Coach or cut, this is one question you have asked yourself as a founder, HR person before. At some point in your leadership journey, the moment comes when you’re across the table or on a virtual call with someone on your team who just isn’t delivering.
Deadlines are slipping. Accountability is nonexistent. The rest of the team is quietly frustrated, and the energy you worked so hard to build? It’s circling the drain.
Now you’re holding a decision that could shape your culture more than any core value ever written:
Do I coach or cut this person?
It feels tactical, even routine. But this is bigger than performance metrics. This is the kind of call that defines the standard of your team, the health of your culture, and the kind of leader you’re becoming.
Handle it poorly, and you signal to your top performers that mediocrity is tolerated, as long as it’s nicely packaged. Handle it well, and you send a clear message: this team protects its momentum, its people, and its mission.
Not All Underperformance Is the Same
Here’s where most leaders trip: they treat all poor performance the same. But if you’re serious about building something that lasts, you need to pause and ask: Why is this happening?
Is it a skill gap or a will gap?
Due to the fact that skill issues, like lack of experience, unfamiliar tools, a slow learning curve, are solvable. You can train, mentor, shadow, or reassign, but will issues? Entitlement, laziness, blame-shifting, unchecked ego? Those are deeper and far more dangerous.
So before you make a move, diagnose with precision. Ask yourself:
- Were expectations actually clear, measurable, and realistic?
- Is there something personal, like health or family clouding their performance?
- Have they received real feedback? And did they even understand it?
- Are they capable but unmotivated, or just misaligned with the work?
You can’t coach what you haven’t understood. And you definitely can’t fix what you haven’t named.
When to Coach
There’s a kind of underperformance that’s worth your time.
You coach when they take ownership. When they don’t dodge feedback, but lean into it. When they acknowledge the issue, not with excuses, but with humility and a plan.
You coach when their attitude is still hungry. When they ask for help, show up curious, and demonstrate even in small ways that they want to get better.
You coach when there’s effort. Maybe not leaps and bounds, but forward motion. A question they wouldn’t have asked last week. A mistake they didn’t repeat this time. Growth, even if it’s quiet.
And most importantly, you coach when the person embodies the values, even if they lack the skills. Because you can teach someone how to lead a sprint or manage a backlog. But you can’t teach someone to care, to serve, or to believe in what you’re building.
That kind of alignment? It’s rare. And if you spot it, it’s worth fighting for.
But don’t mistake coaching for coddling. Coaching is a partnership. If you’re doing all the work, setting reminders, redoing their tasks, managing their attitude, then you’re not coaching anymore. You’re babysitting.
When to Cut
Now for the hard truth.
There are moments when you’ve done the work, trained, supported, given feedback and nothing changes. Worse, the energy shifts. The team starts to feel the drag. You find yourself avoiding 1:1s, rewriting their reports, and covering for their attitude.
This is when you cut.
You cut when they bring toxicity, not just low performance. Drama. Gossip. Passive aggression. Even if they’re hitting metrics, they’re eroding trust.
You cut when growth is non-existent. No matter the resources, tools, or support, they’re stagnant.
You cut when they don’t care. When lateness becomes normal. When they act like showing up is the favor and not the minimum.
And you cut when you’ve out-coached the situation. PIPs, 1:1s, written plans, hand-holding and nothing sticks. At that point, you’re not leading them anymore. You’re enabling them.
Sometimes it’s not the wrong seat. It’s the wrong bus entirely.
The Gut Check Every Leader Needs
Here’s a simple test:
If they resigned today, would you feel disappointed or relieved?
If the answer is relief, your decision is already made. You’re just waiting for the courage to say it out loud.
Cutting someone doesn’t make you heartless. It makes you accountable to the people who are giving their best. It protects the mission from the mess. And sometimes, it’s the most compassionate move for everyone involved, because maybe, just maybe, the role that’s crushing them here is the same pressure that could free them somewhere else.
The truth is, you’re not called to save everyone. But you are called to lead the ones who are willing. The ones showing effort, honesty, and heart.
Coach the hungry. Cut the harmful. Always protect your startup’s culture
