Knowing if you have a problem is easy, you can just ask yourself the following two questions, which come from my favourite leadership book, Good to Great.

If they quit would you be upset, if they were available would you re-hire them?

If the answer to those two questions is no. Then you have a problem.

But knowing when it’s time to let that problem go is a different issue.

For some of us, especially those like me who are problem solvers, we can end up spending too much time trying to fix the unfixable. Others can be too quick to fire, and we end up, potentially, losing good resources which we could have turned around.

Here are three signs that tell me when it’s time to consider letting people go.

#1 They continually refuse to see that they are the problem and are reluctant to change.

Having difficult conversations is all part of being a manager/leader and we need to do as much listening as talking when we have this conversation. But if the person we are dealing with just refuses to listen themselves or just looks to blame everyone else for the issues, then there is a good chance that they are not going to try even and improve.

Many of us will have worked in companies where didn’t agree 100% with the companies strategy, but at some point, especially after we have had our chance to give input, we just need to agree to disagree but get on with doing our jobs professionally. If people can’t do that, and want to be actively disruptive, then it’s time to considering letting them go.

#2 Their negative impact is bigger than the benefit of having them on the team.

One of the phrases I learnt while living in America is addition through subtraction. This is the notion that team performances will improve even when the team is playing with a player short. This is because of the negative impact of that one player on all other players. In one company where I was the manager, we had a team member who was great at doing their job, highly efficient. Their role was not only crucial but it was one that impacted many other people, and their negativity started to impact the performance of others.

It was a tough decision to let that person go, because of their expertise, but they had created a toxic environment which was impacting the work of others.

#3 They start to impact your credibility as a leader.

It’s ok to have open discussions but when people are constantly questioning the leaders decisions, or making comments that undermine the leader, then it’s time to take action. It can be easy just to ignore these comments or challenges, but other people see these things, and it can cause them to start either questioning your leadership or asking why you are not doing anything about it when it happens repeatedly.

In my career I haven’t had to let too many people go, most have come around through conversation or coaching.

However, when people insist on being a problem, start to create a toxic environment that impacts the performance of others and they start to challenge your leadership, then maybe it’s time to look to alternative solutions.

This article first appeared in Huffington Post 27 April 2016.

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But what happens when we lack confidence in ourselves? That can make it very difficult for us to project the kind of image that will generate confidence in others.

Here are 7 tips on How to Look Confident Even When You’re Not.

Thanks to NeoMam Studies for suggesting the Infographic from VegasExtremeSkydiving and you can find the original here.

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I was inspired to make this video after the sad news of the death of Muhammad Ali, who for me was one of the most inspiring leaders and inspirational people of the 20th/21st century.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4syq4UWf0o

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Two voices they need to get past, one internal and one (or possibly more) external.

The internal voice is the doubts we raise about our abilities and the possibility of us being successful. We can never outperform our self-perception The limiting thoughts we have about our capabilities, become real limits that are difficult to pass beyond.

We need to work to create new beliefs, a new self-perception, one which shows us being successful and achieving our goal. Without this it’s more than likely that we will not even attempt to achieve our goal.

Once we have gotten past our doubts, the next challenge is to get past the doubting voices of others. These could be friends, family or even our partners, but we need to remember that their doubts say more about themselves than they do about us. It could be that they believe they couldn’t do it, so for sure we couldn’t do it.

Or it could be that they feel that if we succeed it will make them feel bad about their own performance and so they try and know the wind out of our sails. If we don’t try, we can all remain happy under performers together.

We need to banish these naysayers, understand that the limitations they speak of as things that apply to them and not to us.

We should look to surround ourselves with positive people, people who believe in us, people who can lift our spirits when we are down, help us up when we stumble and encourage us to keep going.

We can all achieve so much more than we believe, and that is true of others too, and we should look to be that positive voice for them, as well as trying to find our positive voices. Be the tide that raises all ships.

Much of what holds us back is just imagined, they’re not real limitations, but unless we can fight past these doubts, they will stop us from even trying.

Success comes to those who can banish the doubts and strike out toward their goals.

It’s not always possible and certainly not easy to do this on your own, and good coaching and mentoring can really help.

To us our doubts seem very, very real, but with the right person at our side we can soon brush them aside and look to achieve our full potential.

If you need help to banish your doubts and create plans as to how you  can reach your goals click here to Request a FREE VOUCHER worth US$ 200 for 30-minute strategy session to see how my team of Leadership Experts can help you! 

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This is an interesting dilemma, as we need different skills and to take actions actions for all three groups. What makes us a successful leader with our followers isn’t always guaranteed to make us a successful with our peers and bosses.

It’s true that such things as honesty and integrity should be appreciated by all, but not true that everything we do will be appreciated by all.

For example, taking a stand against something, this could be against the view of our boss, and whilst this may be popular with our teams, it’s unlikely to be popular with our boss, or our boss’s boss. Or if we take a stand and look to implement an unpopular decision from the company whilst this will make us popular with our boss it is unlikely that we will be popular with our teams.

It’s a truism that we can’t please all of the people all of the time, we can only please some of them some of the time.

Which means at times we need to choose who to please. If we have strong integrity, then we will probably focus on  trying to do the right thing, but the right thing for whom.

This can be a difficult balancing act, as we could end up losing the support of either our peers, our bosses or our teams, non of which is good for long term success.

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