root system

Firing someone from your organization is heavy, depressing, and stressful for all involved. This is a decision not to be taken lightly but is critical if you want to succeed.

I think of firing as pruning. Pruning is the removal of parts of a plant that does not contribute to the plant’s overall health but, in fact, injures its health and development. Pruning is an essential process to ensure the longevity of any plant or, in our case, organization.

5 Things to Prune from Your Organization

Pruning your organization for those that impede performance is an opportunity for you to achieve excellence. Your customer base and organization should be your top priorities. When it’s time to make these very tough decisions, you’ll want to use our Growability™ Prune Your Business tool.

If you want to lead a happy team and successful business, here are 3 employees you should consider pruning from your organization.

1) Overlappers

These employees weaken organization culture because they either require micromanagement or are micromanaging. There is no added benefit to an organization that permits micromanagement.

I think of someone sitting at the laptop pouring over the screen while someone else is standing behind looking over their shoulder giving them critiques. If a team member doesn’t have the capacity to do the job unless someone is checking on them, I either haven’t provided the appropriate training or have the wrong team member in that position.

Oftentimes, the problem isn’t the worker; it’s the micromanager. Micromanagers diminish organizational culture. Team members stop working for the organization and instead focus on meeting the micromanager’s requirements. It’s a bad environment all around.

Alternatively, overlappers may be the result of being overstaffed. When there are too many people working in overlapping job roles and responsibilities, you end up with low performers and weakened growth.

2. Hero manager

Conversely, a hero manager is also a problem. A hero manager is the person who steps in and takes care of everyone’s problems. They swoop in like a superhero right as a mistake is being made. “I will fix this problem!” they proudly proclaim.

This manager sounds like an asset not a liability. Many organizations would LOVE to have someone like this. The problem is they become a single point of failure. If something happens to that person and they leave the organization, they take the competencies and skill sets with them. Everyone else on the team depending on the hero manager is left scurrying.

A good manager isn’t the one swooping in to fix problems.

A good manager ensures the team is achieving full capacity and working with their skillset. If I’m leading an organization and have a hero manager, I need to find a way to have them become part of the team rather than staying on top pulling them up. Hero managers destroy systems because the become the system.

Leaders may emerge as hero managers naturally if responsibilities and duties are incrementally and consistently added to them. They may not have started as a hero manager but circumstance have made them one. This isn’t healthy for the organization and may expedite burnout.

3. Suckers

Suckers are people in an organization that are universally liked by all but add little to no value for the organization itself. Let’s say I need to hire a salesperson, Sue, to increase my revenue to 10%. Everyone in the organization loves Sue, including myself. In a year, I evaluate her performance and notice our sales are still at 5%. I have a terrible decision to make.

Just because I like someone doesn’t mean that our organization needs them on staff. Just because everyone on the team likes this person doesn’t mean you keep them on the team. It’s a difficult decision to be in but remember that this is about growing the organization.

Suckers use the same root system of your organization but don’t produce fruit for the organization.

It sounds harsh to fire someone that is so well-liked but keeping them at the organization not only sets a bad precedent for performance but also stalls organizational momentum. You’re not doing the team any favors by keeping people on just because you like them. They may have immense talent; it’s just displaced at your organization. They may find a more fertile place to grow elsewhere.

Firing as the last resort

I think it’s important to stop here and point out that firing should not be a “guns a-blazin’” approach to management. You lead with “Do we have the right systems in place for incentive, expectation, and feedback?” first. Firing should only be the last resort when all other options have been exhausted.

Firing should not be the first and primary response to the behaviors and personalities described above. Do all you can to coach people to success. Coaching is a win for everyone. You may be able to turn someone around in your organization and they get to realize their potential. Co-workers and team members will see this dynamic play out. It has huge payoffs if you do it right.

We at Growability want to see an organization reach their fullest potential. Not a great potential…not some potential…fullest potential.