Know When to Fold Them

Fired.   Terminated.   Sacked

Call it what you will – Melynda and I should be able to recognize when it’s time to give someone the old heave-ho.

We’ve both had major experience leading teams. Both of us have been on a firing squad (yes, like George Clooney in “Up in the Air”). And for years we’ve worked closely with many of our coaching clients as they struggled with the decision to let someone go.

For heaven’s sake – we teach this stuff. But we still blew it. We didn’t listen to Kenny Roger’s advice and “know when to fold them”. We held on too long.

A good poker player watches for their opponent’s tells, knowing that when they accurately interpret tells they will be able to make better — i.e. more successful — decisions. And just like in any game of Texas Hold ‘Em – the tells were there – we simply didn’t listen. Maybe you can learn from our mistakes.

We didn’t back our winner.  We got our first tell when one of our trusted employees was having difficulty working with this individual. She told us that our vendor “wasn’t getting it.” We dismissed her feedback and decided she didn’t have enough experience dealing with techies.

Tip #1: Bet on Your Proven Winners.

We listened to and accepted excuses.  Within 90 days the project plan was blown. And we were hearing…

• You didn’t get me the information…
• That’s not what you told me…
• You never said…

Tip #2: Keep The Monkey On Their Back.

We tried and tried again.  We don’t accept defeat easily – so if one method didn’t work we tried another. Over the course of this project we tried:

• Discussing the big picture up front
• Providing very detailed written documentation
• Sending examples of what we wanted from other web sites
• Hiring someone to draw accurate pictures of the end product
• Breaking the project down into phases
• Being available by phone
• Being available by e-mail
• Hiring someone else to talk “techie” for us
• Making ourselves available on his schedule including nights and weekends

Let’s face it – we played to the guy!

Tip #3: Play by Your House Rules.

We “believed” we didn’t have alternatives.  Professional poker players understand their options. They know the odds. And when necessary they are willing to walk away from the table.  They know there is always another day.  In contrast — we thought we were “stuck.”  We thought we had to stay until the end of the game.  

Tip #4: Recognize That You Always Have Other Options.

We passed around the pain.  Working with this vendor was REALLY frustrating (see an earlier blog, Murder is Really Not an Option) and our organizational solution was to “dump on our neighbor.” All of us took our turn — and in retrospect we passed this guy around like a hot potato.  Instead of facing the issue head on we found a new patsy to take on the problem.    

Tip #5: Fold at the First Sign of Trouble.

Firing someone should never be easy. And as a leader – you do have some responsibility in setting the individual up for success (see my previous blog, Know When to Hold Them). But once you’ve done your job – after you’ve anted in – there’s a big price to pay when you don’t take notice of the tells and “fold them” when all the signs are there.