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Yesterday we talked about hiring so it’s fitting that we’ll end the week today talking about firing. Terminating employment is a tough subject for many leaders and business owners. I certainly don’t propose to make it enjoyable or pleasant. These are lives being impacted. The employee. Their family. Their co-workers. And then there’s our reputation. What will the organization think of us? What damage might we create? Many thoughts and worries swirl around in our heads.

Right off the bat let’s set aside some basic non-negotiables. That is, there are some things that will prompt a termination and it’s just how it has to be. Period. No room for negotiation or discussion once the facts have been established. That’s an important detail — we have to establish facts and know the truth of a situation. Theft, criminal behavior, sexual harassment, drug or alcohol use on the job (sort of fits in criminal behavior, but you’ll have to determine your policy), violence in the workplace…maybe you’ve got some additional ones. I know business owners who will negotiate these depending on the severity of the infraction. Let’s say a couple of warehouse employees get into a fist fight, but nobody is hurt. Some leaders will keep one or both employees and put them on probation. Others will fire the employee who threw the first punch. So to declare these “non-negotiables” as black and white isn’t quite how it rolls. You have to decide how you’re going to operate your company. But for today’s show, I’m not talking about any of these kinds of behaviors. I’m going to narrow it to performance. Just how well are they doing their job? That’s it.

Clear expectations, clear and prompt feedback followed by support, support, support!

Every employee terminated for poor performance should see it coming. 

It’s inexcusable for a leader to fire an employee who never saw it coming. That means there hasn’t been nearly enough clear, candid communication. 

At the first sign that things are going well, the employee must be informed. Speed and timeliness are important. We can’t correct our children if we wait a week after seeing them misbehave, then we try to correct them. No, we have to do it in the moment. In real time. You must do the same thing. Sooner is always better.

Let’s suppose you’ve got an employee with attendance issues. Yes, that’s a performance issue. Not being at work when they’re scheduled is poor performance. As soon as you sense there *may* be a problem, take action. Have a conversation with them. There’s no reason to avoid having a conversation. 

Sit down with them and express your concern. Be respectful. Don’t draw a conclusion. Seek to find out what’s going on. Listen. Ask questions. 

You may find out something is going on that you knew nothing about. It may be something you can help the employee solve. Or it may be something they alone have to handle. 

Figure that out with them. Reiterate the importance of them doing their job well. Reinforce your expectation that they succeed. And your commitment to helping them. But put the proper amount of the burden on their decision and action to make it so. 

I’m a fan of documentation. Not for being formal, but for making things as clear as possible. I hate ambiguity and confusion. So I’m prone to write up and document what’s happening and having the employee sign it. If the documentation is based on the mutual understanding of the dialogue, then there’s no reason for the employee to feel uneasy signing it. It should include a clear outline of the actions you both agree to take. The conversation should end with you both committing to move forward and resolving the issue. If the employee won’t commit to that, you may as well ask them to resign or push forward to end the relationship (yes, consult your state laws and your HR or legal professional).

Hopefully, both of you can agree to give it the effort it deserves. You or somebody you entrusted hired this person, seeing something valuable in them. Let’s put in the work to achieve success. 

Now, the employee knows the problem. You understand the problem. We’re all together on what has to happen for success to be achieved. We all know what success will look like, and what failure will look like. And we know when we’ll sit down together again to formally discuss this. 

There’ll be feedback all along the way as necessary, but within 30 days or so another sit-down conversation happens to access any progress. If the employee’s performance improves, mission accomplished. If it doesn’t, then it’s time to impress the gravity of the situation. Talk about what has worked, and what hasn’t. Together figure out why things aren’t succeeding. Discuss what must happen in order for this employee to continue being on the team. Be clear. Again, make it clear about what you (the leadership) will do. You’re making a commitment to serve this employee and help them. Make it clear what they must do. Get them to commit to it. 

