189: How to Know When It’s Time to Let Go or Hold On to a Business Relationship

Welcome to the Time to Level Up Podcast. I'm your host, Andrea Liebross. Each week, I focus on the systems, strategy, and big thinking you need to CEO your business and life to the next level. Are you ready? Let's go.

Hello, friends. Welcome back to the She Thinks Big! Podcast. Today, what we are thinking big about are relationships. Relationships with the people that we work with, our contractors, and our employees, and interestingly enough, this also applies to any relationships of any kind, but, "When is it time to let go of a relationship?" When is it time to let go of a relationship?

I just let go of the relationship with the name of the podcast and rebranded it to She Thinks Big! That took some big thinking to do that, to be okay with that, to not worry about what might happen if I did.

But really what I'm talking about today is more relationships with people and this episode was inspired by a client of mine who was really struggling with, “Should she let go of a handful, two or three employees? Actually there were just independent contractors. They weren't employees. Was it time to let go?

That is what inspired this particular episode and it really aligns right with our big thinking and our relationship conversations that we are going to have in the next few coming weeks.

All right, so let's just dive in. Letting go of someone in your business is really a difficult decision and it can have a significant impact on you as the owner/CEO. It could also have an impact on the other people within your organization.

I often get like “How do I know when it's the right time to let someone go?” kinds of questions that we coach on. I broke this up into five different sections of things you need to consider when you're thinking about letting someone go.

Then I've got a little bit about the decision-making process. This could be one where you want to take notes. I'm just saying. Is there anyone in your organization that you think you might want to let go of? I think that's an important thing to think about as you're listening to what I'm going to share.

All right, so here we go. Here's the big group number one. Big group number one of the things to think about when considering if it's time to let go of someone are what I might call performance-related factors.

Are they consistently not putting out the product that you expected? They're failing to meet your standards, and your expectations, despite clear communication and support. Sometimes I have to question the CEO, “Hey, did you clearly communicate what you wanted? Oh, yes I did.” Okay. Well, then if they're consistently still not performing, we have something to consider.

Another performance-related factor is the lack of improvement. You've given them feedback, you have trained them, you have given them ways to develop. I can think of a client in particular, she's given them many development opportunities in the field, in the industry, she's given them tons of training, and she constantly is giving them feedback.

But if the employee, the contractor, or the person you have hired does not show improvement over what might be considered a reasonable period of time—and this could be different in everybody's business—but a reasonable period of time, it's time to consider.

Here's the third thing that has to do with performance. Are they able to adapt to working with different people within the org and also with different types of clients? Are they able to adapt when you hand them new responsibilities? Are they able to adapt when you tell everyone we have to document something this way even though we've been doing it that way?

Technology and processes that are necessary for the business's growth and success. I've got lots of clients who are implementing new technologies all the time and they're so afraid about what their team is going to think.

Or, are they going to catch on or are they going to resist? Guess what? That's not a choice, you can't resist. If you cannot adapt to what needs to change in the business in order for it to grow and succeed, then we have something to consider.

Poor performance, lack of improvement, and inability to adapt, those are all related to someone's performance and they all make you question, “Is it time to go?” Now is the next category and this is the category that is so hard to get a candle on because it's not tangible necessarily. None of this is really tangible in a sense, but behavior or attitude.

I have a client, I think this employee has worked with her for seven or eight years, but she's consistently or persistently unhappy. That means that she's showing up with a negative attitude. She's affecting team morale and the overall work environment.

This becomes very apparent too when you start to bring on new people and mix them with the old people. You start to notice the old people's negative attitudes or unhappiness. That's sometimes where it shows up the most.

Another factor that has to do with behavior is unprofessional behavior. Are they absent? Are they late? Do they not tell you when they're going on vacation? Are they inappropriately dressed? Do they inappropriately conduct themselves?

No matter how old someone is, because sometimes we blame it on age, like, “Oh, they don't understand yet. They're young,” that's still not acceptable. We cannot accept unprofessional behavior. That's something we need to consider. That might be a red flag.

Here's the next thing, communication breakdown. They are not effectively communicating. They're always thinking that there's some misunderstanding. They are conflict creators. We don't have time for that. Okay, so communication breakdown.

Last, do they disrupt things? Are they disruptive? Do they hinder productivity? Do they hinder collaboration? Do they hinder being efficient and effective? Time to consider, red flag. Okay, so there we had the negative attitude or unhappiness, unprofessional behavior, communication breakdown, and always creating some conflict or disruption.

Then we have the sort of ethical compliance factors mixed in with a little behavior. I think it goes to be said, if someone's violating your company policies, or we got like safety or confidentiality, those are probably two of the ones I see most, something to put up your red flag for, have they created any legal issues for you? Maybe it's time for them to go.

But then here's the last one, I think it's most important here with ethics and compliance. Are they dishonest? Is there a lack of trust? Has your trust been broken? Attempts to rebuild are not successful. Something didn't go well and now you just don't trust them. Or they didn't show up. Or they handled something poorly and you just don't trust them. Time to go.

