4-19-10 Cleaning Out the Dead Wood

Springtime around my place means cleaning out the numerous flower beds of all the dead wood and debris from the winter. Hard, but satisfying, work to be sure. And it pays off over the course of the next few months with more productive and healthier plants.

The same can be said for your workforce. What? Yep, cleaning out the workforce is sometimes required. In fact, there are companies out there which mandate to their managers that they let go the bottom 10% of employees every year. No, I don’t recommend anything quite that draconian. But I have seen the benefits of identifying low-performing employees --- and then, if necessary letting them go.

A manager or executive has many difficult jobs. But perhaps the second-most difficult job is to sit down with an employee and tell him/her that they are not performing as expected. It is never an easy conversation. But you owe it to that employee to be forthright and honest about what you observe in their performance. And then you owe them the opportunity to improve. And finally you owe them your assistance on that improvement plan.

And if the improvement doesn’t happen, the executive’s most difficult job is to let that employee go. I don’t know if you have ever had to fire someone, but believe me, it is an extremely difficult task.

So why would you let someone go? Even if he/she wasn’t performing up to par, it just puts more work on the folks that are left behind, right? Well, yes, it probably does. But here is where one of the benefits come in…….

Look, everyone in your organization likely knew that this person wasn’t pulling his/her weight. And likely resented it. So when you suck it up and do the right thing by letting that person go, the people in your organization actually breath a sigh of relief. They recognize that you don’t have your head up somewhere and aren’t really oblivious to what is going on in the organization. And they will (at least silently) applaud your efforts. You’ll hear things like, “hey, she really IS paying attention to what is going on here”. And some will even thank you for getting rid of someone that is bringing down the whole organization.

Another benefit? You will likely fill that position, right? You’ll promote someone else into the job, and give their career a boost. Or you’ll hire someone off the street, infusing new life and ideas into your organization.

So no, cleaning out the dead wood isn’t easy. But in the long run, your organization (and your garden) will be better off for the effort.

Cheers!