Recently, I wrote about all of the things you need to consider when removing an employee’s access during a termination from your company. It’s already garnered a significant response, and is clearly an unfortunate position that a lot of business professionals find themselves in on a regular basis.

As fate would have it, right after that piece went live, I too found myself in precisely that position. Even though I try to do it as rarely as possible… I had to fire someone.

I won’t get into the details, but it was the case of an employee being dishonest about something that really wouldn’t have been a big deal. It wasn’t the thing he lied to cover that was so bad – it was actually the lying that made me realize he had to go.

But the real reason I knew he needed to be fired didn’t necessarily have anything to do with his lying.

It was because he clearly didn’t share the same core values as the rest of our team. The same core values that drive us every single day.

If You Don’t Have Values, You Don’t Have Anything

At InsideOut Networking, the first of our six core values has to do with a desire to treat each client and each employee with the same level of respect and dignity. It’s easy to see how this influences a lot of what we do every day. We refuse to work with someone who doesn’t respect us (and vice versa), for example. So how can any of that be true if we don’t respect ourselves?

Secondly, we always try to recognize that fairness and reason are both key to our long-term success. Whenever we bring on a new client, we always ask ourselves “what can we do to set the tone of this relationship?” We want to immediately show you what type of relationship you’re getting into, and why it’s going to be worth your time to help grow and maintain that relationship moving forward. To that end, don’t forget that actions speak louder than words.

Third, we strive for a long-term relationship with each of our clients. We’re not a “fly-by-night” service provider who is here one day, gone the next. We always want to provide genuine value in every interaction. We do this by helping a new client as quickly as possible. But that continues long after the initial “honeymoon” period has ended.

Fourth, we always endeavor to provide complete solutions above quick fixes. We’ll never, under any circumstances, dump a “fix” on someone that is really just a Band-Aid in disguise.

Fifth, we make a very real effort to encompass the latest technology and tools available. That alone makes up a big part of our ability to go above and beyond whenever we’re given the opportunity to do so. There’s no way for anyone to feel like they’re being held captive because we always go out on a limb for our customers. This is particularly important to me because if the situation was reversed, I’d like to think those same clients would take the exact same approach with us.

Finally, we always recognize that profitability is essential to our future success. That is to say, without our satisfied customers, we don’t have a leg to stand on.

The Path Worth Taking

If I would have kept that employee for even an hour longer than I did, all of this would have been null and void. Because at that point, I would have been letting our bottom line drive our decisions instead of our core values.

That’s not a way to run a business, let alone start a relationship.

At InsideOut Networking, we’re always looking for businesses and potential clients who respect our core values and who operate with a similar perspective every day. If this sounds like something you agree with, that’s great – feel free to contact us so we can find out whether or not we’re the best fit for your business and so that we can become the outsourced technology partner you’ve been looking for.