What are your absolute, non-negotiable values? Are you enforcing them? One way to understand an organization’s culture is to consider the worst behavior it tolerates. We’ve all seen this situation before — a high performing employee (e.g., the highest grossing sales person at the company) that has a history of disruptive and damaging interactions across the company. The CEO looks the other way or reacts passively because of the value that the employee is delivering. It’s often difficult for the CEO to confront this type of employee, but letting them slide can result in one or more of these three unintended consequences:
- Other employees begin to lose confidence in the CEO;
- Company culture suffers; and/or
- The company’s reputation is damaged.
1. Employees loose confidence and trust in the CEO
Employees will intently take note of exactly how the CEO responds to high-performing, disruptive employees. If the CEO doesn’t act decisively, the team will view their leader as someone that is either lacking the courage to confront the employee or uncaring about the rest of the team that is being hurt by him/her. In both case, it will negatively impact alignment, morale and employee retention. In short, your team needs to know they have a strong leader who cares about their work environment.
2. Company culture suffers
When a leader fails to confront an offensive employee, the rest of the team are left to navigate problem by themselves, and oftentimes, some will undoubtedly begin to adopt that same controversial behavior accepting it as the new normal. Instead though, let’s consider less flagrant behavior, like missed assignment deadlines or showing up chronically late to work. If missed deadlines or being chronically late to work doesn’t carry repercussions, then these also will quickly become the norm across an organization.
3. The company’s reputation is damaged
Using our earlier example of a high-performing seller with a bad attitude, customers that interact with him/her and other discouraged teammates will dull your company’s reputation. Your ability to recruit talent, bring on new customers, sign new partnerships can all suffer.
When a CEO does act decisively by holding a high-performing disruptive employee accountable it sends a loud and clear message to the rest of the team about accountability and company culture. Once the disrupter is gone, the team almost always comes closer together and performs as at a higher level.
References
Defining your management principles
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