In a famous scene from the 2009 movie “Up in the air” the protagonist, corporate downsizer Ryan Bingham, played by George Clooney, counsels the person being fired with the famous line “How much did they pay you to give up your dreams?”

I am not going to attempt to sell you your dreams but there is a point to the counseling indulged in this scene from the movie. Anyone who has ever been fired or has fired someone can easily relate to the feeling.

In a recent conversation with a CEO, he shared that his biggest fear, quite naturally, is getting fired from his job. But then proceeded to add that he has even worse feelings when he himself has to perform the act of firing an employee.

If you’re a leader, few things can ruin your day (or month or year) more than needing to fire someone. It’s just plain hard to do, even when you know it’s the right decision and it’s not personal, it’s business.

And at senior management levels, the reason for getting fired could just be for having different views about the business. If you have climbed the greasy pole without ever being fired for holding on to your convictions and having a difference of opinion with your bosses, your personal growth is still a work in process.

But that could be a topic for another piece. This one is about the right way of firing an employee and managing exits from your organization.

It is not easy to write or talk about it because it has a huge impact, especially in our culture, we tend to think of being let go as a near-death experience and, quite wrongly, treat it the same way.

In the capitalist world that we have chosen to be part of, being asked to leave is as normal as being asked to join an organization.

On the other hand, the........

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