Real Leaders Fire People
Why they do it, who is eligible, and how it works
The second best way to assess if someone has what it takes to be a leader is to observe them firing an underperforming employee.
If you’ve fired someone before, you know what I mean. If you haven’t yet, I wish I could help you avoid this situation, but it’s close to impossible.
As my first mentor would say, “leadership is stumbling from firing to firing with no loss of enthusiasm.”
Now, the best way to assess if someone has what it takes to be a leader is to ask them to fire an exceptional employee and replace them with one of the shareholders’ underqualified cousins.
If one understands that they’ll have to deal with situations where morality and ethics hide behind a fog of despair, then they have a shot at becoming a real leader.
Real leaders fire exceptional employees all the time
They want to help
They know the employee is too much in their comfort zone for their own good. They know the high-performer needs a kick in the ass to develop their skills to the next level. Real leaders help.
They’re afraid
They realize the employee is not only talented but also ambitious. Real leaders are self-aware and understand that being scared of their employees isn’t the best mindset to drive the company towards future success. Getting rid of an ambitious underling is a good reason to fire someone. Real leaders deal with the competition.
They negotiate a deal
Because without the main shareholder’s support during the next assembly, the leader’s vision for the future of the company won’t be approved. Thousands of employees could lose their jobs. And board exco members their stock options. Real leaders strike a deal and replace exceptional employees with the cousin twice removed of the main shareholder.
The first time I had to fire an employee, I understood I didn’t have what it takes to be a true leader
Don’t get me wrong; I fired the person. It was an easy fire; they were not competent for the job and not a good personality fit with the team and the company. But still, it made me cry when I debriefed the case with my mentor.
At that moment, I understood I would never be able to muster the ruthlessness of a real leader. That’s why I cried.
I understand this anecdote might be too self-centered. Obviously, the person who got fired was in a much more difficult situation. Still, it happened. I cried.
And I will never forget what my mentor told me then.
“We make a living by who we hire. We make a life by who we fire.”
Evan Wildstein’s open letter inspired this article. Thank you for taking the lead on this topic, Even!
Smillew is a Medium writer who writes mainly about leadership, his Medium newsletter, and his Medium referral link. No need to follow him; he’ll show up in your feed.
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