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Concept

Letting someone go

Letting someone go begins long before the exit: when someone is not working out, the kind response is a clear, early, written conversation about what must change by when and how you will help, and if nothing changes, a prompt and respectful departure rather than a slow one.

It is the conversation every new manager delays, and the delay is the ruinous-empathy instinct at its most expensive. Another quarter of hope costs the person months in a role where they are failing, costs the team who cover for them and notice the manager doing nothing, and makes the eventual conversation harder because it is now late and surprising. The sequence is early and clear. First the direct conversation: this is what is not working, this is what would have to be different by when, and this is how I will help, written down so nobody is surprised later. Then real help for a fixed period with honest check-ins. And if nothing changes, the exit, handled with the same care as everything else, privately, promptly, with respect for the person's dignity and a clear account of the practical steps. Scott's rule is that it should never be a surprise; if the earlier feedback was given, it never is.

A real-life example

Kerem has a well-liked salesperson four quarters below target whose accounts the team quietly absorbs. He puts the numbers on the table, agrees what must change in eight weeks, checks in weekly and helps. At week eight nothing has moved. The exit takes a day, with a reference and notice, and two colleagues tell him separately they had waited a year for it.

How to use it

  1. 1Say it clearly and early, in writing: what is not working, what must change by when, how you will help.
  2. 2Give real help for a fixed period with honest check-ins.
  3. 3If it does not change, act promptly and with dignity; the slow exit is the unkind one.