Avoidance is not a pause. Avoiding something you know is necessary will not give you the confidence to do it later. It keeps the current arrangement and its consequences in place until you choose differently.
Firing a team member is one of the most difficult decisions a founder makes. Sometimes the decision itself is already clear. Yet acting on it keeps moving into the future.
The concerns behind that delay can be real. Losing essential knowledge or strong individual performance. Managing the effect on the team. Finding the right person. The time and money spent to recruit. Facing the team member’s reaction. Fearing that the decision might be wrong, after all.
These concerns need to be explored, unfolded and addressed. Leaving the “when” unanswered keeps the current situation running — and its effects on you, the team and the company culture piling up.
The answer is not usually to fire immediately. It is to separate why you have decided to let someone go from what is keeping the decision open. The second part splits in two: what genuinely needs preparation, and what is about facing the moment itself. Give the preparation a time window. Then the “when” moves from the horizon into a plan you can actually carry out.
Take 10-15 minutes over the weekend to reflect these questions:
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Which decision have you already made, but not yet carried out?
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What is keeping it open? (List both what genuinely needs preparation and what is about facing the moment itself.)
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Which preparation will you start next week? Consider also the support you need, and by when carrying out the decision would be realistic for you.
Naming what is really going on in this situation tends to sharpen the decision that follows. The plan for next week becomes one you actually believe in.
What emerged for you in this reflection? I’d love to hear.