The False Fear That Stops Leaders from Firing Bad Fit Employees – Sandler Training

 

 

Written by Hamish Knox; President of Sandler in Calgary, Canada

Creating accountable, sales focused organizations in Calgary

 

 

One of the guarantees I give my prospects is, “you will have turnover if we work together.” In fact one of my clients several years ago had 100% turnover in the first 12 months of our relationship (and they still thank me for it).

Now, I don’t literally make hire/fire decisions for my clients. It’s their business. What they discover when they commit to implementing the processes and strategies on which we train our clients is a percentage of their team isn’t open to change.

Sometimes one of their team members who isn’t open to change is a “key member” of the leader’s team. Usually this person also has “great relationships” with “our biggest/most important clients/suppliers/contractors.”

When that team member continues to resist despite plenty of opportunities to commit to the changes their leader is making they create a false fear in their leader. That fear is “if I fire them, I’ll lose those clients/suppliers/contractors.” That fear increases if the leader doesn’t have a connection to those clients/suppliers/contractors except through their bad fit employee.

Once you reach the point of no return with your bad fit employee you can lower your anxiety by playing offense instead of defense with their relationships once you let them go.

In several organizations I’ve been part of being proactive meant that leadership had divided up the bad fit employee’s contacts among the remaining members of their department prior to the bad fit employee being terminated then, once the bad fit was gone, leadership and the remaining members of the bad fit’s department called all of their contacts that day to advise them of the change and how they would be supported going forward.

None of those organizations ever lost a client, supplier or contractor because of the bad fit being let go. In fact several of the bad fit’s contacts shared with their new contact that they planned to stop working with that company because they didn’t like working with the bad fit.

Who got you here might not get you there. Don’t be held hostage by an employee with a “relationship” that may be entirely made up in your head.

Until next time… go lead.

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Upcoming Workshop:

Building a High Performance Sales Culture

Align your people, processes and sales culture to consistently achieve maximum results.

WONDERING HOW TO CONSISTENTLY HIRE SUPERSTARS?

Thursday September 7, 2017 from 11:30AM-2:30PM

Click to register online or register by phone on 403-457-1507.

Successfully filling an open position requires the skill to develop an accurate job profile and identify the skills, habits, attitude, and other abilities required to effectively and efficiently carry out the functions of the position.

Workshop facilitated by Hamish Knox of Sandler Training and Lynee Miller of the Devine Group.

Investment includes – 3 hour workshop, Playbook for recruiting, hiring and onboarding A-players, lunch and a copy of “Winning from Failing – Build and Lead a Corporate Learning Culture for High Performance” by Sandler Trainer, Josh Seibert.

Are you:

• A Chief Executive, Owner or President who seeks sustainable top and bottom line growth for your business?
• Do you wonder how to build a team with the right attitudes and behaviors to succeed?
• Seeking to hire the right people?

You’ll Leave With:

• A playbook for hiring, recruiting and onboarding employees.
• A roadmap to properly manage, supervise and motivate your people for growth.
• Coaching plans to improve individual and team performance.
• An easy and efficient process for identifying key competencies that are aligned to company performance.

Attract, Retain and Train High Quality Employees

Click to register online or call (403) 457-1507 to register by phone.

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