Interestingly, over the last month, I have spoken to business owners who are faced with firing someone and I’ve heard from several friends who are concerned they will get fired (or are hoping they get fired so that they can do something else).
For the purposes of this month’s column, I speak of being fired or wanting to be fired for things other than “cause.” So I’m not referring to the person that gets “let go” for stealing, doing something illegal or unethical. I’m referring to a firing because of differences in opinion, belief in direction of the company or management style.
Like Taking Off a Band-Aid
Yes, I have been fired. When you are the CEO, they never call it being fired. It’s called “resignation for personal reasons,” or “to spend more time with family.” Getting fired is like having a Band-Aid ripped off your skin while you aren’t expecting it. It really, really hurts and nothing anyone says to you makes it feel better, it just plain hurts.
But in every case (yes, I have been fired more than once), it is the best thing that could have happened. The new doors that opened led to bigger and better opportunities for me. I look back on my firings and know they were the right thing to do because I wasn’t happy and the board wasn’t happy.
Do Your Employee a Favor
I met with a business owner this month who told me she had a key employee that in many ways she viewed as a co-founder and partner. She told me that the business would have never survived the past 10 years if it weren’t for “Jerry.”
Her concern was that “Jerry” didn’t seem happy anymore. He was constantly asking for more responsibility, more money, more ownership and more involvement in the overall company. My advice was that it just might be time to fire Jerry. This may sound harsh or mean, but in my opinion, it is the greatest thing she could do for this important employee.
As employees, we need to constantly be challenged in order to grow. I once had a manager who told me, “If you don’t get butterflies in your stomach once in a while during your career, it is time to move on, because you aren’t being challenged or growing.”
“Jerry” has a good life and is making a great salary, but he isn’t challenged anymore and the business owner doesn’t have the ability to fix that unless she is willing to give “Jerry” her job.
Like the Band-Aid scenario I used earlier, telling “Jerry” he needs to move on is going to hurt. It will actually hurt the business owner nearly as bad, but I guarantee you that “Jerry” will eventually thank you. He will come to realize that he wasn’t growing and that because it was so comfortable he would have never left on his own. I’m guessing this is why mother birds kick their young out of the nest.
Do Yourself a Favor
A long-time friend of mine called me two weeks ago. He is a sales executive who could sell ice cubes to Eskimos. He has been with the same networking hardware company for 15 years. He knows the industry, the customers, the competitors and the products better than anyone else.
He called me to say he was questioning what to do next. When I asked him what that meant, he said, “I’m going to ask for a raise, some ownership and a better commission plan.”
I told him it was time to leave. It was time to fire himself. He clearly can do the job (he is always the top salesperson at the company), so it isn’t a performance thing. What he is missing is growth, challenge and butterflies in the belly. I guarantee he hasn’t been nervous about a sales call in a long time. More money or a better commission plan isn’t going to fix that. It is time to fire himself and find a new challenge.
If you have employees who aren’t being challenged or growing professionally, and you can’t provide that challenge, fire them so they can find it. If you are an employee and you haven’t felt butterflies in your gut in a long time, fire yourself. It will only hurt for a short while. I promise. FBN
T Paul Thomas teaches business and entrepreneurship at Northern Arizona University and serves as Chief Entrepreneur at the NACET Accelerator. Prior to joining NAU and NACET in 2013 Paul spent 25 years as a serial CEO and president. Paul can be reached at thomas.tpaul@gmail.com