One Reason Why You Should Fire A Staff Member

I’m writing this blog to respond to a great question that one of my readers asked after reading a previous post. You can see the previous post here.

Hello Wisdom,
I’m glad that my writing is helping you serve kids in your village! The question you’ve asked is a good one. To be brief, I would advise you to work on redirecting the staff member to focus on the calling you should both have. Focus on creating a calling-driven environment. If you are the leader, I recommend that you model living on purpose daily. In addition to that,  teach your people about the mission you are serving. Experts recommend doing this on a monthly basis. If you don’t have a good vision, pray and develop one and cast it frequently. I encourage you to read my article called “How to get your people to work the way you like.”

That article will give you some advice on how to approach staff members who are underperforming. If you try to get him back on track and it doesn’t work, then you will need to fire him. Firing him will be the best thing you can do for him, for the cause you serve, for all the other stakeholders,  for the children, and for yourself. When you fire someone who is either not called to a particular area or is not willing to do what it takes, it gives him the opportunity to step back and make adjustments when the reality sets in that they are fired.

Ministry is like going to war. The only people you should go to war with are those who are willing to fight and die with you. You don’t want people who are fighting for money. You want people who believe the cause. You need to be working with shepherds, not hired hands.

Jesus Christ made a statement that is worth citing here:

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired man, since he is not the shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep, leaves them and runs away when he sees a wolf coming. The wolf then snatches and scatters them. This happens because he is a hired man and doesn’t care about the sheep. “I am the good shepherd. I know My own sheep, and they know Me, as the Father knows Me, and I know the Father. I lay down My life for the sheep.” Jesus Christ, in John 10:11-15 HCSB

I like the way the Message Bible renders the same passage.

 “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd puts the sheep before himself, sacrifices himself if necessary. A hired man is not a real shepherd. The sheep mean nothing to him. He sees a wolf come and runs for it, leaving the sheep to be ravaged and scattered by the wolf. He’s only in it for the money. The sheep don’t matter to him. I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own sheep and my own sheep know me. In the same way, the Father knows me and I know the Father. I put the sheep before myself, sacrificing myself if necessary.”

Is your staff member a shepherd or a hired man? Does he lay his life down for the sheep? You don’t want hired men. You want shepherds who have a feeling of ownership, responsibility, and commitment. You want shepherds who know that they are going to be held accountable for how they treat the sheep. You want people who are called, who are true team members. I refer you to read my article: The Indispensable Qualities of an Effective Team Player. That should help you know what a good team member looks like.

I encourage you to start preventing poor staff performance right from the beginning by having a rigorous hiring strategy that screens out people who are not called and ready to commit to your organization. It’s better to have no staff than to have the wrong staff.

When you sign up for our servantsuniversity.com blog, you will receive my free ebook, “The Effective Hiring Strategy.” It is an almost 6,000-word ebook that I wrote for our staff at Shaping Destiny to use for effective hiring. I am giving it free of charge to people who subscribe to the blog to receive articles that will help them pursue an accomplished life!

To end, one good reason to fire a staff member is if “she cares for nothing but the salary she receives.”