Document the meeting. This will be your first or if you roll the way I do, your second documentation. Employees only feel like you’re building a case against them if they’re failing. And if they’re failing, they’re right. You are. But the goal should be to avoid failure. You can’t live people’s lives for them though. Your employees have to make up their own mind and choose their own behavior. Your role is to provide support, service, training, feedback, and accountability. 

I’ve never practiced issuing the third documentation. My preference has been to be very clear in the second meeting that the next time we meet it will be to congratulate them on turning things around, or it’ll be to part ways. But I assure them conversations will be forthcoming along the way so we’re both clear on which direction things are headed. I want no confusion or blind-siding. It’s unfair when we’re terminating employees for performance failures. 

Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. Sometimes you make a good hire, and other times you quickly realize you got it wrong. The key to firing people worthy of being fired is to do it fast. There’s too much at stake to put it off. You’ll kill the morale of high performers. You’ll foster bitterness in the employee who has it coming. There’s just nothing good that can come from putting off terminating a poor performer. 

I’m a dog lover. In fact, I’m part of a board of advisors for the Westie Foundation of America, a non-profit dedicated to the promotion of the health of White West Highland Terriers. Sadly, I’ve had to put a few dogs down. Years ago when I first had to do it, I didn’t do it quickly enough. I learned from it. I vowed that it was selfish to wait so long. So I never did it again. Better to do it too soon. I feel the same way about firing poor performers. Delay serves no useful purpose. And mostly it’s done because we’re cowards, hoping to avoid the confrontation. Don’t view it like that. It’s an opportunity for you both to end a relationship that clearly isn’t working for either you. Time for them to find a better home. Time for you to operate a better home. It’s an opportunity for you both to grow, learn and improve. 

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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Education and credentials might matter. But for most of us, they’re mostly overrated. 

My son-in-law is a master chemist with a global company. His level of knowledge in science and math is vital to his work. It’s not a “we’ll show you what you need to know” kind of a career. I’ve got friends who are attorneys, doctors or other professionals where licensing is required. Education and credentials are mandatory. Without them, you can’t legally perform the work. 

Most of us own and operate companies that don’t have such requirements. Scroll past Indeed or Linkedin and you’ll see a variety of “requirements” for jobs that demonstrate many of us are just copying each other, chasing the kind of people we think we need. Basically, it’s quite a lot of follow-the-leader kind of behavior. And for good reason. We’ve been steeped into “benchmarking” for as long as I can remember. Copying each other. Chasing some idealized version of what ought to be. 

It’s colossally stupid. It kills creativity, innovation, and curiosity. 

A payment processing company is looking for a VP of Sales with at least 3 years of online payment processing experience. Maybe that’s smart. Maybe not. My question is simple, “Why?”

If I find a dynamite sales leader (and manager), but who lacks that qualification, what am I to do? I’ll tell you what I’m going to do if I’m like 95% plus of the businesses out there. I’m going to pass. And you know why? Not because the person wouldn’t be an ideal fit, but because I’m lazy. I’m looking for boxes to check so I can keep moving forward. Or so I can cut somebody out and be finished with them. 

Trying to speed up the hiring process is killing many businesses. 

I’m a speed freak, but yesterday we talked about culture – particularly a culture of accountability. If you care about your culture then you should protect it vigorously. That means you don’t let just anybody enter your organization. You take whatever time you need to properly vet candidates. But the word “properly” is up for big debate. 

Does properly mean you form a checklist, making it so comprehensive that you know it’ll narrow the field and make things easier for you? Does properly mean you approach it to find the very best person who will add value to your operation, in every way – including your culture? Those are 2 very different goals. You have to determine which one you’re trying to accomplish. Too many are chasing that former with no regard to the latter. 

“College degree, with an emphasis in business.”

“MBA required.”

Why? 

“Five years automotive experience.” (and it’s not for a mechanic; it’s for an executive leadership role)

Why?

One of the most common answers I get when I ask is, “It helps when people understand our industry.” I love it when I get that response. It prompts my next question, “How?” People are often most stymied, by the way, with one-word questions like, “Why?” and “How?” But that’s not my objective – to stymie. I want to understand what they’re thinking, and hoping to accomplish. 

