So often I hear business owners refer to their employees as family. “We are family here,” they tell me with an air of pride. The implication, of course, is that having a team that feels like family is a sign of a successful, well-functioning company.
While I appreciate the sentiment, the reality is that your business is not your family. Sure, you might have family members in your business, but the business itself — and the people who are in it — are not your family. Your family is your family. Your coworkers are your community.
You may love your employees. That’s great! The world needs more work environments that are operated in an atmosphere of respect, kindness and dignity. But when difficult business decisions have to be made — and they always do — calling employees your family can cloud judgment and lead to poor outcomes for everyone involved.
I’ve witnessed this several times. Business owners wanted to avoid hurting their employees’ feelings, and since many of us aren’t as skilled in the area of difficult conversations as we’d like to be, they chose to sweep the issue under the rug rather than deal with it head on — a decision that inevitably ended up hurting everyone in the end: the owner, who chose to simply bury and “live with” the frustration; the employee, who wasn’t given an honest, fair opportunity for growth and improvement; and the company, which is only as strong as its weakest employee.
In an operational setting, this issue surfaces when you have the wrong person in the right seat. If the mentality is that the business is a family, owners are often unable or unwilling to have the difficult conversations that are sometimes necessary to getting the right person in the right seat — a crucial component of long-term business growth and success.
I encourage you as the business owner to be mindful of the fact that because you bear the burden of the company’s performance, you get to make the decisions regarding who stays and who goes. It’s that simple. It’s not always fun, and it’s certainly not easy, but it’s part of your job and what you signed up for. You can love your employees and let them go if the situation demands it. In fact, I would argue that doing so is the more loving choice than allowing them to continue to struggle in an environment where success doesn’t seem likely.
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