People matter the most and have the greatest impact on the organizational success and failure. It is (or should be) clear to all leaders that their primary focus needs to be on attracting and retaining top talent and that this should come ahead of policies, processes and technology which are also of great importance.
However, at times, we will make a bad hiring decision or it was made before we arrived and are now at a point of no return. Point of no return means you have tried everything you can think of to motivate the employee(s) in question, you have talked with them, you have made changes on your end, you have provided training and yet months later there is still no progress, none. At this point in time, the writing is on the wall and it is clear that that employee is better suited elsewhere, but the approach on how to help them move on varies. There are generally two schools of thought, one which says that they should be asked to leave (with their dignity intact) and the other is this longer (and in my opinion) much weaker approach of making their time with the firm so challenging that they quit on their own.
What are your thoughts, do you end relationships which aren’t mutually beneficial or do you let them fester for months?