Firing someone - the hard task of leadership

Published Thu, Jun 18, 2020 · 09:50 PM

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.

Today, most of my clients are faced with the reality that revenue numbers have shrunk and continue to do so, so cutting down costs of operation has become a necessity that cannot be avoided. People costs particularly in some businesses can be a major part of operation cost, and so people will have to be let go.…