After you fire someone, you assume the worst is over.
The good news – it probably is.
However you still need to communicate to your remaining team members.
When you let someone go, it’s super important to immediately communicate to the rest of the team and those who will be impacted. Do not wait. If someone is not in that day from the team, or if they are out in the field, make sure to call them. This is part of why we recommend setting aside at least a couple of work hours after you let someone go to communicate with your team.
Here’s five steps/talking points to authentically make your own to support you in communicating to your team when you're letting someone go:
1. Be clear and direct. "We let X go today." (Pause and make eye contact with each individual.)
2. Demonstrate empathy. "This may come as somewhat of a surprise. I know several of you are very close to X and this is especially tough news for you. These are never easy decisions. And I can tell you this was not a rash decision, rather it was a thoughtful one considered over a period of time."
3. Honor privacy and speak to what you can. "As you know, for confidentiality reasons and in honoring this individual's privacy, I will not give specifics as to why. What I can tell you is that it was no longer a good fit." (*Excellent if you can add what it wasn’t about – example - “I can also tell you it wasn’t about his/her performance or competency that led to this decision” or “I can also tell you it wasn’t a financial decision.”)
4. Share what’s next. Some of you may be wondering what this means for the team – what this means is XYZ. (For example – who’s covering the work of the person who just left or is there an intention to hire a replacement - if so what's the timeline.)
5. Reassure, empathize and bring together. "Please know, no one here needs to fear for their job. If you haven't heard from me otherwise, all of you meet the character expectations of this organization as well as the competency expectations of your role - which is no small feat since we have high expectations. For those of you who were close to this team member, I understand if you need to take a moment to be with this news. Please do what you need to do to support yourself at this time - and of course, feel free to reach out to me directly. Also know I will look for us to pull together as a team during this time of transition."
Sending you goodness for communicating in a way that supports your team through this (often times difficult) transition.
