Your Company Has These Employees. Your Job Is To Remove Them ASAP...
August 31, 2015
Let's face it - we spend a lot of time talking about employees from a "top talent" perspective. Who is top talent? Can we fill a team with all "A" players? (The answer is no, btw...) How can we attract or develop a larger share of top talent than we currently have? What's the definition of top talent?
Lots of unknowns. Makes you want something you can know for sure, right? I've got one for you - here it is...
You have some employees in your company that don't belong in the role they're in. If you don't remove them before their incompetence strikes, they're going to hurt you in a big way.
Your job is to find them and get them out before they cause you great pain.
Here's a visual of what those employees look like when they strike (email subscribers click through for photo and video):
Here's the newswire caption: For elite Jamaican runner Usain Bolt, Thursday's 200-meter sprint was like many other races he's won — until a mobile cameraman lost control of his Segway and took the world's fastest man down from behind. Bolt, who had been waving to the crowd, collapsed in a heap. He had been walking barefoot on the track.
All you have to do is look at the picture. Bolt is whoever you value in your role with the company - could be your customers, could be a VIP within your own company that you need to take care of. The cameraman? Well, he's the guy that's landed in the role where his judgment is going to write a check that you can't afford. There's a big screw up out there waiting on this guy. It doesn't happen to all people, just folks like this guy.
Maybe you look at this picture and say, "it's the guy who greenlighted the segway with a camera that I have to remove." Fair enough. Or maybe this guy came up with the idea.
The point is that part of your role is to find the dramatically incompetent and get them out. Out of that role or if the incompetence is broad, out of your company.
No apologies. No whining. They have to go. You're the predator on the ridge looking down on the weak one. Go get them. It's the circle of life.
Below is a Vine with the video footage. Never apologize for finding this guy and taking action before your company's version of this happens...