They’ll tell me about the language of the industry. Every industry has these funky terms and abbreviations. Some days I just write down the ones I hear…and the ones I have to ask about because I don’t know them. It’s an industry’s way of ensuring that outsiders don’t get admitted. Like the secret handshake kids might form when they’re 6 before allowing anybody into their clubhouse. It’s equally immature, too. Look around at the terms in your industry. Write down a few. Unless you have zero sense of humor you’ll chuckle before you get 6 of them written down. 

Okay, so the vocabulary is so critical to your business that you must have somebody with industry-specific knowledge, otherwise, they’ll have no idea what’s being said? I can’t tell you how many organizations I’ve walked into where I had no idea what their vocabulary looked like. I’m a bright guy, but I’m not a genius. It won’t take me more than a handful of hours to get it. But you think you need somebody with multiple years inside your space? 

Another common answer I get when I ask about some specific requirement, like an MBA – and I ask, “How is that going to help this person perform at a high level inside your company?” – is steeped in what other people think. The answers can vary, but sometimes it’ll be as generic as “all our leadership team members have MBA’s.” Other times it’ll be, “We believe it lends to greater credibility with the team.” To quote Chris Farley’s SNL motivational speaker character, Matt Foley, “Well, loddy-friggin’ dah!”

Are you seeing the problem yet? 

Cookie cutter. Everybody fits in a mold. Let’s all look the same. Let’s talk the same. Let’s think the same. Let’s continue getting what we’ve always got. 

You’re a smart person. You’ve learned by now that if you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten. Right now the Dallas Cowboys are in southern California for training camp. Jerry Jones has said the same thing for over 20 years. He’s optimistic. The team has great character. They’ve got youth. Blah, blah, blah. In 20 years they’ve won a single playoff game. ONE. Two decades of on-the-field failure if you don’t count a winning season where you win more than you lose as a barometer of success. And here in Dallas, the fan base does not count that as a success. We’ve got 30-year-old young people roaming around here who have no memory of the Dallas Cowboys winning a Super Bowl. Financially, the team has done an outstanding job, but where the fans measure success — complete failure.

The reason? Nothing changes. It’s rinse and repeat. Season after season. Same verbiage. Same empty promises. Maybe your company looks much the same. Every year you aim to be better. You talk a big game. But you’re hiring the same folks your competitors are hiring. You’ve benchmarked the same stuff they have. And you think you’re different. How? When everybody in your industry is doing the same thing, the same way, with the same kind of people…how?

I love the industry knowledge argument because it’s so easy to shoot down. I just mention one founder’s name and his company. It goes something like this with me asking what that industry-specific knowledge does for the company. “It’s important that people have a working knowledge of how our industry works. If people don’t understand the nature of our work and our problems, then how will they be able to contribute to making us better?”

Me: “Let me give you the name of one founder and his company.”

Them: “Okay.”

Me: “Jeff Bezos. Amazon.”

The most hardheaded owners will respond, “We’re different.” 

Yeah, right. You’re different than Barnes & Noble, Toys R Us, Kmart, Sears and Yellow Cab. But you know, they’re right. They are different. Different from whom is the question. Different from Amazon and the other winners in the market who aim to hire the best people who will foster curiosity, thoughtful approaches to opportunities and challenges and who will climb in a boat to work with and alongside other people until the job is done. 

Alred P. Sloan famously said it best, “Take my assets — but leave me my organization and in five years I’ll have it all back.” Sloan was the head of GM for many years. His 1963 book, My Years With General Motors, is still a classic. 

In 1925 he said this, “I never give orders. I sell my ideas to my associates if I can. I accept their judgment if they convince me, as they frequently do, that I am wrong. I prefer to appeal to the intelligence of a man rather than attempt to exercise authority over him.” 

Still think those requirements are requirements for your company’s progress and growth? Or do you think you may be able to deploy some creative thinking and new approaches to find people who fit your culture in a way where they can enhance it and add value?

