Hiring and Firing in a Landscape Lighting Business

Of everything Pat and I have done in our landscape lighting business, letting people go has been one of the hardest. It's among the most uncomfortable responsibilities of leadership, and one many owners struggle with. Since 2014, more than a decade now, our approach has been shaped by training through Infusionsoft's (now Keap) Elite Forum.

That training taught us to build our purpose and core values into every part of the business, including who we let go and how. Firing gets clearer once your purpose and values are defined. (If you haven't defined yours, start with Our Purpose.) In her webinar "Firing for the Vision," Cindy Eagar lays out how to set employees up for success and how to know when it's time to part ways.

Set expectations up front

Employees should know from day one what success looks like. Cindy defines performance as "results plus values." When you lay out expectations and core values clearly, your team knows how to excel, and you know how to coach them and hold them accountable.

Coach appropriately

Performance falls along what Cindy calls the "performance continuum," and coaching should match where someone sits on it. A team member having an off week needs different coaching than one who has underperformed for a month.

Fire respectfully

If an employee still falls short after coaching and time to improve, it's time to let them go. The conversation doesn't need to be long. Cindy says it can be done in three sentences: "As you know, we've had conversations about your performance. We have not seen the progress needed for success in this role. Therefore, we have decided to terminate your employment, effective immediately."

Communicate with the team

Tell the rest of the team as soon as possible. Be straightforward: you coached the person, and expectations weren't met. That shows everyone you'll invest in their success right up to the end.

What if you're a small business?

When one person is 25% of your workforce, the decision is especially hard. You worry about covering their work and finding a replacement. We've been there. But the extra effort after a hard decision pays off. The short-term pain is real, and the long-term result is a stronger company.

Hiring A Players: the Who method

The best way to avoid hard firing decisions is to hire well in the first place. We use the approach from Geoff Smart and Randy Street's book Who: The A Method for Hiring. An A Player is someone with at least a 90% chance of achieving the results only the top 10% of candidates could achieve. The method has four steps, and skipping any of them is how you end up "voodoo hiring" on gut feel.

1. Scorecard. Before you post a job, write down what success looks like. The mission is one to three sentences on why the role exists. The outcomes are three to eight results with numbers and dates, like "complete 25 installs per month with zero callbacks by June 30." The competencies are the behaviors and core values the person needs to deliver those outcomes. If you can't write the scorecard, you're not ready to hire.

2. Source. Your best candidates come from referrals: your team, clients, vendors and other contractors. Ask everyone, "Who are the most talented people you know?" Keep a running list, even when you're not hiring. Job boards come last.

3. Select. Use structured interviews, not casual chats. Start with a short phone screening interview: What are your career goals? What are you really good at? What are you not good at or not interested in? Who were your last five bosses, and how would they rate you on a scale of 1 to 10? Then run the Who interview, a Topgrading-style walk through every job: what they were hired to do, their proudest accomplishments, low points, who they worked with and why they left. Keep asking "What? How? Tell me more." Follow with focused interviews on specific outcomes and reference interviews with past bosses the candidate sets up. Grade each candidate against the scorecard and hire only A Players.

4. Sell. A Players have options, so sell them on the job: fit with their goals, the impact on their family, the freedom they'll have, the fortune (pay and stability) and the fun of working with your team. Keep selling through the offer and their first 100 days.

For the full method, watch Geoff Smart's two-hour keynote on hiring, and find more on his YouTube channel.

Making the right hiring and firing decisions has made us a stronger company. Meet the Sterling team.

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About the author: Damien Sanchez is co-founder and COO of Sterling Lighting and an experienced lighting designer, trained under Patrick Harders, LC, since 2006. He's also an entrepreneur who owns a service-based business.