The best leaders take their time to hire new team members. They want to make sure they have the right candidate. One that won’t slow the rest of the team down. One that is not going to become a cancer inside the organization.
Occasionally though, we do hire a candidate that is truly not a fit with the business or the culture. They may have been the best interview ever and their CV was ridiculously qualified. Then, when they are on board, you start to notice little things. Like their personal values do not necessarily align with the organizations (actually not a little thing at all!)…
You notice the rest of the team is not as bouncy and energetic as they usually are. Other team members may not tell you that the ‘New Guy’ is sucking the energy out of everyone because you were so excited about the new candidate joining the team, but you get this sense… This ‘feeling’ that something is not right.
The U.S. based organization Netflix, has this to say about culture and team members fitting the culture…
“A great workplace is stunning colleagues. It is NOT espresso machines, lush benefits, sushi lunches and nice offices.” They go further to say that… “Anyone that does not live the values of the organization, does not fit the culture or is not a stunning colleague, they are given a generous severance package immediately.”
Netflix views themselves as a team and not a family. Like a pro sports team not a kid’s recreational team. They say their leaders hire, develop and cut smartly so that they have stars in every position. Netflix goes further to say, “‘Brilliant Jerks’ are too high of a cost to brilliant teamwork and those brilliant, high IQ, low EQ jerks are immediately given a generous severance package.”
I love it!
As a leader, you have a responsibility to develop great people and help your team members be as Netflix says: “Stunning Colleagues.” However, it is a limited time process. Like the sand in an hourglass, you have to make sure that the team member that is struggling to fit in has what it takes to fit in. They might be a potentially stunning colleague… at another company. And… you are actually doing them a huge favor by pushing them out the door.
Another client of mine is Repeat Diagnostics, a Vancouver based scientific analysis organization that has discovered a very innovative technology for analyzing blood born diseases. They say: “when a cell renews itself, it splits in two. The genes from the cell split as well and each strand becomes part of the new cell. When genes don’t match up properly, cancer develops.”
Remember, a weed in the garden will rapidly multiply and take over the entire garden choking out the good plants.
When you know you have given the team member that is not a fit, the opportunity to live the values, fit into the culture and the rest of the team, and they still don’t fit… then fire fast. The rest of your team can only go as fast as the slowest team member.
