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The Leadership Training/Mentoring Corner - September Responses
THE LEADERSHIP TRAINING/MENTORING CORNER
In the August 2025 Newsletter, we started a series called “The Leadership/Mentoring Corner” in which we posed a thought-provoking situation for you to think about and put yourself into the situation, detailed and ask yourself – “What do I do now?” and “What precautions should I have taken?”. Below is the situation that was in the September 2025 Newsletter.
SEPTEMBER LEADERSHIP SITUATION
- Consider having an employee who consistently shows poor professional skills. She is a legacy employee and is good friends with the family of the owners of the business.
- She speaks out inappropriately during meetings and engages in circular reasoning, holding the rest of the team hostage.
- She presents data that is erroneously applied to a large team of people, presenting the data as fact.
- She dresses inappropriately.
- She engages in behavior that is insubordinate, often arguing with Executive Leadership.
- She does not complete projects on time and always has excuses for not being able to meet the deadline.
- She does not follow all policies and procedures.
For your redirection you have:
- Spoken with her on multiple occasions one-on-one.
- Written her up for insubordination.
- Met with her weekly to keep her goals on track.
- Included the owner in the weekly meetings.
- Collected a binder’s worth of documentation for poor performance.
The owners have indicated you still do not have enough documentation to “legally” let her go.
What are your next steps?
We polled some of the Silver Fox Advisors, and due to the many complexities of Human Resource Compliance and Labor and Employment Laws, we strongly suggest that legal counsel be consulted before taking any actions. However, you might want to consider the steps below as a starting point:
What are your next steps?
There appears to be one good next step to be taken here. Given the [false] assertion that “there is not enough documentation,” the most strategic way to execute this is to act independently as her supervisor (assuming that’s true):
- Prepare a separation letter stating that today is her last day of employment. Assuming this is Texas (a right-to-work state), you can usually dismiss an employee for no reason as long as it is not for one of the protected reasons (gender, ethnicity, religion, etc.)
- Offer a severance package of your choosing that includes x weeks of severance pay in exchange for her agreement that she holds the company harmless for any claim she may have regarding her employment or termination. Make the severance offer generous enough that she will want it. Give her 24 hours to sign, or the offer expires forever.
- Have a security guard on hand and within earshot when you present the separation letter and severance offer. Collect their badge and keys, if any. Have the security guard escort the employee out of the business location at once, take them to their car, and watch them drive away. Do not let them return to their desk or workplace.
- Have the IT department immediately change all passwords and block all online access to company e-mail, data, records, and utilities.
- Here is the strategic part: Immediately after the employee is dismissed, you report the action face-to-face to your Human Resources Department (if you have one) and your supervisor and acknowledge with a sincere apology that YOU violated company policy and procedure. Then you have forced the company to make a choice: They can either
- fire you (and maybe hire back the troublemaker) or
- reprimand you for violating procedure, give you a warning never to do it again, and carry on as usual with every employee in the company secretly thanking you.
No matter what happens, you and the company are all better off. Remember, you were the scapegoat all along (“you did not get enough documentation” -- laughable!). Why would anyone in their right mind want to work for a company where the management ignores toxic employees and makes YOU the scapegoat for their toxicity? If they DO fire you, you have copies at home of all the documentation that supports your reasonable decision to fire the troublemaker… So, they should make a very generous severance offer in exchange for YOUR agreement to hold the company harmless in YOUR firing! If you have all the documentation in your possession, any good employment lawyer would be happy to take the case on contingency.
Again, due to the many complexities of Human Resource Compliance and Labor and Employment Laws we strongly suggest legal counsel be consulted before taking any actions.
Why Relationships Are Still the Best Retention Strategy
Why Relationships Are Still the Best Retention Strategy
by
Jonathan Phillips, a Silver Fox Advisor
Think back to the best boss you ever had. Chances are, it wasn’t the office perks or the size of your paycheck that made the difference. More likely it was the way that the leader made you feel—valued, heard, and connected. That’s the real secret to employee retention.
When people feel seen and supported, they stay. When they don’t, they start looking elsewhere. It’s not complicated, but it does require leaders to be intentional about how they build and sustain relationships.
Open Communication Builds Trust
Trust is the foundation of any strong team. Leaders who make communication a daily discipline create stability and clarity.
- Regular check-ins send the message: you matter.
- Honest conversations about company goals build alignment.
- Constructive feedback helps employees feel respected and capable.
When employees know where they stand, uncertainty fades and motivation rises. And trust takes time to build and even longer to keep, but can be lost with one careless mistake. SO be sure to listen and more critically let others speak, give them time to engage use the power of silence to draw others into your meeting conversations.
Growth Opportunities Keep People Invested
People don’t just want a job—they want a career with a future they can see how to make happen. If they can’t see one, they’ll find it elsewhere.
- Development programs sharpen skills.
- Mentorship builds connection and confidence.
- Clear career paths show there’s room to grow.
It’s simple: employees go where they feel they can grow. Leaders who create those opportunities don’t just retain talent, they unlock it. Be sure to ask each of your team members what they want to accomplish longer term, and if you really want to make the conversation impactful – take notes when they speak. Let them know what they say matters. Then, but sure to carefully follow up – especially if doing performance reviews.
Hiring for Long-Term Fit
Retention begins before the first day. The best hiring processes look beyond skills to ensure values, goals, and culture align. In fact, we find the best outcomes are hiring processes that think about retention before they start a critical search, just by asking – “how will we keep the great person we are about to hire?” Few firms ask this at the start of a search, but those that do we see better outcomes.
Employees who feel a sense of belonging early on are more likely to stay engaged long term. Hiring for fit is less about filling a role quickly and more about building a team that endures.
Pulling It Together
Turnover is expensive, but the bigger cost is momentum lost when the wrong people leave. Strong workplace relationships, open communication, growth opportunities, and intentional hiring are what keep teams steady and committed. The cost for reducing retention is relationships and the time it takes to build them. We think this is an investment with a huge ROI.
In the end, the real retention strategy isn’t found in new perks or programs—it’s in the relationships leaders build every day.
