Fire anyone who lies, starting with false statements on their employment applications–even if they are recommended by someone influential.
Fire people before Friday, spoil their weekends, not yours. Most likely the employee has already anticipated their dismissal and have been out looking for new opportunities, all the while you have been agonizing about how to not hurt their feelings.
Don’t tolerate mediocrity unless you want to sink to that level yourself. Always fire poor performers in any position. Just because the government and the cable company don’t fire mediocre people doesn’t mean you can’t.
Remember that your employees are smart; they know who the poor performers are. If you don’t remove them your whole operation will sink to their level.
Be merciful for one time stupidity by an employee.
Farmers never name their animals. You should know everyone’s name of course, but you are running a commercial enterprise, not a social club. Be tough, be calculating, keep improving the farm.
You will lose your job if your team does not perform; get rid of the weak ones now. You’re a winner; winners admire winners. Losers make fun of winners. It’s their nature to be pessimists, that’s why they are poor performers in the first place.
Special Situations
Should you ever become the new CEO brought in from the outside to an existing organization, you need to be hyper-sensitive to your position in the new company.
You have no doubt upset someone in the organization who has told their spouse that they were in line to be the next CEO. Somewhere in the process of your recruitment, that person was falsely encouraged by a board remember who, when cornered by the supplicant at the quarterly board meeting, was assured, “Yes, yes, of course you’re on the list.” The person will then go around to his peers in the company trying to solicit their support.
If you find yourself in this situation as the new CEO, get ready to act quickly and decisively. You must take control. Either the disgruntled employee will seek you out as a willing member of your team, or you must fire them immediately. If not, they will do anything to prove you were a hiring mistake.
This can happen as soon as the first day on the job, when the disgruntled officer comes in your new office to tell you that you are sitting behind the desk he was promised. Say goodbye to him, you don’t need any bigger signal.
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