Firing people is really under rated as a motivation tool – hear me out.
It’s not about punishment and intimidation – those things only work for short periods of time. AND — as soon as you turn your back, people go back to what they were doing before. It’s also not very nice.
Rather – by removing a consistent poor performer, you do that person’s peers (the rest of your team) a tremendous service. If there are six people working on a team, and I am consistently not pulling my weight, then the impact of my non-performance is far more tangible on my peers than it would be to my boss.
This lesson was delivered home to me back when I had a real job as a manager – one that required me to occasionally fire people. One member of our team constantly called in sick on short notice – a behavior that significantly, and negatively impacted his co-workers. A bunch of us ended up working late because this person had called in sick, and we decided to go for a beer after work.\
We walked in to a local pub about 9pm, and saw our absent co-worker dancing on top of speaker. It was quite obvious he’d been there for some time. Apparently this fellow wasn’t very smart either – he chose to go partying at a place a block from work.
It was an easy decision to fire him, but what happened next surprised me. Several of his peers thanked me getting rid of the guy, and one even challenged me on what took me so long!
I’m not suggesting you fire the bottom 10% of performers every month. I am suggesting you provide crystal-clear expectations, do everything you can to help people be successful, and when the occasional person chooses to consistently betray his team and not perform, that you do not hesitate to remove that person.
Channel your “inner-Trump”. Your team will thank you for it.