Know When to Fold 'Em

In reading a comment on one of my posts yesterday an old Chris Christophersin song came to mind...  You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em.  Know when to walk away, know when to run...

One of the challenging things, especially for new leaders, is knowing when you are pushing a bad position with a performance issue.  Nearly every first time leader makes the mistake of investing way too much time trying to make someone work out in a position they are not suited for.  Face it, most of us has done this at least once.  It's human nature we want to help people be successful.  The problem is know when it's time to move on.

I once had a very talented director level person that inherited a very caustic manager.  The manager was hard on his staff, causing turn over problems yet, was totally unwilling to accept accountability for failing to deliver.  I recommended that we move on replacing the person sooner rather than later.  The director believed he could save the person and asked for some time.  I told him I was doubtful but gave him 3 months and wished him well.  In about 2 months the director came back with a recommendation to replace the manager and we did.  We hired a very capable manager and moved the other individual back to an individual contributor role where he belonged.  The problem was while the director was trying to save the failing manager, some other key areas that needed attention suffered from lack of attention.  I felt it was worth letting the director get into a little bit of trouble to learn from the experience about pushing a bad position.

So, when should you invest?  If there are extenuating circumstances that warrant a second look or the person has been put into a development role.  I once transitioned from a fairly senior and difficult role and when we were choosing my successor my boss chose someone that was a great choice but would need some time and top cover during transition.  My boss ignored the recommendation and threw him into a very difficult situation head first.  By the time I knew there was real trouble, I couldn't intervene to save the situation.  He should have provided more support during the transition and had he done so, I believe the results could have been different.  He should have invested. 

There are other situations where projects get into trouble for various reasons beyond someones control or beyond their current capabilities.  In this case, it is wise to invest for a couple of reasons.  The obvious reason is that you will save and develop employees that have valuable experience.  Some of our greatest learnings come from bad situations.  The other reason is that it will become difficult for you to recruit a successor if they get the sense that they will not be supported in that role.  Further, the whole time they may be looking over the their shoulder as opposed to focusing on excelling at their job.  Just make sure that project performance issues do not become a trend with the person.

When should you fold 'em?  First and foremost anytime there are ethics issues.  That must be an immediate ticket out the door.  I don't care how talented they are, ethical issues can not be tolerated, not for one second.  You might be tempted to overlook them but don't.  I have seen a senior leaders overlook clear ethical violations such as sexual misconduct and misappropriation of company resources with disastrous results for both themselves and the organization.  Ethics boundaries must be rigid and uniformly enforced.  No exceptions.  Never.  Ever.

Issues surrounding truthfulness are next on the list.  Anytime you have legitimate questions about the honesty of an employee.  I had a situation once where we had a marginally performing project manager.  We tried him in several roles and he just couldn't ever be successful.  His boss kept trying to tell me how smart he was and pleading for another chance.  We both finally agreed we needed to move the project manager to role that he was better suited to.  One day, I got a call from his boss telling me that they hadn't quite got around to reassigning him and that there had been an ethics issue with the employee on the project.   The end result was the employee was terminated and the boss was moved out of management role because I could no longer trust him to follow through on an agreed plan.  I refer this as the "Pocket Veto".  Plans can change but the agreements need to change with them.  Without trust their can't be a relationship.

Performance issues get trickier.  Obviously grave judgement errors need immediate attention as far as corrective actions.  Bad behavior is another area that needs immediate attention.  Employees that violate conduct standards or are openly disrespectful need to be to be promptly dealt with.  Behavior issues seldom correct themselves.  I once worked with an employee that had a clear substance issue.  His management failed to address the problem and allowed him to travel overseas.  Overseas his pattern of behavior continued and he narrowly avoided being thrown in jail and was promptly sent home to be fired.  The company suffered a great embarrassment as well.  The point is his managers failure to address the situation placed both the company and the employee at great risk.

Issues where an employee just isn't performing require some more work to improve performance.  This isn't a license to stand back and allow sub par performance and under no circumstances should the employee be rewarded for poor performance.  The employee should be given clear feedback as to the performance issues and an opportunity to improve.   This means that the leader needs to invest some time in putting together a thoughtful and effective improvement plan as well as regularly working with the employee to improve.   If the employee either can't improve or slips back into old bad habits than the leader needs to evaluate more permanent corrective actions.

The truth is that one bad apple really can spoil the bunch.  Tolerating bad behavior or long term poor performance drags the entire organization down.  It also damages the leaders credibility.  Failing to act timely and decisively sends a message to the organization that you really aren't all that serious about your objectives or your values.