I just had a tough situation where I had to fire one of the Dasheroo family. And we really are family here, even though
we’re in a distributed work environment. Plus this person is a long-time friend and also colleague who I had worked with successfully in the past.

And since we are distributed, I had to do the deed via phone; not the best format but it had to be done, and I’ve had to do it that way in past jobs. A few days later we were actually able to meet F2F to take care of some paperwork, but mainly to discuss ‘what happened’ and why.

The specifics aren’t relevant here, but it reminded me to remind everyone on our tight team to address issues and communicate with their manager early on. Personal and professional. If there’s an identified issue a “What’s going on, everything OK?” often opens a door to a productive conversation. Issues rarely solve themselves; and one of our responsibilities here is to help make our people successful. If you don’t start a company with a very open and honest culture, you aren’t gonna retrofit it later.

And just telling people to be open and honest is only one part of this. As leaders, we have to ‘show’, not just ‘tell’ this aspect of your company culture in order for it to take hold and build a valuable environment for your business.

What are your thoughts on how ‘open’ communications should be between team members, especially between folks and their managers? Let me know!