The Impact of Tolerating Mediocrity

I have the privilege of facilitating the weekly GM meeting at Leif Johnson with their 4 locations where we go over lead measures, lag measures, KPIs and data trends across all their operating areas. At this week's meeting, one slide sparked more discussion than all our performance metrics combined. It simply said: "You can expect what you tolerate." The message landed because it goes right to the heart of accurate forecasting. If we make space for underperformance—even from just a few team members—it doesn't just hold us back today. It sets the tone for the next round of numbers, and before you know it, missed targets become the expectation, not the exception. Think about your top performers, the ones who consistently exceed targets and drive your growth. They're watching closely to see if excellence truly matters. As Jesse Wisdom, co-founder of Humu notes, "You're showing your top performers the bottom of what you'll tolerate. If I'm working really hard, but I see that management doesn't treat me any differently than they treat someone who is doing the bare minimum, that is very demotivating." But the real damage happens when your A-players start questioning their commitment after watching mediocrity go unchallenged. A report by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) found that nearly one in five Americans left a job in the past five years due to bad company culture, costing organizations an estimated $223 billion over that period The cost of looking the other way with underperformance doesn't stop at a bad month. It eats away at your culture, muddies your forecasting, and makes it tougher to keep your A-players on board. Take a closer look at your performance metrics. Are there standards slipping because you've allowed things to slide? Sometimes, that quiet drift is exactly why the forecast keeps slipping. #leadership #dealership #automotive #accountability

One of the hardest founder lessons: firing faster. And almost every founder knows they should but make excuses for why they don't. This comes up constantly with my founder clients. Yet these same founders would tell me to make the exact same tough calls if they were coaching me. Why is it so hard to see when you're in it? As founders, we're fundamentally optimists. We have to be - building something from nothing requires believing in possibilities. This same quality that drives us to build makes us see the best in people, believing they can grow and improve. But here's the reality: 99% of the time, they won't. Not because they're bad at what they do, but because they're not the right fit. Maybe you hired a manager when you needed a doer. Maybe the company's needs evolved. Maybe it was just a miss. At both Amazon and BCG, there's a formal process to thoughtfully transition out the bottom percentile performers each year. Many successful companies do this. It's not cruel - it's essential for organizational health. I learned this lesson the hard way at Stitcher. I waited far too long, multiple times. It's painful when you genuinely care about people. But keeping someone who isn't performing has deep consequences. The cultural impact is devastating. That person sets the bar for everyone else, especially if they're senior. When mediocrity is tolerated, it becomes the standard. The hard truth is: If you're making excuses about why now isn't the right time to let someone go, you already know what needs to be done. Every founder gets better at this over time. But the sooner you learn this lesson, the stronger your company will be.

The impact of tolerating poor performers is drastic. It affects the team dynamics, how well folks are working with each other, how much they want to continue to inspire each other to work harder, and so much more. One major way tolerating poor performers gets reflected, which many leaders don’t seem to consider, is in talent retention. Think about it: If you’re a talented individual, working to your very best, all the time, and the guy next to you is doing a lousy job, all the time, and you’re both collecting the same paycheck, it’s going to cause you to want to go work elsewhere. And I’ve seen it happen, time and time again, where a leader’s failure to let the poor performer go leads to the talented person leaving, while the poor performer stays. How does that serve your organization? It affects the company culture. It brings everything down. If people aren’t working their hardest to do their best for the good of the company, it’s like letting air out of a balloon. It affects the financial stability of the company as well as the credibility of the leaders. I mean, if you’re a leader, and you’re allowing poor performers to stay on your team, everybody knows that. It’s not a secret. Believe me, everybody is aware of who’s pulling their weight and who’s not pulling their weight, and if you’re the leader who allows that person to stay on your team, it affects not only your credibility but also the corporation’s growth prospects: Nobody wants to come join a team that’s full of a bunch of poor performers. So we’ve got to quit fooling ourselves and thinking that it’s okay to tolerate poor performance, because it’s not. There’s significant impact, and tolerating poor performance erodes the ability of Corporate America to get the job done, let alone get it done well. #poorperformance #performanceappraisals #teamstrength #leadership

📢 Calling all executives (qualifier: those who want to really make a difference)! 🎯 ✨ I've had the privilege of leading, facilitating, and overseeing strategic planning and implementation throughout my career. But let's talk about something that often gets overlooked amidst the corporate value song and dance. 🎶 When it comes to defining those 3 or 5 core corporate values, we hear the usual suspects: teamwork, care, integrity, excellence, and respect. But here's the harsh reality: in many organizations, these values remain nothing but empty words. 🗑️ In other words…garbage. 🔍 Take a closer look at the culture, and you'll find a stark contrast. Hiring, nurturing, developing, training, disciplining, or even terminating employees rarely aligns with those proclaimed values. It's disheartening to witness those platitudes fade into the background. 😔 What's worse, this disconnect turns those precious strategy sessions into a colossal waste of time, money, and energy. 😫 Unbeknownst to leadership, their credibility takes a hit. They can blame their mediocre employees all they want, but the problem lies elsewhere. ⚠️ 💥 When leaders tolerate mediocrity, excellence becomes an elusive dream. Respect from employees? It's reduced to a mere transaction. Motivation, inspiration, productivity, profitability? All suffer in the face of mediocrity's stronghold. 📉 🛑 Don't expect your team to strive for improvement when there's no reason to. Punctuality? Forget it. Standing strong against suppliers during negotiations? Unlikely. Salespeople may persist (because of the external incentive called commission. But without the desire to truly pursue excellence, they will seek to upskill and their ability will be limited anyways. Purchasers end up eating their lunch), and customer service will quickly capitulate. After all, it's easier to concede than to invest time and effort in resolving conflicts. ⌛ ✅ If you've witnessed this culture of mediocrity firsthand and found it impossible to turn the tide, let me tell you why: the leaders TOLERATE it. 🚫 🌟 Excellence can never be achieved by those who accept anything less. It's time for leaders to take a stand, set an example, and demand greatness from their teams. 💪 🔥 Break free from the chains of mediocrity and unleash the full potential of your organizations together! 🚀 #Leadership #Excellence #CorporateCulture #ChangeAgents #Success 🤝 Feel free to reach out if you're ready to stop tolerating mediocrity. Negotiation is a Leadership Style. Let's connect, start a conversation, and make a real difference! 📩