Toxicity From The Top Down: Why Your Organization Should Purge Often
Gary Vaynerchuck had a great video he shared on LinkedIn recently about firing toxic employees. In true GaryVee fashion, he raises excellent points in a short amount of time. I’ll let you watch the video — However, that’s just the start of the broader conversation regarding managing your organization’s human capital. Let’s dive deeper on why firing people is the best thing you can do.
“Hiring is guessing. Firing is knowing.” - Gary Vaynerchuck
People are the number one asset to any organization at any size. In fact business itself is uniquely human practice. We create organizations to serve the needs of people around the world. Regardless of how advanced your company is technologically, there will always be a human element involved. Bearing that in mind, keeping the right talent is instrumental to your success. Just as important however is purging.
There’s an old adage in business “slow to hire, fast to fire.” For most managers hiring is one of the more stressful experiences. There’s a lot of unknown variables, ergo risk, for bringing on new talent. Add to that the fact that you likely won’t know if this person will fully work out until you’ve spent thousands of dollars, and on the surface this seems like an expensive process. However, nothing will be more expensive than having toxic people in your company.
Your company’s culture is quintessential for retaining talent. Think of culture like your organization’s watering hole — everyone drinks from the same water. Having toxic team member poisons the waterhole will have larger and longer lasting consequences on your organization. While HR laws are different in every state and country, you should always be ready to recognize disease spreading in your company and have a standing policy to remove it as soon as possible. It doesn’t matter how much money that person is bringing in, turning your company into a revolving door for talent hemorrhages productivity. The longer your retain knowledgeable, hard working employees that are a good culture fit, the less money you have to invest in solving problems. Having an experienced staff makes troubleshooting products and service issues far more efficient than doing the same work with new or inexperienced team members.
What if your toxic problem is in leadership or management? As an employee, you’re limited to submitting information to decision makers, and hope the problem gets resolved. However, if you’re a board member, it’s worth taking an objective stock of the company’s view of their management and leadership. Founders and executives should be equally subject to this theory. Although much harder to remove, having a bad egg(s) at the top, can set the course for failures at all levels. A great and recent case study of this is the story of Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos. Startups should be exceptionally cautious about who is on their board as well. While it’s easy to take capital and worry about the ramifications later, a toxic board can eat away at a company just as much as anyone else. At the end of the day, poor leadership can choke innovation, stagnate growth, and pollute culture faster and easier than any one employee.
Simply put: If you’re not evaluating human capital and the effects it has on your organization’s ability to problem solve, grow, and maintain a healthy culture, you’ve got a bill coming. Just hope that problem isn’t expensive enough to bankrupt your company!
Do you need help with managing human capital? Drop me a line and let’s chat about overcoming your organization’s challenges!
