Can I Fire Someone and Still Be a Good Person?

“Can I fire someone and still be a good person?” a distressed CEO asked me.

He was sitting with his shoulders squared but slumped, hands clasped, decided but sorrowful.

The decision had already been made and carried out. Given the company’s financial position, it was not optional — a large contract had fallen through, without warning and for reasons beyond their control.

Even so, he was anguished. He took his team’s well-being very seriously, as every good leader does, and this decision was eating at him.

No one likes firing folks. Yet every business leader, from time to time, encounters a situation where it is necessary.

As leaders, we are the ones who do what must be done. However, it can be done well, or poorly.

From the perspective of someone who has hired, been fired, fired others, and coached dozens of business leaders through personnel challenges, these are my thoughts on how to do it well.

When the Business Is in Trouble

Sometimes, like in this situation, the decision to fire is driven by market dynamics. It’s not the employee’s fault. The company is in the red and it can’t stay there.

In these situations, the critical thing to manage is communication. Be calculated in your transparency, but total in your honesty.

Announce a layoff too early and all your best people will jump ship. Wait too late and those who remain will never trust you again. Time it to when you are certain both that it must happen, and what manner of layoff is needed to right the ship. Then notify everyone at once, and call folks in one by one to tell them their status. Consider the financial situation they’ll be in as a result, and help them to the degree that you can. Tell them face to face; no blast email notifications.

Also, make a sacrifice yourself. The best example I’ve seen of this is a leadership team who announced that in addition to the layoff, the C-suite would forgo their salaries for the next six months in order to get the company back in the black. Sharing the pain shows you’re a leader worth following.

When Performance Is the Problem

Other times we’re firing because of an intractable performance issue.

In these situations, first troubleshoot the root cause (comprehensive article on this to follow). What good will it do to be overhasty in firing, only to have the next hire fall in the same hidden tiger trap?

In a nutshell, check that they have:

• Clear objectives
• Challenging but realistic goals
• Sufficient knowledge and training
• Appropriate autonomy and support

If all of this has been confirmed and the issue persists, then in my experience there is an 80% chance you’ll need to fire them.

In these situations, the critical thing to manage is timing. It can be tempting to move quickly and blindside them in order to head off any retaliation. If you do that, you teach everyone else that people can be fired without notice or warning. Your employees will become afraid for their jobs, and to protect themselves they will put their own performance and prestige ahead of the welfare of the company.

More often, I see leaders make the mistake of waiting too long. You’ve become personally invested in seeing your employee succeed, so you convince yourself that one more performance improvement plan will turn the situation around. It can be hard to see, but by doing this you’re hurting both them and you. They are stuck in a role that is not right for them. Every day they spend there is a day they’re unhappy, unfulfilled, and their career is dead in the water. Every day you leave them there, you commit the resources of other teammates to picking up the slack and spending bandwidth dealing with them.

When this situation is handled well, it should not come as a surprise to the individual that they’re being fired. From previous conversations, they should be well aware of what is expected of them and how their performance has fallen short. They should have been given at least three different opportunities to improve, but not the same opportunity over again. Tell them honestly and respectfully why they’re being fired. Make the termination effective immediately, and cut off access to company systems simultaneously. I have found that when people feel they are being treated fairly, even if they don’t like the outcome, most will take a constructive perspective of the situation.

Lastly, take a moment to communicate to the rest of the team. If people don’t know why someone was fired, they will assume the worst. While you should not share any personal details, it is advisable to reiterate the fundamental principles you used in making the decision.

For example, a commitment I make to my team is that Hyperspace is a place where there will be no limit on your opportunities, but the team will not slow down for those who can’t keep up. This isn’t the only way to run a team. You personally may or may not like this approach, and that’s okay either way. If you work for me, you know what to expect. If one of your colleagues is fired, you won’t know the details but you’ll know why.

When There Has Been a Severe Breach

Sometimes we’re firing because of a severe breach. In these situations, move quickly and decisively. Err on the side of protecting your clients and company. Let neither suspicion nor optimism get the better of your judgment. Seek out and trust the facts.

I’ve Been on the Other Side of the Table

These opinions are informed by years of experience in HR and company leadership, but they are rooted in my own experience being on the receiving end of a really poor firing. I had a standing weekly check-in with my manager. For most of the 45-minute call, I had this odd sense that she was killing time. We were supposed to wrap, but she said the CEO was joining so we stayed and waited. Five or ten minutes after we were supposed to have signed off, he hopped on the video conference and immediately remarked “Gosh, my pores look huge” as he tilted his face side to side examining his complexion in the monitor. Then he sighed and said, “Kate, the decision has been made to let you go.”

“Why?” I gasped.

“I just don’t think this role is a good fit for you.”

And that was that.

At the time, it was gutting. I’d purchased my first home just three days prior (something the CEO was aware of). How was I going to pay my mortgage?

In hindsight, I’m grateful for that experience. Both because I will never do that to someone else, and because ultimately it worked out. A year later, I was making more money, working fewer hours, running my own company. As it turned out, while his words were poorly chosen, they weren’t wrong — I wasn’t a good fit for that role; I was meant for much bigger things.

So, Can We Fire Someone and Still Be a Good Person?

Firing someone is a damaging thing to do to another human being. It can take away their livelihood, stability, and often a significant part of their identity and self-worth. If you’ve become numb to that pain, I think you’ve lost something important.

As leaders, we have a responsibility to protect the vision our companies were built to pursue and the welfare of our team as a whole. These responsibilities have the highest claim on us, and sometimes require us to make decisions that hurt someone.

The measure of a good leader isn’t avoiding all pain and hardship. It is making hard decisions thoughtfully, compassionately, and resolutely.

The measure of a good leader isn’t avoiding all pain and hardship. You will never achieve anything if you try to do that. It is making hard decisions thoughtfully, compassionately, and resolutely.