I once had to let someone go, I didn’t like it one bit.

Some people get a thrill out of firing people, some people can let people go and think no more of it.

I on the other hand, have a habit of playing things back in my mind, I also worry about people.

Long story short, I inherited a team, and unfortunately this member of staff was coming in frequently with hangovers (from partying), making mistakes, blaming other colleagues and had a difficulty with being corrected.

I tried to work with them to improve the situation, but it became clear, if I didn’t let this person go, they would poison the rest of the team.

In an unfortunate scenario, I had to do something I thought I would never need to, I had to let them go.

I worried about many things, some of them selfish: would this come back around to me? what would people think of me? am I a weak manager because I fired them and didn’t fix it? what could I have done to prevent this? what would other staff think? would this make my new team start looking for other jobs?

I also worried about said person being let go: would this impact their future? what about their bills? would this impact their self-esteem? how would their loved ones take it or be impacted by it?

Thinking like this will stop you from doing what needs to be done, which includes making tough calls.

Before I made the decision, I asked myself the following:

Is there a better alternative?
Is this decision ego driven?

If I’m able to answer both questions with a clean conscience; then I know, although this sucks, it’s the right decision to make.

In the end, you hope the person finds a role/company they are better fitted for, maybe your management style clashed with their personality, maybe they had another calling and you’re pushing them into the right direction, who knows, but if this person is detrimental to your team, you made the right decision and should think of it no more.

If your team fails, it is you who is responsible, it is you who will be held to fire; we can worry about other people, but not to the detriment of ourselves under no circumstances, don’t feel guilty for doing what’s right and needs to be done, save your guilt; for when you break your diet.

@Brainthrough