Adding value is the thing. Disrupt your hiring practices before a competitor forces you to.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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Culture and communication continue to be key conversations with business owners and leaders. For good reason. They’re vital in establishing accountability. Every experienced leader knows without accountability there can be no sustainable improvement or growth.

Our growth and improvement individually hinge on our willingness to be accountable to others, and our willingness to let others be accountable to us. This week a local sports talk radio station interviewed retired Dallas Cowboy tight-end Jay Novacek. They were reminiscing about the glory days when Jay played with Troy Aikman, Emmit Smith, and Michael Irvin. Jay said those teams really enjoyed being together. They had good chemistry. It prompted the radio hosts to ask him, “Was the chemistry good because you guys won, or did you guys win because of the chemistry?” Without hesitation, Jay said, “We won because of our chemistry.”

It’s true with sports teams, business or organizational teams. If real estate lives and dies by the motto, “Location, location, location” then our businesses live and die by “culture, culture, culture.” It’s a major distinguishing factor between successful and failing organizations. Cultures aren’t created equally any more than real estate locations. Some are way better than others.

If you don’t begin to create or correct your culture so it incorporates one vital component – ACCOUNTABILITY – then it’s likely that you’ll be in the same spot 5 years from now. The problem is, the market is going to change. And your company may not survive. It’s the high price we’ll all pay for sitting on our butt thinking we’ll somehow get by on our own. 

I can readily tell you that the most underrated characteristic of high achieving businesses and organizations is accountability. CEOs and business owners who shy away from it have no chance of building a culture of accountability. And I know why some shy away from it. They’re afraid. They don’t understand it. They’re ignorant of how great things could be with accountability.

Accountability isn’t a police action. 

You own the joint. I completely understand. But don’t confuse your ownership with some delusional idea that you don’t need accountability in your life, or that your people don’t need it in theirs. 

Culture is a bit different than personal accountability in that you’re the boss, so you dictate the philosophy and principles by which your company operates. If it’s important to you, then it’s going to be important to the company. That’s the influence and power you weld. As it should. 

All the more reason to be careful about the culture you want to create. Don’t be haphazard. Or bashful to show your organization how you’re willing to accept accountability for your role as the Chief Leader, #1. Be willing to be accountable to your entire company. You are anyway. So you may as well embrace it, own it and celebrate it. 

It doesn’t mean that people impose on you. They can’t. Unless you let them. And as a business owner, you’re not likely going to do that. Nor should you. Truth is, nobody can tell you what you ought to do. You can accept input, feedback, and suggestions, but you get to decide for yourself and for the organization. In that regard, accountability isn’t a police action. It’s more of you deciding something, then being willing to have the organization hold you to it. You’re the policeman, but even cops need high accountability because with much authority and responsibility comes elevated accountability if we’re going to perform at the highest levels. 

Accountability isn’t punishment.

Another myth is that accountability is punitive. While it can be, that’s not at the heart of the matter. 

Instead, it’s among the highest levels of service you can offer, or be offered. Don was an alcoholic for almost 20 years. Highly functioning, but still an alcoholic. He admitted that for almost 10 of those years he wanted to stop drinking. He was mostly a closet alcoholic. So he tried everything he knew to get sober on his own. He read books. He educated himself on his affliction. Knowledge didn’t help. And Don quickly realized that lack of knowledge wasn’t his problem. Accountability was. He said to me, “Nobody can get sober alone.” I’m a teetotaler, meaning I don’t drink alcohol at all (never have). But I trust what he tells me about overcoming this challenge. 

Don decided to go to somebody. Somebody he knew he could trust to hold him accountable. Within a short period of time, Don was free from alcohol ruling his life. He’s determined and committed, but so is the person holding him accountable. They’re in it together. Don said he increasingly was driven to not let himself down, but he didn’t want to let down the person working so hard to hold him accountable either. 

It’s been just under 10 years since Don had his last drink. Ask him if accountability is punishment and he’ll quickly correct you by telling you it’s a supreme degree of service. It changed his life. It’ll change everybody’s – or anybody’s life. Yours. Mine. And the people who work for us, too.

