Team

“Retaining people who are doing bad work penalizes the people doing excellent work.” — Kim Scott

Building a kick-ass team means hiring right, firing when necessary, promoting carefully, and making tough decisions about team composition. This chapter covers the hardest parts of management: people decisions.

Hiring: Don’t Lower the Bar

When you’re desperate to fill a role, it’s tempting to hire someone “good enough.” But one bad hire can damage team culture and morale for years.

The Cost of a Bad Hire

• Drags down team performance
• Lowers the bar for future hires (“Well, we hired them…”)
• Demoralizes top performers
• Forces you to spend time managing them out later
• Signals you don’t care about quality

Hiring Standards

• Skills: Can they do the job?
• Trajectory: Are they learning and growing?
• Culture fit: Do they share your values? (Not “do I want to grab a beer with them”)
• Collaboration: Will they make the team better?
• The sniff test: Are you genuinely excited to work with them?

If you’re unsure, the answer is no.

Firing: Don’t Wait Too Long

Most managers wait too long to fire underperformers, hoping they’ll improve. This harms the team, the person, and you.

When to Fire Someone

Consider firing if:

• They’re not meeting expectations despite clear feedback and support
• They violate company values (respect, integrity, etc.)
• Their presence is damaging team morale or performance
• You’ve given them a fair chance to improve and they haven’t
• You’re spending all your time managing them instead of the team

Before You Fire: The Three Questions

1. Have I given Radically Candid feedback? Have you been clear about the problem?
2. Have I given them time and support to improve? Did they have a real chance?
3. Is this about performance or fit? Maybe they’re great but wrong for this role.

If you can answer yes to the first two and the issue persists, it’s time to move on.

Promotions: Don’t Promote Too Fast

Promoting someone before they’re ready sets them up to fail. Promoting the wrong person demoralizes the team.

Key Takeaways

• Don’t lower the hiring bar—one bad hire damages everything
• Fire underperformers after giving clear feedback and fair chances
• Retaining bad performers punishes good performers
• Promote carefully—too fast or too slow both cause problems
• The hardest decisions are people decisions, but they matter most