The next big category is culture and team dynamics. Are they aligned with your company values? One of the very first things that I always do with my clients in a Vision Into Action Intensive is we establish their core values for their organization.

I say when we do this, this is almost like you're writing a job description. Everybody you hire needs to align with these company values. If they don't, then they're not a good fit. What do I mean by that? Well, let's say a company value is resourcefulness. They just are not resourceful. They just ask you for everything all the time. That's exhausting. Instead of asking you for something all the time, the person you want to keep is someone who figures it out on their own. They're misaligned with your company values if they're not sourceful.

Another piece of the puzzle here is do they have different values or goals? Maybe their goals are that they don't want to stay here for a while and they just want to learn as much as they can learn and then leave.

Now that could happen to anyone but if you know that and they're not someone who wants to be a team player and grow with you, might not be the right person for you. Is their vision for the future aligned with your vision for the future?

Now, everybody has their own individual future idea, but do you see them being in your future at all? Could you even imagine them being in your future at all? Probably not someone you want to keep if you can't see that.

What are their goals? Is their goal to just come to work, nine to five, and put in no extra effort? Maybe it is, and maybe that aligns with your extra goal. Your goal is actually you want to be done by five, but if your goal is to do whatever it takes to satisfy the client and you want them to be on board too, and that's not something they're willing to do, maybe they're not a good fit.

The last thing is really poor team fit. They don't integrate with the team. They don't feel like a cohesive unit. They're a loner. They're off to the side. They don't want to participate. No one likes being with them. You don't have time for that. You don't have time or energy for that. You don't want to put your time, energy, or resources even, because you remember you're still paying them, toward the poor team fit.

Okay, so to review, maybe they are misaligned with the company values, maybe they've got different goals and maybe they're just a poor team fit. Now I am going to bring up some very factual types of things that may be leading to your decision to let someone go.

Maybe there are financial constraints. That's totally something that happens that they just necessitate you having to reduce your payroll. Or, maybe you now have someone that's really doing their job. They were hired for one thing. You hired Susie for one thing, and then you hired Sarah for something else, but you're realizing that Sarah can actually do both things. Susie might be out, so there's some redundancy. Those are valid reasons to consider letting someone go.

Let's review. Red flags. Consistently poor performance, lack of improvement, inability to adapt, negative attitude, perpetual unhappiness, unprofessional behavior, communication breakdowns, conflict, and disruption. Then they're not abiding by policies, they're dishonest, you don't trust them, and they got you into some legal trouble, potentially. Then lastly, they're misaligned with the company values. They've got some different goals, and they're a poor team fit. Or, you can't afford them anymore, or someone else is doing their job.

All right, so now you're like, “Okay, I've checked enough of those boxes to say yes, it’s time to let them go,” what do you need to do? Well, I am not a legal professional, nor am I HR. But I do think it is good practice to document issues.

I think it is good practice to give some feedback in support potentially. You want to make sure that you've given them the feedback as to why you're doing this, and maybe even give them feedback while you're considering doing this and see if something changes.

Also, you've got to be transparent. You have to be fair and not be hiding things from them. You might want to consider alternatives. Could they be better in a different role? They're just not the right person in the right seat, or they don't get it, want it, or have the capacity to do it. But maybe they would be great in some other role.

Letting someone go should really be a last resort after all other options have been exhausted. It's really important that you handle this professionally with some empathy and respect because they might be a great person, they're just not the right person right now for you and your business.

But you've got to do it with that professionalism and empathy in order to maintain that morale for the existing team members. You don't have to keep them forever. If your gut is like, “This isn't a good fit,” you're probably right.

I wouldn't hold on for too long because then you're just wasting your resources of time, money, and energy. Let them go, maybe—I want you to consider this—maybe you're doing them a huge favor because maybe they were miserable in this position.

Maybe this isn't the best way for them to grow. Maybe this isn't aligning with their goals and why are we keeping them here? You're giving them an opportunity to explore something else. I always want you to think about when you let someone go, what's in it for them, and help that person see what's in it for them.

Okay, my friends, I hope this information was super duper helpful as you consider who you're working with, and who's on your team, is it time to let them go? Is this relationship complete?

I have some other episodes in this podcast repertoire library here that are about relationships and relationships being complete. It's like you've completed your time with them. That's all it is. There's nothing more to it than that. Your time together is complete. It's time to open a different door.

This is all part of big thinking. If you're not thinking about these things or considering things in this way, almost like doing a checklist every once in a while, going through this and saying, "Okay, are these people checking all the boxes?" then you're doing yourself a disservice and you're staying in small thinking.

This is big thinking. This is where you're considering your thought options. The real problem here in not letting someone go, the real problem might be you just don't want to have the conversation because it's going to feel yucky. That feeling that you might have of yuckiness is what's holding you back. That's not serving you. That's not useful. You know how to do yucky. You can do it. Let's find someone amazing.

Okay, I will see you next week as we continue our discussion about big thinking. These are all big thinking big, big bold moves, taking big action. See you next time.

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