Years ago I worked at a company where one employee in particular was not very good. The employee was foolish, incompetent and lazy. We all knew it, and the leader knew it too. But, instead of holding the employee accountable, the leader showered praised and asked the rest of us to pick up the slack.
I wouldn’t stand for that for two reasons. First, if the leader is afraid of confrontation and withholds correction, there is no hope for the employee to change direction and become wise. By continuing to be praised for poor work, it only reinforces the wrong behavior. I saw it as a very unloving thing to do.
Second, when you give credit and honor to something bad, you are giving it credibility and continuing with the lie. This is not helpful to the bad employee and it is demoralizing to the good ones.
Nothing will destroy a good employee faster than tolerating a bad one.
This is not only true in business; it is true in any group or organization. In churches, volunteer organizations, sports teams and even families. The leader’s role and responsibility is to confront and correct bad behavior or risk the disintegration of the group, the mission as well as the leaders credibility.
This is one reason why the faulty idea of tolerance today is so destructive and why hierarchies are good. For a team to be effective, there needs to be a clear standard for accountability as well as a way to hold people accountable.
Today, in America, there is no clear standard of right and wrong. Just about anything and everything is tolerated and accepted. Where we used to have consistent ideas about right behavior and the good, it has now been replaced with “if it feels good do it” and “don’t judge me.”
It’s like everything that was once nailed down has come undone and we are living in a world of chaos. Effective leadership creates a clear standard of right and wrong for the team and then holds people to that standard. If they refuse, strong leadership makes the simple, yet tough decision to let them go. The reality is, we crave this type of environment.
It reminds me of a message from King Solomon to his son when he said, “Like snow in the summer and rain in harvest, so honor is not fitting for a fool.”[1]
There is a time for everything. The wise leader uses discernment to evaluate people and circumstances and then courage to take proper action.
[1] Proverbs 26:1
