Tell me about a time you had to make the difficult decision to performance-manage out or let go of a team member who wasn't improving despite coaching.

Situation

In my last role, I had a content writer who was consistently missing deadlines and producing work with factual errors. I coached her for three months, providing templates, clearer briefs, and weekly check-ins.

Task

I needed to decide whether to continue investing in her improvement or transition her out of the team for the sake of our content quality and team morale.

Action

After no significant progress, I documented all performance gaps and the support provided. I had a direct conversation explaining that her performance was not meeting expectations despite the coaching, and I offered her the option of a performance improvement plan with clear measurable targets. She chose not to commit to the PIP, so we mutually agreed on a separation with a fair package. I then communicated the change transparently to the team without divulging details, and redistributed her workload.

Result

The team's content output became more reliable, and we saw a 20% increase in content engagement the following quarter. I also learned to hire more carefully for attention to detail.