Accountability is for all of us. We’re in this together.

If your end of the boat sinks, so does mine. That’s the culture of accountability. It’s the difference maker. Like Don overcoming alcoholism, or a salesperson struggling to achieve success, or an accounting clerk struggling to keep up the workload, accountability is THE service of helping people improve and grow. 

The reason most people don’t grow or improve is largely due to their lack of accountability. Sparked mostly by their unwillingness to submit to being served. Or their unwillingness to serve others. 

Self-improvement is a paradox. It incorrectly presupposes that we can do it for ourselves. All by ourselves. Shockingly, I don’t know a single person who has ever achieved it that way. Every high performing person I’ve ever met has had help. Somebody willing to help hold them accountable for what they want to accomplish. 

Like everything else in your company, it all begins and ends with you, the owner. Look around at how well, or how poorly you’re serving and being served when it comes to accountability. Be honest. Face the truth. If it’s not as impactful or effective as it could be, then set about the change the truth. Get busy building a high accountability culture. And watch the improvement and growth start to happen. 

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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A group of startup sales managers are sitting around swapping stories and sharing experiences. Some of the startups are mere months old while others are a couple of years old. At some point, the conversation turns to pipelines, funnels, ideal prospects, customer acquisition and all the other components of selling. Some of the companies are B2B and others are B2C. It’s your basic shop talk. 

These are good people. Decent performers. Ambitious. Driven. Smart. Capable. 

But they’re doing something they’re not even aware of. They’re dehumanizing their prospects and customers. And it’s another teaching moment for me.

I’ve historically focused on the language salespeople use. Most of my career was spent with commission-based salespeople. I cared about the words they used, even away from the customers, because I knew it had an impact on how prospects and customers were treated. Shop talk among salespeople and sales managers fosters whatever the company allows. 

Words like “pursuit” are frequently used. As in their pursuit of customers. I seize the moment. Not with judgment, but with a point-of-view that I know these quite young sales managers hasn’t considered. 

A lead, an “up,” an avatar – these aren’t words I like. I’m not the semantic police or anything. I know we often use terms just to communicate effectively, but when we’re talking about building a business by getting new customers or serving existing customers better – two-thirds of the trifecta of successful business building – we can incorporate verbiage that doesn’t serve us well. Truth is, sometimes our words create challenges making our task even more difficult. Instead, we should incorporate wording that helps and serves our purpose well. 

You can chase or pursue customers. Like prey. Or victims. 

You’ll be better served – so will your customers – if you woo them instead. 

We woo people we love. People we care about. People we hope to develop a deeper relationship with. Wooing involves getting to know them and allowing them to get to know us. Yes, we have an interest, but we want this to mutually beneficial. 

My grandson Easton loves bugs and lizards. Our yard is filled with plenty of both. Easton will pursue them with a dogged determination. He’s pretty good, too. He catches them more often than not. Mostly because once he spots one, he won’t stop until he successfully captures it. We constantly urge him to release them, but he never wants too until he’s enjoyed putting them into a jar or something where they’re contained. He’s 5 so we’re still teaching him that they’re much happier being free. As a little boy, he’s not terribly concerned about what they might want, or what might be best for them. He wants to see them, watch them and play with them. He’s not interested in hurting them, but he’s not thinking about them. It’s a completely selfish endeavor of a little boy. 

Selling always involves people. Words reflect and form our perspectives. Don’t let anybody tell you words don’t matter! They do. I could approach you and if I knew the right thing to say to make you mad as a wet hen, your temper would flare immediately. My words could offend you, hurt you, disturb you, embarrass you or make you angry. My words could foster all sorts of emotions and energies in you. And garner all kinds of responses or reactions. You know that’s true. 

Keep talking about pursuing or hunting customers and it builds within us an image. We’re prowling for customers. We win at their expense. They’re something for us to conquer and drag back home. The spoils of business war. 

