Seeing Clearly & Feeling Deeply

“Letting people go [is] the toughest thing you ever do in life. I try to tell people who are learning to do it that we're all going to be faced with it inevitably. Often it's because the business outgrows an employee, or their personal situation changes and makes them less motivated. You can justify why someone who's not performing ought to be moving on, that it's better for them. But more importantly, if you don't eliminate that one person, nine others will suffer... So you have to let them go without destroying their ego, but by actually telling them some of the reasons this is not working out, and try to help them financially as best you can.”

(James Hackett, CEO of Anadarko Petroleum, in “'Too Nice To Get Ahead'?; The CEO of Anadarko Petroleum proves otherwise.” by Richard M Smith. Newsweek: March 24, 2008. Vol. 151, Iss. 12)