Archive for September, 2008
Three Most Important Reasons to Fire the Fat (part 3 of 3)
By Christine Regan Lake
The Anchors
So if the first two reasons weren’t enough to make you start questioning who may need to be called into your office and shown the cold light of day, maybe this reason will be enough to push you over the edge. B and C players bring to work with them their bad habits, cynical attitude and contaminate your environment. A great analogy is to look at your company as its own little ecosystem. Think of it as a little fish bowl with everyone living together in this tight little bowl doing their thing. Now, if you have a good filter everything is fine and dandy, and everyone goes on thriving indefinitely. What happens when the filter breaks or if–god forbid–you don’t even have a filter. The toxic build-up becomes overwhelming and the fish start to die. Do you think your office is any different? When you have B and C players who bring in their toxic garbage day in and day out…
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Three Most Important Reasons to Fire the Fat (part 2 of 3)
By Christine Regan Lake
Top Flight
We’ve discussed the need to let go of the people holding back your organization and how to identify them. We’ve profiled those of you who have difficulty doing that (i.e. firing them) because you prefer to be loved. Now let’s talk about the challenges with running a company by the ‘I just want to be loved’ mentality? Eventually over time you will lose your top talent. A-Players will grow tired of carrying the load of the less motivated B and C players. They will valiantly carry the extra burden for a while depending upon how much they like you and wrestle with their own loyalty issues. Maybe you’ll be lucky enough that ‘convenience’ is keeping them there because it’s close to home and they want the flexibility. But, rest assured, the longer the A-players are forced to carry this extra load…
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Three Most Important Reasons to Fire the Fat (part 1 of 3)
By Christine Regan Lake
There is one heated topic that is off limits to many business owners. That is, of course, whether they may need to fire someone. When the topic comes up there are any number of different responses: ”I’ve just got too big a heart and I can’t do it”, or “She’s been here for so long how could I do that?” This business owner acknowledges that there is a problem, just one that he is not willing to fix.
Then there is the business owner who is just in flat-out denial. Their response will more likely be, “Well it’s not like I’m going to fire them” and it is usually muttered with more than a little bit of defensive tone as if to say, “what are you thinking? as if…
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