The “Final Warning” as a Motivation Tool

Case 1
Recently, at a company I know, the sales director announced to some of the regional directors that if they did not fix their sales numbers by 1 May, they would be fired.
On the one hand he acted sort of nobly — he gave warning. He also tried to motivate the regional directors to work. And what came of it (what will come of it) in reality?
In reality, this sales director is looking for easy motivation tools, and the "stick" is the simplest one and, best of all, the one that gratifies his ego. The sales director does not even want to go and ask people what is not working and why. Because the problem may well be systemic, and the problem may well be him.
What do the regional directors do? Correct — they immediately start looking for a new job. What happens to their productivity? Does it go up? No, it goes down.  What happens to the productivity of the other directors while the supposedly "motivated" ones are sliding? It goes down as well. Exactly what they asked for.

Case 2
Once, when I was a Young Pioneer at a Pioneer camp and the kids at the disco got completely out of hand, the senior Pioneer leader came on stage and said that if the disgrace did not stop right now, the disco would end and everyone would go to their rooms. The main thing is that everyone understood the disco would not end and nobody would go to their rooms before 21:00, because an evening with no activity is the worst possible option for the leaders and supervisors. Do not intimidate people with unenforceable threats as a "final warning." The kids obeyed her and quieted down, but not because she frightened them — simply because they had been given to understand that their behaviour was unacceptable.

How should it be done?
1. Never threaten anyone. Do not use negative motivation as a working tool. Do not growl at the dog.
2. If you dislike someone, you need clear objective criteria for his badness, criteria that catch him and nobody else. If you want to get rid of a group of ineffective people, then likewise: assemble a careful short list and prepare carefully.
3. Do not warn anyone about anything. If you dislike a person, it is better to fire him and send him off with three months of salary than to warn him of dismissal and then for three months pay not only the salary but also keep a position occupied by someone who is demotivated himself and demoralizes the rest.
4. If you want a person to work better, the worst thing you can invent is to threaten him with dismissal. Maybe, yes, maybe he deserves such threats. But until you have actually decided to fire him, use only positive motivation. It is the result you care about, right?
5. Weigh a dismissal carefully if you have no one to replace the departing person with. Somebody has to be in the vacant position, and some employee is better than none at all. The exceptions that justify drastic measures are crime and a complete absence of enthusiasm (motivation). That is, the exceptions are the cases where it really is better to have that chair empty than to have that employee in it.
6. Any mass layoffs should be done fast, on a single day. The general rule: bad news should be concentrated, and good news, on the contrary, spread out over time. Many small pieces of good news beat one large piece of good news. And many small pieces of bad news are far worse than one large piece of bad news.
7. After a dismissal (or dismissals), the remaining people, so as not to be demotivated, need to be told the clear and specific reasons for it and given a promise that no reprisals will follow for the next X months. The phrasing can be something like: "The next performance review will be held on such-and-such a date. Until then the only grounds for dismissal will be crime and a lack of enthusiasm."
8. You should not summon people from other cities to be fired. It is more correct to travel to them yourself, with all the paperwork in hand for every possible outcome of the dismissal talk.
9. There should be at least two dismissal options for the employee to choose from. The "false alternative" format is very much in place here.
That is about all.