Letting people go without negative impact.

I have been interviewing a lot of senior managers in the past months and one of the question I always ask is, if they have fired or let people go. I have been amazed at how many managers have never done this or shrugged of their responsiblity by letting HR do a complicated process.

I have always been an optimist and hired for the potential in others rather than their immediate experience. This has mostly worked for me but I have had cases where I had to let person go mainly because of attitude. There has also been times when I had to let people go not only because of their performance but because the company was not performing as expected. The issue with any firing is that human connections are broken and effects the moral of everyone.

Here are my top advice.
1. Make sure the process is transparent, not only to the one getting fired but also everyone around him.
2. Do not delay the firing decision. Make it fast and painless. Move-on and let the other person also move-on.
3. Do the firing yourself or by the immediate manager. Do not delegate.
4. Be human. This is a big setback to the ego of the person, explain clearly the reason, the benefits, your help etc.
5. Make the departure as soon as possible. Do not insist on serving notice period. Let the person spend time in finding a new job. The more time he spends in office, the more issue he can create.
6. Address the rest of the group. Let them know of our decision and the reasons.
7. If the person is close to other people, have a 1-on-1 with them. 
8. Treat the person well during the last few days. Everyone is thinking about how they will be treated when in the same position.

I also read a great post by Ben Horowitz on how he managed layoffs. The right way to lay people off.

Firing is not easy but it has lot of impact. Make sure it is all positive and does not backfire on you.

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