Being the leader is great: creating and executing strategy, hitting targets, receiving accolades, and making bonuses makes it all seem worth it. But even when it is all going well, there will be some tough decisions to be made.  

 Usually, we associate making the tough calls to hire or fire, close departments, move production or close a line – and most often, when a business is struggling.  

However, the toughest calls come when a business is doing well or when a new hire is really good but does not fit or vice versa. 

Tough calls are easier when it’s not going well or someone is not showing up, as there is an easy justification. Tough calls are harder when you have been in the business for some time and have an affinity for what the business does, the market, the customers, and mostly, the employees.  

In Jim Collins’s Good to Great, Kimberly Clark’s CEO Darwin Smith created and executed a strategy to get out of paper manufacturing in favour of paper products. All the mills were sold, much to the chagrin of many outsiders and company die-hards. The decision, of course, was not arbitrary but professionally researched, thought out, and based on the long-term. They kept within the industry they knew (paper), rather than going in a completely different direction. 

Darwin Smith had been their in-house lawyer and so understood the history. All he did was apply great leadership, even in good times, and moved the business to a more lucrative position.

Having to remove people who just can’t do the job yet are nice, committed, and keen, is a tough call and takes tact and diplomacy and a streak of ruthlessness around performance: it’s not personal, it’s only business.

When the person involved has stolen from you or your business, or is rude and unproductive, it is easier to make those tough decisions to remove them, the law is on your side, so make the decision and move on even if it is painful at the time and might leave you short.

It is far easier to make tough calls if you are new to a business and have few attachments.  

Recently, we were asked to take over a group’s three dealerships that were not making money. The leader of the business had already been asked to leave after accusations from an employee found to be guilty of fraud. The whole business was a shambles. It was our job to seek out those who were responsible, find the evidence, and remove them.

Knowing that we followed the process, and knowing everything was done right gave us a sense of strength to keep going, With the support of the board we came through implementing better practices, increasing profits, and in turn, employing more people who were reliable and trustworthy. The business today is a happy, thriving environment of productivity and success.

In summary, making the tough calls is easy when you take out the emotion. Easy for me to say – right?!