T.A. Wilson & Associates

There will come the time when you will have to fire someone in your organization. It can be one of the more discomforting aspects of management. Should you have to fire someone hopefully you won’t make the same type of mistakes that played out in last weeks firing of Shirley Sherrod.

If last weeks drama doesn’t become a case study for management students of how not to fire someone it should, what happen to Ms. Sherrod was clearly amateurish and all the senior level people involved should have known better. It’s amazing how people when under pressure will forget all reason and do what they think is expedient.

Managers at some point will have to fire people and it can be disheartening but if you follow some simple rules it can be a bit less painful and most of all a lot less embarrassing. The following rules – well let’s take line from Ghostbusters when Bill Murray quipped “more like guidelines – won’t make the process any easier but can give you a framework to work within.

1. Keep your composure, know the facts, and make no assumptions until you’ve had the opportunity to check and verify what do and don’t know. Based on all reports it’s clear that both the White House and NAACP did neither of these. Both the White House and the NAACP have sufficient experience between them to have known better, to have slowed the process down, and done some fact checking. For unexplained reasons both caved to pressure and shouldn’t have.

2. Never let people take you out of your game, never violate your own rules. The way Ms. Sherrod was fired was not normal. Asking someone to pull over to the side of the road and text in her resignation can’t be in anybody’s rule book when it comes to terminating any employee. This rush to fire her so she wouldn’t be a subject on the Glenn Beck show clearly showed they were being taken out of their game by FoxNews. Also, they were violating their own rules, before asking her to text in her resignation she was already put on administrative leave which is a normal part of their disciplinary process, but what appears to be self-imposed pressure the get her resign caused them to violate their own rules.

3. Oppose outside pressure that will cause you to rush to judgment, and object to any unsubstantiated claims of wrong doing without first checking everything out. Everyone involved in this decision allowed themselves to be swayed by the current events unfolding without checking the facts. As a manager you have a responsibility to slow the process down, you can see what happens when you don’t.

4. Wait there is no reason to rush judgment. Wait until you have all the facts. Had everyone waited and took time to look further, they would have discovered that the tape was edited and there was much more to the story than what was showed in the edited clip. Had people waited and asked if there was anything else, or what was the source of the tape, was anyone there, and what they knew about Ms. Sherrod, well, I wouldn’t be writing this post about how not to fire someone.

Firing someone is never fun, but at times necessary. So when you faced with this decision keeping you composure, not allowing the situation to take you off your game, and opposing the pressure to make a quick decision, and waiting to get as much information as you can before you make a decision is indeed showing that you KNOW what you’re doing so that when you do say to someone “you’re fired” you won’t have to back track and then say, “well maybe not.”

© Timothy A. Wilson 2010. All Rights Reserved

Last week a great number of people were caught up in what was considered a national event. Who would LeBron James sign with? It became a major media event where a number of people were watching. I’m safe in saying that when he said he was taking his talents to South Beach, there were cheers of joy in Miami and shouts anger in Cleveland. No doubt the fans of the Miami Heat basketball team have visions of championships along with a possible dynasty in the making with the talents that James, Bosh, and Wade all playing with each other.  These three (LeBron James, Chris Bosh, and Dwayne Wade) certainly have the talent but it remains to be seen if they can truly work and win as a team.

Each a star in their own right, the coaching staff is going to have to figure out how to best meld their talents together with the rest of team. While Wade, Bosh and James are going to have to determine how they’re going to handle their egos. The rest of the team is left with determining where they fit in, considering they have three superstar players in their midst. While some would consider having these three talented players a corner stone for the development of a super team, others would see it as a nightmare that won’t go away.

The fans in Miami see this as the beginning of a powerful dynasty – and it could be – management sees it as an expensive investment that must show an immediate return. The coaching staff as a challenging talent management issue that will call for some out-of-the box thinking when it comes to managing this level of talent. For those of us who are students of organizational development and dynamics this is a real life laboratory in which we can see how all the components of organizational theory, team development, group dynamics and goal setting theory work for real.

Initially I thought the announcement of where LeBron James would end up was of little interest to me, but after further consideration I’m beginning to see it in a completely different light. So when they play the Celtics I’m going to watch these games from the viewpoint of what I can learn from a consultant’s perspective. Well at least that’s what I’m going to tell my wife.

© Timothy A. Wilson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

By now many have read or seen on the news the story about the Russian spies who have been here for decades. What is fascinating about this story is how in plain site they were. In the city of Cambridge neighbors were completely baffled when told they had two Russian spies among their mist. But that’s to be expected of Cambridge.

I suspect what surprises people the most is these alleged spies didn’t behave as we think spies should. They weren’t the suave debonair James Bond type we have imprinted in our consciousness. They looked and acted like everyday people. So when we read about their being captured and their supposedly spy activity it’s surprising to say the least.

As I follow this story, I find a similarity when workers come across a real manager. I mean most people have become so accustom to people who hold the title of manager but are anything but, when they meet or work for someone who is truly a manager it comes as complete surprise to them.

For many they work for managers who only know how to bark orders, take credit for other people’s work, complain about their superiors, and give their subordinates a hard time about everything. When approached with ideas on possible improvements, instead of embracing them, they respond with “that’s not how we do things here” or “you’re paid to perform not think.” Or they talk about accountability only when something goes wrong and are looking for someone to throw under the bus for their lack of oversight. When it comes time for doing people’s performance reviews, they are always late, remember only the mistakes, or can’t remember what the person did for the year.

Again it’s comes as a complete surprise when you work for someone who is completely opposite of the conventional manager many have come to work for. The type of managers I’m speaking of see their people as part of an overall team and it’s through them is that things get done.

They aren’t worried about who gets the credit because it’s truly a team effort. They take time to meet with all members of their staff, and listen to what they have to say and empower them to make reasonable changes of the work processes as long as they don’t impact performance negatively. Performance reviews are not only on time, but scheduled well in advance to allow for meaningful discussion. During this time there are no surprises it’s an honest and open dialogue about things you did well and the areas that require improvement along with straightforward suggestions on how you can improve.

When managers of this type suddenly appear on the scene it’s a complete surprise to everyone, it catches people completely off guard, conventional they’re not.

What’s even more amazing is the fact they are in our midst and people don’t know it.  What a shame.