Managers have their cards dealt to them and they must play them. Or so says Miller Higgins.

Indeed, managers are the people who are behind the supervision of the activities and the productivity of their work force. They play an indispensable role in seeing to that their staff is performing at their optimal level. It is the manager who sees through it all: from employee selection to career development; from career development to what-not. One thing that managers also have to initiate is employee termination.

Firing an employee is not an easy task. Even the no-nonsense type of managers finds it difficult to tell their employees point-blank that the company has decided to let go of their services.

The decision to fire an employee stems from incompatibility and/or performance issues. More often than not, the managers try to fix an impending termination by giving the employee constructive criticisms; comments that are intended to improve the performance and productivity of the employee.

Moreover, managers also give out feedback to the employees who are in danger of termination so that the latter knows specifically what his strengths and weaknesses are. But in cases when the shortcomings of the employee can no longer be helped, the only option left for the manager is to drop the bomb.

Once the decision to terminate the services of an employee is made final, the first thing that a manager should do is to set up a termination meeting with the said employee. The manager should see to it that the meeting is a closed-door meeting so that the other employees will not overhear about the termination details of the employee. However, the manager is advised to keep a reliable person at bay while the meeting is taking place, so that post-termination repercussions will be avoided.

Then, while the meeting is taking place, the manager should also be able to communicate effectively to the employee the reason behind the company's decision to let go of him or her. The manager should be compassionate but firm; honest but assertive. Next, the manager should clarify to the employee the exact date when the employee is expected to clear out from the company as well as the details of the tasks that the employee still has to accomplish prior to his or her termination.

Lastly, the manager should oblige the employee to sign wavers and other pertinent legal stuff which would state that a clean and legal separation process was followed, and that no violations against the employee were committed.