How hard would you fight to keep them

A CEO I work with called me the other day and said that her VP of Marketing had just quit. But it wasn't a problem, because she realized, this person wasn't the best fit anyway, she was probably better off, going out and finding a new VP of marketing, and therefore this was probably a blessing.

And I won't argue that may have been true.

But it really got me thinking about how often as business owners, as leaders, we sub-optimize our teams, by keeping people who aren't the right fit, because they're good enough. And we lose the ability to have a great team, because we've got a serviceable team.

I was reading a wonderful book a few months ago, that was recommended to me by a client called "no rules, rules". And it's a book by Reed Hastings, the CEO, I guess, now former CEO of Netflix, and as a lot I love about the book.

But one of the things I love in particular, is this question that he asks his leaders, about those folks on their teams? And the question he asked is not, you know, how would you rate their performance on a scale of 1 to 10, or anything like that?

He says, if they came in tomorrow, and said that they got a better offer from a competing organization. How hard would you fight to keep them?

And I love that question.

How hard would you fight to keep them?

And if the answer is, I would do everything I can to scratch and claw and fight to keep them? Then do that now, before they get that other offer. Because if they're that good, they will be getting another offer.

What do you need to do?
Do you need to give them more responsibility?
Do you need to give them recognition?
A pat on the back more money, a promotion?
What do you need to do to re recruit them now?

But on the other hand, as would have been the case with this CEO that I was talking to. If the answer is well, if they came in tomorrow and said they got a better offer from a competing organization. You know what, I probably wish them luck. Because we could probably find someone better anyway, I'm not sure how hard I would fight to keep them.

Well, according to Reed, give them a generous, generous severance package now and send them on their way. And that's tough. I mean, it sounds brutal. You're taking someone who might be doing a good job, but not so good that you'd fight to keep them, and you're sending them on their way.

That's hard to do.

That's hard to do, because we're human beings, and we don't want to fire someone that's doing a good job. It's also hard to do selfishly because that means we've got to work our butts off to find someone new. And in the meantime, we might need to take on some of their job responsibilities.

So I know it's not easy, but I want to challenge you with that question. Think of the people who work for you. And if they came in tomorrow morning, and said I got a better job offer at Company X. How hard would you fight to keep them?