Only Superstars
Intentional leaders enable companies to thrive by making decisions based on facts, logic and prudent financial management.
Would you like to have only superstars working for your company? By "superstar," I mean people who are passionate about your company culture, consistently do their best for your company, and contribute positively to the company's bottom line.
If this is what you want, then you have to make the decision that you only want superstars. Next you have to consider what every manager hates to do: Firing someone, or maybe multiple people.
Tony Hsieh, in his book Delivering Happiness (page 97), says "... We realized that we had laid off the underperformers and the nonbelievers, but because everyone remaining was so passionate about the company and believed in what we were doing, we could still accomplish just as much work as we had before."
Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix in his Reference Guide on our Freedom & Responsibility Culture (slide 32) says, "People who have been stars for us, and hit a bad patch, get a near term pass because we think they are likely to become stars for us again... But unlimited loyalty to a shrinking firm, or to an ineffective employee, is not what we are about."
The Society for Human Resource Management ("SHRM") in a recent article on "positive turnover" (page 20, Jan. 2011) stated, "If a low-performing employee is discharged, it... shows that the performance management system is working and managers are doing their jobs. In addition, other employees may gain confidence that their leaders are making decisions that will keep the organization strong."
The bottom line: If you have an employee who is not a superstar and/or not fully passionate about your company then you are better off firing the person with a generous severance and investing the money and time that employee was receiving into developing a stronger company culture.
Time and again companies do better without someone who has a negative attitude, poor work ethic, is constantly late and demonstrates other behaviors that prove they are holding your company back. Let the person go. Keeping them encourages their behavior and poor performance, whereas letting them go may help them understand that they need to develop better work habits so they can succeed in their next job.
ONLY SUPERSTARS is a fork in the road for many leaders. Do you have the guts to get rid of people who are holding your company back from becoming the best it can be? It is better to run a little leaner and harder than to invest money and time in someone who will never give their all for your company.
Obviously this is not a company-wide discussion. It is a decision you have to make on your own or with your management team. Here are some questions to consider:
Are certain employees performing so poorly that no other company wants to hire them?
Is our company not growing as rapidly as we can because one or more employees are fighting positive changes, not working a full day, not giving their job everything they have to give, and/or behaving in another manner that is negatively affecting other employees?
What would happen to our organization if we decided 2011 is the year we redirect everyone's focus to developing a superior company culture that gives us a sustainable competitive edge in our markets?
Reed Hastings of Netflix estimates the difference between an average performer and a superstar is 2x for procedural work and 10x in creative work. How much better would we be performing if we let our poor performing employees go, and invested in our company culture and developing the skills of our remaining employees?
Developing a superior company culture is a lot of work, but it provides you with a significant competitive edge. That is why the best companies invest in it.
