Direct answer

How do I fire an executive properly?

Firing an executive is a strategy call before a personnel call. Confirm the change is structural, not personal. Review mandate, decision rights, and founder support before acting. The wrong call here is expensive in three ways: severance, team disruption, and the repeat hire that fails for the same reason.

Diagnose before firing. Was the mandate clear when the executive joined. Were the decision rights actually transferred. Did the founder release the role or keep reaching into it. If any of those is no, the executive may be a symptom of structural failure, not the cause.

Test the structural fix before the personnel call. Can the mandate be sharpened. Can the decision rights be properly transferred. Can the founder commit to non-reversal. If the structural fix works, the executive may recover. If not, the firing has a higher chance of producing a similar failure with the next hire.

Sequence the call. Settle the legal terms, the transition plan, the team communication, and the post-departure scope before the meeting. A scrambled firing produces severance disputes, key-employee resignations, and customer flight.