Why Donald Trump is wrong

Written on April 22, 2010 – 8:49 pm | by Michael Harris

As the latest season of Celebrity Apprentice is progressing on NBC, the catch phrase “You’re Fired” being spoken by Donald Trump has been echoing from plasma screen televisions across the country.

I won’t deny it, I’ve been known to practice my Trump impersonation in the mirror a few times.

My version of “You’re Fired” accented with my hand movements might not be worth repeating, but I thank God every time I do that the little hair I have left on my head still looks better than Trump’s.

I have a theory. It’s not one that I’ve always lived by, even since I began developing it over 10 years ago. But, I think there is merit to it and want to offer it up as a point of discussion.

My theory is this, “There is never a legitimate reason to fire anyone.”

Before you scroll down to add your comment telling me what an idiot I am, let me explain this a little more.

I’ve had employees I’ve fired before, and employees I’ve wanted to fire, but didn’t. I’ve had employees steal from the company. I’ve caught employees asleep on the job, and I’ve seen employees treat customers horribly. My personal pet peeve is the incompetent employee that has to be told repeatedly to do something that is second nature to me. I still maintain that there is never a legitimate reason for anyone to ever fire an employee.

This may require a shift in the way you look at the world, so expand your mind a little for a moment.

My theory is based on two thoughts. First is that half of the responsibility for the employee comes from the one making the hiring decision. Therefore, if you are diligent and effective if your pre-employment hiring practices, you will be able to avoid half of the reasons you’ll use later for firing an employee.

For example, and I’ll use examples that typically get employees fired to make the illustration clearer, if an employee treats a customer poorly, it’s because you didn’t do enough in the interview process to uncover that the employee has poor communication skills, or has a tendency to lose their temper, not follow through, or whatever the case might be. Similarly, if an employee steals from your company, you weren’t thorough enough to find out they have a history of this kind of action. Perhaps you didn’t learn that their personal financial situation is such that they would have a tendency to steal and try to justify it with their lack of finances.

The second thought that I base this theory on is that if you correctly manage the employee, you will be able to avoid the other half of the reasons you will use for firing an employee.

If that employee treats a customer poorly, and you have discovered in the interview process that their communication skills are stellar and they never lose their temper, then you have failed at correctly training, motivating and/or engaging the employee. It is the same for the employee who steals from you.

As you take off your hiring hat and put on your management hat, you have to make sure you constantly engage your employees, keeping them happy with their job. If you allow them to become complacent, which leads to frustration, which leads to actions employees typically get fired over, then you have not done everything to prevent the employee from straying.

In his book, Good to Great, Jim Collins [ http://www.jimcollins.com ]explains that one of the attributes of a great company is “Level 5 leadership”. These leaders have a personal behavioral pattern he calls “the window and the mirror”. Based on his research, Level 5 leaders looked out of the window to credit others for success and looked in the mirror to take responsibility when things don’t go well. Conversely, charismatic leaders from companies that didn’t make the grade as “Great” had a tendency to look through the window to blame other factors for their lack of success, and looked in the mirror to take credit when things went well.

This window and mirror illustration is the essence of my theory. As small business owners, the tendency can be to quickly place the blame on the employee, claiming they just couldn’t keep up with our fast paced environment, or that their personality just wasn’t a fit. As a result, the employee is dismissed because the expense of retraining them or the time involved in mentoring them just isn’t possible. This is looking out the window, placing the blame on someone other than you.

Looking in the mirror, you have to ask yourself questions like, “What did I do wrong to lead the company to this place? Could I have done more? What could I have done to make sure this was prevented?”

I hope you understand that this is somewhat of a euphoric theory. It is practiced without flaw in a vacuum, but not so well in real life. I understand no one is perfect, but holding yourself to a perfect standard isn’t a bad thing. It’s a kind of “shoot for the stars and if you miss you might still get the moon” kind of thought process.

It’s just a theory, and I don’t know that I can’t ever prove it as fact. I’d love to hear if you agree or disagree. Just be aware that if you don’t agree… “You’re Fired!”

Perfect Business!