Sunday, September 14, 2008
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…… the more ammunition is building in their head to finally look in the mirror and make that hard decision. They will submit their resignation in search of a boss or owner that they can respect within a company where they can make an impact.
The reason that this will eventually happen is because an A-Player wants to continually advance, grow and experience the joy of an ever expanding paycheck that continues to rise with their effort and results. The problem, however is that they can’t do that in a mediocre company. The money won’t come because the profits are being sucked down by all the dead weight. Salary after salary is being paid to people who can’t or won’t get the job done. It’s an ever revolving circle of nice people carrying and paying nice workers who show up but aren’t moving any mountains. What results is a nice, happy, safe environment that is slowly chugging along with no one understanding why it isn’t experiencing a hockey stick-like sales explosion. Hmmmm can’t imagine why!
Even more tragic is that eventually every B and C-player that these A-players continue to carry puts a noose around their neck. They are working desperately to carry the extra load, but high school physics teaches us, there is only so much load a given entity can hold before it cracks under the gravity of unending pressure. At a certain point, with too much dead weight around their neck, the A-player wakes up one day, begins rubbing her neck and starts putting together their resume while finally uttering those terrifying words… “I quit.” When the letter finally hits your desk, nothing less than shear panic sets in as your mind starts racing as you start contemplating ‘life with out my A-player’ who’s been holding down the ship these past few years. For those of you whose stomach is now growing ever more queasy, keep an eye out for our last installment of this post where we dive even deeper into the ramifications of holding on too long to the dead weight.
April 2nd, 2009 at 10:45 pm
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