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Tavel: Firing role misfits beats internal transfers 95% of the time

Sarah Tavel · #113 Sarah Tavel: The Value of Intellectual Rigor · Jun 15, 2021 · at 25:27

Benchmark General Partner Sarah Tavel discusses talent management and why leaders should terminate underperforming employees rather than reassigning them internally.

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“I would say that's right, 95% of the time. Like all, all roles, sometimes you should break it. Particularly, you know, at the early, early stages of a company, when you're going through hypergrowth, you're bringing in these athletes, and the company gets more specialized over time, and so roles have to evolve. But I absolutely agree, you know, the 95% scenario, there is a, Non-confrontational weakness to this kind of transfer, which is that you're telling someone, hey, not that I don't think that you're scaling with the company, but hey, let's find another role for you in the company, and you can become someone else's problem”

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