The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
We're all about helping create a healthy, positive, and spiritually positive environment for church staff members and leadership teams.
The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
You Fired the Wrong Person
Have you ever made a staffing change that was supposed to solve everything, only to discover weeks later that nothing improved? That sinking feeling might be a sign you've addressed a symptom rather than the root cause.
When terminations miss the mark, the aftermath can be devastating for your church team. Trust crumbles as staff members wonder who might be next. The room grows quieter during meetings as everyone carefully measures their words. Productivity and collaboration decline rather than improve. Most tellingly, that nagging voice starts whispering, "Maybe that wasn't the right move after all."
Todd Rhodes dives deep into why these misfires happen in church leadership. Sometimes we're fixing symptoms while the root cause remains untouched. Other times, we cave to internal pressure from boards or other leaders pushing for someone's removal. The most troubling scenario? When we avoid addressing the actual power players causing dysfunction because confronting them feels too risky. As Todd poignantly observes, "Sometimes the most toxic culture shapers are not the ones that you fired... they might be the ones that are still on your payroll."
Recovery requires exceptional leadership courage: owning your mistake, reassessing team dynamics with fresh eyes, and building better filters for future decisions. Remember that terminating staff should be your last resort, not your quick fix. "Firing someone is serious," Todd reminds us, "but firing the wrong person can be a real culture wound." By slowing down and digging deeper, you can make wiser decisions that truly address what's undermining your team's health and effectiveness.
What lessons have you learned from tough termination experiences? Share your story at podcast@ChemistryStaffing.com and join the conversation about building healthier church teams.
Have questions or comments? Send to podcast@chemistrystaffing.com
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Sometimes you make a staffing change at your church thinking that it's going to solve all your team's problems, but later on you realize you might have let the wrong person go. Today, on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, we're going to unpack how to spot when a firing missed the real issue, the damage that it can cause to both trust and morale on your team, and how you can avoid repeating the same mistake again. Hi there, my name is Todd Rhodes. I'm one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom and I'm your host here every day, every weekday anyway, on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. All right, today we're talking about firings. Okay, so maybe you fired someone and at first it felt like it was the right thing to do, but weeks go past and nothing seemed to get any better. In fact, things sometimes get a little weird. So today we're talking about firings and what happens when you maybe fire the wrong person and how to tell if your staff change actually solved anything. Okay, so here are some symptoms let's start here Some symptoms of maybe you made a bad mistake when you fired, maybe, the wrong person, symptoms of a misdirected termination. Okay, here's the first one the dysfunction that you thought this person was causing is actually continuing. It's the same drama, it's just a different name.
Speaker 1:Okay, maybe the trust is dropping across your team and people start wondering who's next? The church just set a precedent for hiring somebody. Maybe I'm next, maybe you're next. Who's next? Things are not stable. A precedent for hiring somebody Maybe I'm next, maybe you're next. Who's next? Things are not stable around here, so trust can drop if you fire the wrong person. And maybe you're noticing that staff get quieter. Maybe they get less engaged, maybe they're more careful with their words Again because the trust has gone down and they're a little afraid that they may be next. And maybe you've just seen productivity and collaboration dip. You thought they would improve if this person wasn't on your team, but they haven't. Matter of fact, quite the opposite, the productivity and the collaboration have seemed to dip. And maybe, worse of all, you start feeling this. Maybe even other people start to tell you this, things like, yeah, I'm not sure that was the right move after all.
Speaker 1:Okay, so those are some symptoms that maybe that last fire really wasn't the right thing to do, or maybe it wasn't the main problem. Okay, so if this happened to you, let's figure out first of all why it happens and what you can do so that it doesn't happen again. Okay, why does this happen? Because I've seen this happen quite often in churches. You think you've got a problem, you think the problem is attached to one person, you make the termination and all of a sudden you find out maybe that wasn't the real issue. Why does this happen? It could be that you just fixed a symptom, not the root issue. Matter of fact, that is what happened. If the fire wasn't the right thing to do, if you still have the problems afterwards, maybe you fixed a symptom, maybe that person had the symptoms and you thought he was the root cause. But it was just a symptom and you've not dealt with the root cause yet.
Speaker 1:Maybe you caved to internal pressure or optics. I remember being on a team once. I was on the elder team and a pastor senior pastor kept coming every month to the elder meeting. He would come and say this person did this and this and this, month after month, and finally I just looked at him and said look, if you don't think he's a part of the team, if you think he's part of the problem, I'm tired of hearing about it Do something about it. So maybe you caved in, maybe I was the internal pressure.
Speaker 1:Maybe you caved to the internal pressure. Maybe that was a good fire, maybe it wasn't a good fire, but sometimes you cave to that pressure from either your board or somebody else on your leadership team or even other staff. Maybe you kept your decision process private so the team never saw why that fire actually took place. You just, all of a sudden, they're gone. Maybe you just didn't want to address the person who actually holds the power or causes the dysfunction. You might've had some inkling, some thoughts that, hey, this might be the reason for the problem. It might not be, but let's see, that's really risky because you're playing with people's income and their families and their lives at that point. But you really need to diagnose exactly what's going on. Sometimes the most toxic culture shapers are not the ones that you fired. They're not the ones you thought they were. They actually might be the ones that are still on your payroll.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right, so we figured out what happens and we figured out, maybe, why it happens. Let's talk as we close out today's podcast on how to recover and how to do better next time so that it doesn't happen. Okay, first thing you got to do and this isn't rocket science. But you got to admit that you made a mistake. Okay, own it. Own the miss, either quietly or publicly, but you have to own it. If you're the one that did the termination and you know it wasn't right, you got to own it. Okay, then go back in and start to reassess that team dynamic. If the team dynamic is still bad after that termination, what needs to shift? Talk to your team, ask what they've experienced or seen or what they're still feeling stuck in and then, from that observation and that feedback, actually document what worked and what didn't about the termination process. Build new filters for future decisions. That, before you carry out that termination, look at behavior patterns and trust, impact and cultural contribution, not just performance and not just because you think they're the biggest cancer that's on your staff.
Speaker 1:Okay, so here's the final thought for today. Here's the big idea Firing someone serious, it should always be the last resort. It should never be quick. Sometimes it should be quick. There's obvious times when someone should be fired, but most of the time it's a slow burn. So firing someone is serious, but firing the wrong person, that can be a real culture wound. So don't rush to remove someone just because you feel like you're fixing something. Slow down, dig a little bit deeper, do your research and act wisely.
Speaker 1:I'd love to hear from you what's one lesson that you've learned from a really tough termination. Could be some way that you terminated. It could have been some time that you were terminated. What's one lesson that you've learned? What's one thing that you would do differently? What's one thing that you would never do again? I would love to hear your thoughts on this. You can reach out to me anytime. Podcast at Chemistry Staffing. That's podcast at Chemistry Staffing. I'd love to hear your termination stories today. Okay, sounds good. We will be back next week right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Got some great podcasts lined up next week. You're not going to want to miss it. If you are watching or listening to this now which obviously you are somewhere, someplace somehow If you're listening or watching and you've not subscribed, go ahead and hit that subscribe button and that way you'll get notified of our next podcast that releases first thing on Monday morning. All right, have a great weekend. We'll be back here and talk to you on Monday. You.
