为什么有些 CEO “不敢”解雇员工？
创业公司 CEO 们第一次决定要开人的时候，心里大多是拒绝的；第一百次开的时候，也还是会有些感触。近日天使投资机构Homebrew 合伙人 Hunter Walk 在其博文中分析了一些管理者心里抗拒解雇员工的原因。
公司的活儿太多了，这些人或多或少也做了一点
但是对于创业公司而言，少数“过分闲适”的人可能会为其他人带来更大的工作量来解决他们的问题。顾客、合伙人、投资人甚至招聘时参观的人接触到他们之后，都会对公司的印象减分，因为这些员工给他们带来的讯息是，在这里低产出的表现是完全可以接受的。
这些人很受欢迎，开了他们会对公司文化造成伤害
恰恰相反。事实是，团队中的其他人会意识到这些问题，进而对管理者的不作为产生质疑。每一天的拖延都是对团队本身的伤害。
这是我的错，好的 CEO 应该能够把他们培养成更好的员工
错，好的 CEO 应该把精力放在激励表现好的员工，以及为团队带来更多人才上面。你会想，是招聘时的一些失误造成了这样的结果吗？或许是，但在意识到这个问题时迅速决策还是会比拖延来得正确。
这会不会间接地告诉我的投资人，我们的招聘做得很烂
投资人最希望看到的是，保持每个员工都是高标准的。除非是要解雇一些重量级的人物，其他的不需要向投资人汇报，他们一定见过很多次这类事情。如果作为 CEO 每年给团队来一次大换血，可能确实是你的问题了；但一个从未开过人的创业公司，其实是非常罕见的，或者说多少存在一些问题。
我太忙了，为了慎重起见……
扔掉所有这些借口，这件事应该被列为最高优先级。解雇不合适的人，做到直接、迅速、公平，但这并不是针对那些犯了一次错误的人。重要的是在开人之前，确保管理者已经给员工足够多的反馈，给他们理解问题所在和改正的机会。
还有一点是读者在回复中提到的：
员工的人脉很广，我担心失去他我们就失去了一块阵地或销售额
而这一点被解读为，公司需要的是更多内部流程的优化。
Fire Faster: Five Excuses Startup CEOs Give For Not Getting Rid of Low Performers
Letting someone go from your company because they’re failing to meet your expectations is emotional. It’s emotional the first time you do it and it’s still emotional the 100th (I’ve personally had to do it ~10 times). But, and leaders often don’t realize this until they’ve gone through it, turning over low performers is absolutely the right thing to do and in most cases you should have done it faster to benefit both you and them. At startups in particular there are a consistent set of false rationales I hear from founders as to why they haven’t addressed a low performing team member. Here they are. Avoid them.
We’ve got so much to do and they’re contributing something
Yes, they might not be a total zero. It’s not like they come to work, put their feet on the desk and eat crackers for 10 hours, but their underperformance is still a net negative. It usually creates work for the rest of your team to assist or fix their issues. Customers, partners, investors, candidates – anyone who touches them comes away likely less impressed with your company. You’re setting a low bar for performance and communicating that it’s acceptable. You’ve filled a seat and using dollars plus equity for someone who isn’t going to create the environment for the magic that startups require to find escape velocity. You want a horse-sized duck at your startup, not 100 duck-sized horses (I think).
The team really likes them and I don’t want to risk our culture
No, you’re risking your culture by keeping them. Their teammates invariably know they’re an under-performer and wondering why you won’t address it. Each day you delay is both an opportunity for the contagion to spread or for your team to flee. And wondering why you’re having trouble closing new hires? Because they’re underwhelmed by the dude you should be firing.
It’s my fault and a better CEO would coach them up
No, good CEOs realize that action beats inaction in this situation. You should be spending time inspiring your highest performers and helping to bring more talent into the startup. Are there things you did incorrectly during the hiring or on-boarding process which contributed to this? Maybe, but distill those learnings from a post-mortem, don’t compound the errors by delaying. Longterm it’s actually more humane for the person to give them the feedback and let them move on into a new situation where they can succeed.
I’m so busy and want to do this right so….
Oh the excuses – waiting for the lawyers to get back to me about a separation agreement. It’s a bad week to do this because of XYZ blah blah blah. Seriously, treat this issue as your highest priority and close it out now. Direct. Quick. Fair. Do consult your counsel to make sure you’ve got the right docs and don’t say anything stupid. If the person was there for 10 months consider accelerating them to their one-year cliff or giving them 10 mths of stock. Don’t be emotional. Don’t be foolish. You want a clean break where no one speaks ill of each other.
Will send the wrong signal to my investors because means we made a bad hire
Nope, your investors like to see you holding everyone to a high standard. You can tell us after – don’t sweep it under the rug – but unless it’s someone who you previously identified as a big hire or being critical to the company, you don’t need to get approval or anything. That said, most investors have seen this happen lots of times so if you want advice, feel free to reach out. Now if you turnover the entire team annually, we might start thinking the problem is with you, but there’s always going to be some amount of unregretted attrition and we expect that. In fact, a startup gets to a certain scale without have turned anyone, that’s actually a rarity (and sometimes evidence of a problem).
But Remember, Don’t Fire Someone Just Because They Disappointed You Once
Unless someone has behaved unethically or otherwise misrepresented their skills, they should be given feedback regarding their underperformance plus the opportunity to articulate to you that they understand and can correct quickly.
本文编译自：hunterwalk.com
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