I never slept well the night before I had decided to let someone go. This was after stewing over the decision for much longer than was necessary or productive.

It took me a long time to recognize that the longer you delay, the more costly it is for you in terms of productivity, the damage to your nervous system and time lost from your principal goal of building an effective organization.

At the same time the longer you delay this uncomfortable task, the longer you are keeping that person from finding their right niche. If you’re not happy with their performance and you don’t feel the situation has any hope of resolution, letting them go is really in their best interest.

In retrospect, it is interesting to try to understand why I was so conflicted the night before I decided to terminate someone. To be honest, I’m sure most people would characterize me as a “confrontational person” so why did I dread these encounters?

My best guess is that my confrontational personality comes into play as a reaction to being challenged or by someone trying to intimidate me on an issue. When I had to initiate what could be a confrontational situation, I was less comfortable.

We used performance reviews every six months and I believe as imperfectly as we probably performed them, they were, in general, very helpful. Poor reviews were often received very defensively by employees. However by the time we got to a separation interview, 75 percent or more of the people knew it was coming.

Very few people were honestly surprised when you finally told them “this isn’t working”.

I usually waited until the end of the day to address this scene, hoping it would cause the least commotion. I’ve never been sure if that was the right time.

In one situation I was so tired from lack of sleep that as one employee droned on in their defense, I almost fell asleep.

In another situation I had a review with an employee who had performed sort of an O.K. job on a somewhat shorthanded event. At the same time she had demonstrated what I believed was inappropriate behavior with one of our clients. I was very tired after this long event and probably not thinking very clearly. During the review I offered her a raise and a bonus, but did not address the behavior, mostly because I didn’t know how.

After pacing the floor all night, I realized I had made a terrible mistake. She shouldn’t be rewarded.

The next day I admitted my mistake and told her I thought it best if she were to leave. It was my mistake, so I told her to keep the bonus and was generous in my offer to continue her salary for several months. One way or another you pay for your mistakes.

Any position of responsibility is never easy. There are some benefits to management positions of course, but there are tasks you do not enjoy as well.

What do you think?

Right before the real estate depression hit a few years ago, I sold my condo to move to a larger one where I could have a retirement office and it would be a little more conveniently located.

The people who bought my unit were two of the sweetest, most adorable senior lovebirds, who had met at church, recently retired and had just married. They were a most likeable couple who were finding happiness late in life.

They loved my condo and wanted to buy a lot of the furniture I wasn’t taking with me. During escrow, they called a few times to ask if they could just come and sit in the living room for a while.

So, I moved out and they moved in. A few weeks later I got a call from Mrs. Pissaro and I thought, “oh God, what’s wrong?”

Mrs. Pissaro said, “Did you by any chance leave some money in the desk you left?” Now, how do you answer that kind of question? It seems obvious I must have, but I sure didn’t remember doing it.

After a bit of fencing, it finally come out that she had found $2,000 in the desk and if I could come by she would be happy to give it to me. Now, you ask, what were you doing with that much cash in your home? It’s a long story, but basically I kept it there because, on occasion, I or someone else from the office had to travel on short notice for business or family emergencies.

It was all hard to believe, but I did go by to retrieve the money and thank her as profusely as possible. I insisted she take $500 to give to her church. She got all teary-eyed and couldn’t stop hugging me. I wanted to hug her for her unbelievable honesty.

We don’t meet or interact with these kinds of people very often, but it warms your soul to know there are some wonderful people in this world with integrity and compassion. Knowing this really keeps your faith up and at the same time challenges you to ask if you’ve been as outgoing to others as you could be.

As we observe the fraying of the value system all around us, as well as the warring factions all around the world, you have to believe there is hope there are enough good people to win out.

What do you think?

During this past year of economic recession and attacks on the value of business-related travel, the symbiotic relationship that exists between associations and the cities that host their meetings, conventions and trade shows has only become clearer. Both association and convention bureau executives can find new ammunition to defend the value of business travel in a first-of-its-kind study released last month by the United States Travel Association and Destination & Travel Foundation. (Disclosure: I serve on the executive committee of the Destination & Travel Foundation.)

Titled “The Return on Investment of U.S. Business Travel,” the study was completed by Oxford Economics and found that for every dollar invested in business travel, businesses experience an average $12.50 in increased revenue and $3.80 in new profits. The study also concluded that reducing business travel has a negative impact on corporate profits: The average U.S. business would forfeit 15 percent of its profits in the first year of eliminating business travel.

The study covered 14 economic sectors and its findings were verified through a combination of three separate surveys of corporate executives and business travelers and a broad review of related research. For the purposes of the study, business travel included sales trips, meetings, conventions, trade shows and incentive trips. Other key findings of the study include:

• Business executives estimated a four- to six-time return on every dollar invested in conference and trade show participation.
• Business executives and business travelers estimated that 28 percent of their current business would be lost without in-person meetings.
• Business executives and business travelers estimated that roughly 40 percent of their prospective customers are converted to new customers through in-person meetings compared with only 16 percent without such meetings.
• More than half of business travelers stated that as many as 20 percent of their company’s new customers were the direct result of trade-show participation.
• Eighty-five percent of corporate executives perceive web meetings and teleconferences to be less effective than in-person meetings with prospective customers, and 63 percent believe virtual meetings are less effective with current customers.

According to the study, U.S. business travel is responsible for $246 billion in spending and 2.3 million American jobs; $100 billion of this spending and nearly 1 million American jobs are linked directly to meetings and events. In the first six months of 2009, total business travel spending was down 11.9 percent. The study estimated that a 10 percent increase in business travel spending would increase the Gross Domestic Product of the U.S. by between 1.5 and 2.8 percent.

There is no question that business-related travel is critical to the economic well-being of the United States and encouraging your members to travel more may well be the best “stimulus package” for getting the economy back on track. For the complete version of the study and a tool kit with suggestions for using its findings, please visit the U.S. Travel Association website at ustravel.org.

Tim Schneider
Schneider Publishing Company