My car died on me last week. It slipped out of gear and I couldn’t get it back into drive. So there I was, stranded, in the middle of the road.
Fortunately, it was a quiet street and it didn’t take long for the tow truck to show up.
Still, it was unexpected. It’s a fairly new car (a 2021 Audi), so all of this caught me by surprise.
Well, mostly. I have to admit that for a few weeks prior, there had been a warning icon on the dashboard — an orange exclamation point. I saw it but chose to ignore it.
Humans are like that sometimes. We know there is a problem — in a relationship, with our health, with a car — but we decide to look the other way, either dismissing the signs as inconsequential or just hoping things will improve on their own.
Nowhere is this more common than in management. Employees who are no longer (or never were) a good fit, either because they are disruptive or not up to the job, are kept on despite the clues.
The Hard Choices Are Never Obvious
Sometimes, of course, the difficulties are extreme and very apparent. In those cases, while the process of removing someone may be uncomfortable, the need for a change is obvious. Other times, the signals are much less clear — can the problem/person be modified so that a change is not necessary?
For example, I recently worked with a client who was trying to help a very talented — but difficult — executive fit in with the rest of the team. The quality of his work was outstanding. But he was often aggressive and reluctant to share important information with peers. My client tried bringing in a coach, hoping for a change.
Other times, and this is super-common with rapidly growing biotech companies, the job outgrows the person. We worked with a company that needed to build out its clinical development function. The CMO was a terrific person who did well when the company was tiny. But she had no experience structuring a growing organization, nor did she have the sophistication to work cross-functionally at the level needed. How long should the company wait for her to come up the learning curve?
In these cases and others like them, the question — “Is a change necessary?” — looms large.
Most People Wait Too Long
Faced with these muddy management problems, human nature tends to take over — there is a bias to stay the course. We may believe we can “fix” the person or modify the situation. Or we don’t want to admit — to ourselves and to others — that we made a hiring mistake. Or maybe we just want to avoid the hassle of having to remove someone and find a replacement.
That’s a problem. In addition to having significant detrimental effects on the dynamics of the team, being slow to move can also damage your credibility as a leader. If your culture states your organization operates in a certain way, and a person on your team is not living up to that, it dilutes the meaning of the words on the wall … and the respect for your judgement.
What to Do
Once you begin to sense something is wrong, try to broaden your perspective to make sure you are seeing things clearly. Speak with people you trust, both inside and outside the organization, to see if they see the same issues.
As the boss, you may be aware the dynamic is off but are unable to put your finger on the cause. Several years ago, I had an employee who was very good at “working me,” but who was causing all kinds of chaos and drama with everyone else. It was only when I started asking some pointed questions that all responses led back to that individual.
Short of replacement, possible solutions may include…
- For underperformance: training to fill the gap; hiring over someone; or reassigning parts of the job elsewhere.
- For “difficult” employees: coaching to increase self-awareness and behavior; containing the damage through job modifications.
Whatever you decide, the fact that you are aware that something is off is telling. It’s a warning light that should not be ignored.
So ask yourself: If you were to imagine a perfect team, is this person on it? Would you hire them again knowing what you now know? What will be the impact if you get rid of this person — and what will be the impact if you don’t?
Weigh the pluses and minuses, be ready to fill the gap if a change is necessary, and make the change as humanely as possible (your team is watching that too).
As I said, the hard choices are never obvious.
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