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Just to add to the discussion, Guy Kawasaki's got a good post on firing people:

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/07/the_art_of_firi.html

opinions?

Mark's picture
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Yes, it's good! It's nice to be agreed with, and to hear the "it's okay to fire, but one must do it humanely" refrain.

Mark

gtfenton1's picture
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Mark and Mike,

I wondered if any thoughts had arisen in reponse to "How to Resign" in the area of a manager's response. A colleague of mine resigned two weeks ago from his role, tried to contact his manager on a few occasions (she was on vacation and then at a client), but has yet to hear back.

My initial repsonse was to say "that confirms your decision to leave", but I now feel that indicates a systemic problem, not to mention poor manners and leadership skills. I wonder if this happens with more regularity than one would assume.

Take care,

Greg

Mark's picture
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Greg-

It's pretty rare, but it's so unusual everybody talks about every instance and people think it happens more often than it does.

If you leave a voicemail asking your boss to call you and she doesn't, and then you call and say you "need" to talk about something "very important" and she doesn't, on the third message, 5 days after the first, resign to the voicemail.

Do NOT send email. If something crazy happens, no sense putting something in writing so early.

Mark

gtfenton1's picture
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Sorry Mark - I did not ask this question correctly. The person did resign. His manager was on vacatin at the time, so he spoke directly with the next level manager. An appropriate step. What is interesting is that his direct manager has not "acknowledged" the resignation or returned any calls. Just an interesting situation...

cincibuckeyenut's picture

When it comes to the resigning podcast, I found it very interesting and useful for the prep steps. Not because I am resigning, but because I am looking to move into a new role in my current organization and I want to make sure that the person follows me is set up for success. Those preparation steps laid out everything I need to put into place for the next person in an ideal fashion.

Thanks for the great content as usual.

Afro Boy's picture

[b]cincibuckeyenut:[/b] What an awesome idea and congrats on the promotion.

I never thought of using that process for moving into a new position.

Not only will you be looked on positively for it, it will set the bar for the new manager. Good for your previous staff, the new manager and the organisation.

Cheers,
Af.

abaler's picture

I'd like to give some feedback on how useful (and timely!) I found these 3 podcasts.

I was a VP at a consumer products company and had been with the company for 10 years, so my resignation skills were very rusty. A terrific opportunity came along and I decided it was time for me to move on. Just as the negotiations were heating up, Mark and Mike started to release the 3-part podcast. Excellent timing!

I implemented their preparation advice and put in 10 days of dilligent pre-work (writing performance reviews for each of my direct reports, preparing status updates, etc.) prior to resigning. This proved enormously useful for a variety of reasons -- it allowed me to make a very smooth transition of my business and staff to my successors and it bought credibilitiy for me with my boss (no bridges burned here). No question it was a hard 10 days...doing the prep work, finalizing the negotiations with my new company and doing my "normal" job...but it was well worth it and I wouldn't have thought of it if it weren't for Mark & Mike's podcasts.

Mike and Mark were even willing to share with me their advice on the delivery of the resignation, since I was to resign a few days before part 3 was published. How terrific was that! These guys are absolutely great and really do "share until it hurts", and I'm very appreciative.

I'm excited to begin my new career next week -- SVP at a business services firm -- and I'm [b]deeply grateful to Mark and Mike[/b] for their spot-on and timely advice that really helped me through the resgination process.