If instead, we busy ourselves evangelizing our products or services, then we hope to convert people. We want to influence people because we know their lives will be better if they can see what we see, and believe what we believe. 

If we passionately woo our customers, then we court them with the desire to get to know them better. And we’re driven to help them better understand and know us, too. We seek a relationship with another person, not something to tick on a sales dashboard so we can hit some KPI. 

Passionately wooing customers is about connecting with another human being. One person at a time. It doesn’t matter if you have a number of stakeholders to satisfy. Each of them are individual people. Woo each one of them and you’ll forge a relationship with all of them. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. How do you make a sale to a group? One person at a time. 

If your language hinders people in your company from viewing customers as real human beings, then take some time to change it. It’s a first step to hitting the first two legs of the successful business building trifecta: getting new customers and serving existing customers better. And it won’t hurt your efforts on that third leg either: not going crazy in the process.

Be enthusiastic and passionate about what you’re able to do for your customers. Deploy that enthusiasm as passion. Let the prospects and customers see and hear it. Woo them. That’s how you’ll win their hearts and their business.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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Read With Aubrey is an online platform based in the U.K. that connects complete strangers with each other so they can read a book together. It’s not like a 2-person reading circle though. There’s a twist. You connect and spend just a few minutes reading the book aloud to each other. People are reporting solid experiences, connecting with a complete stranger simply because you both agree to read the same book to each other. 

Part of me wonders how we got here. To a place where such an app has an audience. But life and technology have changed. So I embrace it. 

Just a few years ago nobody would have considered meeting a future spouse via some online platform, but today eHarmony and a host of other providers serve a growing market. The same could be said of hopping in the car of a complete stranger, but Uber and Lyft changed that. And Airbnb has turned the hotel industry on its ear because we’re willing to book a reservation in the home of a complete stranger.

“Strange connections” doesn’t mean they’re weird or odd. It means they’re strange because they’re unfamiliar. At least until they become familiar. Uber and Airbnb aren’t strange to us anymore. Many of us can’t imagine not having those services. Are you in love? Married? You were strangers until you weren’t. There was a time when you weren’t familiar with one another. Then a connection formed.

This time of year I’ll walk 4 to 5 miles every morning. Early. There’s a nice dog park along the route I walk. Admittedly, I’m a dog lover. I smile every time I see dogs bound out of the car anxious to go run and play with other dogs. Dogs they’ve never seen before. Their urge to socialize with other dogs is pretty remarkable. 

Read With Aubrey is just one of the more recent examples of how people can make a connection with a single commonality. In this case, reading the same book at the same time. The people may have nothing else in common, but that one thing is enough. Only experience and intuition make me believe that they likely discover other commonalities as they embark on reading the book to each other. 

You’re at some social gathering. As you mill about the room you encounter people without any successful connection. But suddenly you encounter a person wearing a pair of New Balance shoes that happen to be your favorites. You approach this stranger and remark, “Those are my all-time favorite shoes.” They confirm they love them, too – and own six pairs. Shoes! One point of connection. And 30 minutes later you both know quite a lot about each other. 

That’s how it happens. 

Today is Monday so I want to encourage you to seek some strange connections because you’ll discover value. This morning as I walked past that dog park I was thinking of the benefits we get from connecting with people who aren’t already part of our circle. As I watched those dogs hop around playfully together I thought of the valuable business benefits of collaboration – people who discovered a connection through just one single point of commonality and went on to help each other. Would we have known Jobs without Woz? We’ll never know. 

The value of strange connections isn’t about how high you’re flying today. It’s about how high could you fly if you had a few more connections with whom you shared very important interests, beliefs, convictions, or whatever else – like New Balance shoes. 

In a few months when the north winds start to blow we’ll see many flocks of geese and other migratory birds flying south for the winter. They’ll be squawking, flying in formation. We won’t see them flying alone. They’ll always be together. Whatever their differences, they share important things that bond them together to make another annual journey of many miles successfully. It’s a journey they make for their own survival. So they do it together.

Don’t go it alone. 

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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