I'm of two minds about retaining once-effective employees who have declined in production. Some managers (like Bill Walsh) take the attitude that it's better to get rid of someone a year early than a year late. That may be true in football -- although he let Ronnie Lott go after the 1990 season, and Lott led the NFL in interceptions the next year and was first team all-pro and he let Jerry Rice go, and Rice had multiple 1,000-yard receiving seasons after joining the Raiders.
I had a friend in my business who ran sales and marketing for an AmLaw 200 law firm for four years. His results were first in terms of average growth for his cohort of 100 firms. He was let go by a new CEO, who handpicked his successor. Their growth was halved the next year, and halved again (to 1/4th of my friend's average). The decision to let him go probably cost that firm between $20 mms. and $25 mms., and my friend went on to significant success elsewhere. Sometimes, you get rid of the wrong person.
On the other hand, I have had three once-effective senior employees over the last few decades that became ineffective for an extended period. I tried to manage them back to success, and it was my own ego that led me to believe that I could reclaim them. But they weren't going to return to effectiveness, for a variety of reasons. None of the three remotely recognized that their effectiveness had been radically reduced, despite blatantly obvious lack of results. And it was absolutely my fault that they were in place for too long once they were ineffective.
I had a friend in my business who ran sales and marketing for an AmLaw 200 law firm for four years. His results were first in terms of average growth for his cohort of 100 firms. He was let go by a new CEO, who handpicked his successor. Their growth was halved the next year, and halved again (to 1/4th of my friend's average). The decision to let him go probably cost that firm between $20 mms. and $25 mms., and my friend went on to significant success elsewhere. Sometimes, you get rid of the wrong person.
On the other hand, I have had three once-effective senior employees over the last few decades that became ineffective for an extended period. I tried to manage them back to success, and it was my own ego that led me to believe that I could reclaim them. But they weren't going to return to effectiveness, for a variety of reasons. None of the three remotely recognized that their effectiveness had been radically reduced, despite blatantly obvious lack of results. And it was absolutely my fault that they were in place for too long once they were ineffective.
Audaces fortuna iuvat