Firing someone - the hard task of leadership

MANY years ago, as a young executive on my first overseas assignment, I had the good luck to observe Mohan Vaswani, chairman of the Singapore-based Tolaram group, fire a senior leader for lack of performance.

It was an amazing exercise in self-restraint, great calmness and compassion, combined with great wisdom to do what was in the best interest of the business, and actually had the person thanking him at the end.

I learned a great deal that day, and it has stayed with me through the 40-plus years of my career. As a leadership coach, I have also shared the process with various colleagues and clients, who all have had at some time or other to perform the unfortunate task of letting someone go.