.

If the person insists on defending himself, your job is to sit back and listen, limiting your reactions or responses. Avoid the temptation to engage or defend yourself. It’s natural for someone receiving this news to be emotional, and sometimes

it may be useful to have a follow-up conversation with the person once emotions recede. In those situations, offer to set up a time and place outside the office to meet and talk about the coming job search, potential target companies, people in your network who might help, what you’ll say during a reference check—and perhaps your advice on how he or she might be successful in their next position. But be aware that in many firings, such a follow-up meeting may prove unrealistic. Humans tend to develop negative feelings about people who communicate bad news, and even if you handle a termination with consideration and kindness, your subsequent relationship with this person may be difficult. Be generous. In the long-term, it is cheaper and generally better for the organization—and, of course, for the person leaving—if the company pays a generous severance package. You are buying peace (because someone who accepts a severance package waives the right to litigate), assuaging some of the

Be generous. In the long-term, it is cheaper and generally better for the organization—and, of course, for the person leaving—if the company pays a generous severance package. You are buying peace (because someone who accepts a severance package waives the right to litigate), assuaging some of the guilt you may feel, and giving the terminated employee a fair chance to start over.

human. Good bosses aren’t robots or automatons. They have feelings, and they recognize that employees who are being fired will feel a complex and unpleasant mix of emotions. Managers must deal with them appropriately, which mostly involves listening patiently and avoiding responding with negative emotion of their own.

Don’t hand off the dirty work. No one likes to fire people. No one likes being fired either. (I know this firsthand: it’s happened to me.) The only thing people like less than being fired by their boss is to be fired by a hired gun or an HR director.

It’s smart and advisable to rehearse a termination conversation with an HR professional beforehand; he or she has more expertise and experience in this task than most managers, and rehearsing may be the single best way to prepare for difficult conversations. In certain cases, it’s useful to have an HR person accompany the manager to the meeting to serve as a witness.

“I’m just the messenger.” This is a cop-out. The person communicating the decision should take personal responsibility for it—and not pass the buck to others.

(Letting this person go is one of my most important tasks. I will do it with the utmost sensitivity.)

I deserve some of the blame for the failure.

To avoid becoming defensive, I focus on the end result we both desire. (I want to help this person find a place where she can maximize her potential—a place that better fits her skills, personality, and ambitions, her style of working.)

I also focus on my duty to the team to remove an underperformer.

“Stop thinking about the guys you fired and start thinking about the guys you still employ. They’re the ones who deserve your attention,”

“And by letting the person go, the people I left behind felt better about working for me. . . . They worked harder, with more pride, as long as I held the whole crew to the same high standard and did my job by weeding out those who didn’t meet it.”

As an entrepreneurial leader, your job is to put the best team on the field at all times. You owe it to those who stay to not burden them with those who should move on.

Since removing a teammate is an emotional and difficult passage for all, be gracious, generous, and thoughtful, remembering that you, too, failed to make the situation work.

Entrepreneurial leaders rarely have the luxury of making perfect choices. Instead, they’re choosing between imperfect options, making bets in the face of uncertainties, or making a call they know is suboptimal because of constraints that observers or the public may not even recognize.

Decisions are destiny. Making tough ones is the measure of the entrepreneurial leader.

If you’re making a lot of easy calls, you’ve failed to delegate.