Page 149 - Executive Warfare

The Team You Assemble

Sometimes you will just get lucky. I’ve had problem people a few
times—people who were just a pain but who didn’t quite deserve to be
fired. I wouldn’t offer to trade them, but if someone came to me and said,
“Gee, I could really use Ed in my area,” that was another story. I’d say
coolly, “I don’t know if I can give him up.” Meanwhile, my heart would
have leapt out of my chest in the hopes
that I really did hear what I’d just heard.
At these group trading events, it’s IF SOMEBODY
generally only the second-tier talent that INTERESTS YOU,
is exchanged, the minor leaguers who READ THE
can be spared. But there are times when EMPLOYEE’S
the CEO will knock on your door and PERSONNEL FILES.
personally ask for somebody who is THE TRUTH LIES
really important to your success. In such THERE.
a case, you may have to be willing to
give the person up. You cannot always say “No” to the CEO or president
and still appear to have the organization’s best interests at heart.
Then, when the valued employee comes to you and asks what you think
of the move, you should give him your honest assessment of it. I can
remember saying to one guy, “Look, I think you’re going to be working
for a jerk who is not going to be helpful to you. If you stay, I’ll let you out
of here in a year or two, and then I guarantee that you’ll go to a better boss
than the one you’d get now.”
Then it’s up to the employee whether to stay or go.

FIRE GRACEFULLY
You will make personnel mistakes. The trick is not making too many and
not failing to resolve the problem promptly when you know somebody
has to go.
When I was a child, I’d often go with my grandfather and father to a
meat-packing operation where they would pick up meat for our family

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