It’s painful to read daily about companies that run a new round of layoffs.
Personally, I feel the same pain I felt every time I fired someone. I felt miserable.
If you care about people, firing kills you as a leader. It’s a sort of personal failure especially if you hire them.
And it never gets easier.
It’s not one of those things that you get better at doing with practice.
No matter how many times you did it before, you always feel a sense of guilt and shame.
But how you do it makes a huge difference for people.
We keep reading about two diametrically opposite ways of firing people. From a careless to compassionate approach.
The consequence of firing is the same but how you fire people shows your real leadership. This is what they will remember about you.
Here are my recommendations:
I’ve never met a leader who didn’t fire someone.
It’s inevitable at some point in your career. But how you do it separates mediocre from world-class leaders.
One idea a week on how top CEOs lead when the stakes are high, from inside rooms most people never enter. Free, and you can leave any time.