From the course: Leadership Stories: 5-Minute Lessons in Leading People

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Trust your judgment

Trust your judgment

From the course: Leadership Stories: 5-Minute Lessons in Leading People

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Trust your judgment

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- Orville Sweet was the CEO of a beef farming association back in the '70s, and as any CEO will tell you one of their most unenviable tasks is having to fire someone especially a close friend. And that's exactly the situation Orville found himself in. Now, for our purposes, the details of the firing aren't nearly as important as what happened a few days after. Orville got a distressing call from the wife of the man he'd just fired. Apparently the guy wasn't coping very well. In fact, his wife was concerned that he was suicidal. So, Orville asked her to put him on the phone. Now the guy admitted to Orville that he was havin' a hard time, but he claimed he could pull it together. But Orville could hear the stress in his voice, and he knew both the man and his wife well enough to understand the gravity of the situation. So just instinctively Orville made a suggestion that surprised the man, and probably himself. He said well, why don't you come back? Really, the guy said, you're hiring…

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