A Bad Idea that Persists

Our February 2, 2025, post to Leading Thoughts was about the return of rank-and-fire as a management tool. This new Business Insider piece echos our thesis that taking this approach, while beloved by many in charge of corporations, is both short-sighted and counterproductive. The piece is behind the paywall, so here's an excerpt. 

There's only one problem with cracking down on low performers: It doesn't work. 

As decades of rigorous research have demonstrated, aggressive efforts to "raise the bar" on performance, as [Meta CEO Mark] Zuckerberg put it, tend to backfire with remarkable consistency. CEOs may think they're creating a meritocracy, but in reality they're marching their companies straight into a trap of sunken morale, high turnover, depressed profits, and reduced innovation. 

Despite this, we just heard another board member at another school suggest that their head of school start ranking and firing faculty. It's a bad idea that never seems to die.