EntreLeadership: 20 Years of Practical Business Wisdom from the Trenches by Ramsey Dave

Author:Ramsey, Dave [Ramsey, Dave]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Howard Books
Published: 2011-09-19T16:00:00+00:00

3. Failure Caused by Incompetence

If the team member isn’t failing because of a leadership breakdown or a personal problem, then it is usually some kind of incompetence. Keep in mind incompetence isn’t evil; we are all incompetent at something. Quantify the incompetence.

Many times you can pay for some training and/or mentor someone through a rough spot to get them to where they are able to perform. Sometimes, though, the incompetence is a character or a behavior issue. Is there an integrity problem, or are they stealing? In those cases nothing can be done and you should release them immediately. If they have other behavior issues, that is a type of incompetence and you may be able to train them in how to act.

As a hard-charging guy I used to have a tendency to think anyone who wasn’t moving at the speed of Dave was lazy. I have discovered, as my leadership ability increased, that a lot of people I thought were lazy really weren’t, they just didn’t have clear direction. So check first to make sure someone you think is lazy is being led well. But sometimes you will actually encounter someone who is just full-on hound-dog lazy. There is no cure for these folks; just release them as quickly as you can.

The most frustrating type of incompetence I have dealt with is the person who gets their work done but never quite rings the excellence bell, and you come to realize they never will. There are some positions where you can tolerate that, but in a small business there really isn’t any margin for that kind of behavior. I had a man who had been with us for about three years and he could just never get there. Any team that had to work with him would come away frustrated and there was always finger-pointing in all directions. His leader recommended several times that we release him but I wouldn’t because I couldn’t put my finger on an exact behavior that we could demand change for. I like clarity and I always want to give someone clear direction for the change required if they want to stay on the team.

Jim Collins got this guy fired. Jim wrote the book Good to Great. In his chapter about getting the right people on the bus he makes a statement that I have used in finance for years. Jim said to ask yourself this about a problem team member: if you hadn’t hired them yet, would you hire them again? My answer was a quick no, so the next morning we worked up a generous severance package and my really nice but incompetent guy was released. If I would never hire that guy again in a million years, why was I keeping him? I promise you the air in the building changed the next day. It was as if the whole organization had a splinter removed.

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