Read time: 2 min, 33 secs
Stay to the end for 3 steps we took to fire them

Hey there - it's Brian 👋

We had to fire someone.

I hated it.

Here’s how it went down:

So 3 weeks ago we had enough.

Things we thought took 30 min, took 4 hours.

But here’s the real problem:
He was hiding something.

When we confronted him a few things happened:
➟ He’d get defensive
➟ He’d make excuses
➟ His explanations didn’t make sense

We explained the problem a few times.

Nothing changed.

So we had to figure out… was it a problem with us? Or was he a bad fit?

If you’re having talent issues it’s 1 of 3 things:

1) They don’t know WHAT to do
Solution: Communication

2) They don’t know HOW to do it
Solution: Training

3) They don’t WANT to do it
Solution: Motivate

In this case we realized it was #3:

He didn’t want to.

Why? Because he was hiding a different motive.

That breaks trust.

Trust is a core value to the team.

It’s even the #1 problem in the 5 Dysfunctions of a Team (Patrick Lencioni)!

So if you can’t get your talent aligned to the values of your business, then you need to find someone who will.

🧔🏻‍♂️ Brian’s nerdy side rant:
Skip this rant if you’re below $1M and still finding Product/Service Market fit

I’m reading the 5 Dysfunctions of a Team now and it’s REALLY good.

The bigger TalentHQ gets the more I realize how the fluffy soft skills will make or break your business.

God I hated talking about the fluffy stuff.

But a business is just a group of people working towards the same mission. If you can get the BEST people, all motivated, working seamlessly together to support (not tear down). Then you have an amazing business.

I read Lencioni’s The Motive and it completely changed my opinion on what the CEO’s role really is.

TLDR - more focused on people + soft skills than I thought.

So how do we let someone go?

Now, letting him go is a HUGE risk to the morale of the rest of the team.

So we had to be VERY careful with how we communicated it.

Why?

Imagine you’re working hard for someone.

You build a relationship with your peer. And all the sudden your peer is fired for what seems like no reason.

All the sudden you’re thinking: “could this happen to me?”

So to stop our team from demotivating and falling apart, we have a VERY clear exit process that we explain to everyone during onboarding.

So when someone leaves, their peers think: “ahhh that makes sense. I’m not on that path so It won’t happen to me.”

Here’s what we do:

During onboarding we make clear (and repeat at least 3 times) these things:

1) Here’s what success looks like at TalentHQ

Your talent can’t get points on the board if they don’t know where to score.

You have to be obnoxiously clear with what success looks like.

Examples:
➟ How we communicate with clients? Internally?
➟ What metrics do we track success to?
➟ What deliverable quality looks like?
➟ How we work together?
➟ Values?
etc.

2) Here’s how we review your performance

Weekly at first, then monthly.

We look at 3 things:
1) KPIs (the metrics we track success to)
2) Values / Culture (ways of working)
3) Personal growth plans

Note: And YES. If their behavior breaks culture or values we have a performance conversation about it.

VERY important.

3) Here’s what happens if you don’t perform

First - we mention the problem formally during our 1:1

We’ll mention it informally too as the problem happens, but we prioritize formally tracking problems in 1:1s.

Then, if the problem doesn’t improve after 3 sessions?

Talent gets put on a performance improvement plan (PIP).

It’s just an action plan.

We write out the changes we expect to see, by a certain date.

If they don’t hit the performance goals in the action plan, everyone agrees that we part ways.

No one is surprised.

🔥 Hot take:

The worst thing a company can do is to keep B and C players. It drags down the A players.

Communicate what success looks like.

Support them in every way.

Swap out people who don’t live your values.

See you next Thursday 👋

Brian
[email protected]
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TalentHQ

P.S. For my friends: What’s going on with Brian?

I’m heading to a wedding tomorrow.

We’ve been friends since we were 2 years old. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.

I’ll head back to South America next week to find more talent.

🙋 Vote: How did we do?