I would LOVE to fire the bottom 10% of employees.  The poor performers.  The actively disengaged.  The useless few.

They complain, cry foul, put forth no effort and feel they are entitled to everything.

The problem is...I have no direct reports and just a little bit of influence.  So the actively disengaged employees are here to stay, and the rest of us have to figure out how to co-exist with these slackers.

On Tuesday, I spent some time with the College of Continuing Studies at the University of Alabama.  I was honored to be their keynote speaker for their team day.

One thing you may not know about speakers/facilitators/trainers is that we get most of our material from YOU!  Your stories, your events, and your sayings.

One of my new favorite sayings that I heard from a participant deals with the issues of employee engagement.  He obviously buys into the Jack Welch philosophy as he told me a great way to deal with poor performers is just to let them know the following:

"Get good or get gone!"

Simple...

Descriptive...

Forceful, but fair, and with built in options...

While this statement of leadership may not be your first choice with your poor performers, it may be where you end up towards the end.

Actively disengaged employees first need to be coached, given feedback, provided opportunities for change and so on.

But at the end of the day - if nothing else works - they may need to "get good or get gone."

Great leaders will make these tough decisions.  Get rid of the poor performers before they kill your organization.

Jack Welch also puts it like this: 

"Strong managers who make tough decisions to cut jobs provide the only true job security in today's world. Weak managers are the problem. Weak managers destroy jobs."

I couldn't agree more...