Your leadership team has a MASCOT

[00:00:00]Every leadership team past a certain size has a mascot.

[00:00:05]Laughed, loyal, been there forever. And if you just thought of a face, then this video might sting a little. I had one last time I was a CEO. Um, was there without fail every Monday morning leadership meeting since the time when our office was a kitchen table.

[00:00:25]beautiful human, loyal to the core, and their work was okay, not bad, but also not great. So, every Monday morning, I told myself, you know what, it's fine.

[00:00:44]It's okay. And that person is is okay.

[00:00:48]And then I spend the rest of the week, you know, meeting people across the city and from other teams. And I sort of, you know, that feeling crept in that I pushed to the side that most of them would run circles around this person.

[00:01:03]And I didn't say anything for a long time. And unfortunately, it took me a few years to find out what me keeping it quiet, being fine with it actually cost the company and me. And it wasn't what I thought. Here's what nobody tells you.

[00:01:25]Um, with genuinely bad hires, right?

[00:01:29]They fire themselves. They are cheap.

[00:01:31]You know, they they screw things up.

[00:01:35]They have genuinely bad performance.

[00:01:38]They miss every target. And even if you're super shy of confrontation, eventually you will sign the papers.

[00:01:47]That that whole thing takes care of itself. the decision basically gets made for you. But okay, people, they don't give you that. In Germany, there's this saying, you know, too much to die, too little to live. They're just good enough, but never really great. They deliver just enough. They're always beautifully nice in meetings. There's no case to fire them and there's no case to promote or shoulder pet them either. So they sit there sometimes for years and while they sit you and the whole team pays.

[00:02:30]Let's quickly do the math. You know at five people in the leadership team if one of them is just okay that is 20% of the leadership team underperforming and at a small team you just simply can't carry that they're loadbearing I mean if you have a thousand people if you have a handful of people who are just okay you know the rest of the team carries them but at your company price.

[00:03:03]Nope. See, the worst performer in your team cost you some conflict and a salary, but the okay performer cost you a fifth of the brain of your company.

[00:03:15]And here's the bit that took me a long time to figure out. You know, my guy, he knew, you know, he didn't feel great about it. He sort of felt that he was not really doing as well as everybody else. and you know he hung on for dear life and generally didn't feel so good about him being in the company and I didn't give really clear signals so it was this little dance um and neither of us was truly happy about the situation but neither of us said anything but I was the CEO I'm the one to say something then there is the friendship ship, you know, they have been there from the beginning. You have a relationship. You have you probably have a friendship and that makes it so much worse. And you feel that if you say something, you not only betray that person, you betray the history of the company. So you sort of muddle along.

[00:04:23]And to protect the history, you let the present rot. and you've got one of these. You know, 90 seconds ago, you thought of a face. You wouldn't watch this video till now. If you didn't, so what do you do with a person in your leadership team that's just okay?

[00:04:46]Well, there's three doors, you know, like door number one would be, hey, maybe they are generally good, but they're just in the wrong position. You know, sometimes you can move them sideways or a little bit lower where they're more comfortable. Maybe leading other people is not their thing and doing the actual thing is their thing and you can talk about that and somehow work that out. So sometimes promoting them is is is an option, right? Um that said, sometimes coaching is a good idea. Maybe there is a very specific blocker. Maybe it has something to do with a cultural thing that you know developed over time in the company.

[00:05:30]Maybe things just have to be talked through. Maybe there's some resentment.

[00:05:34]Maybe there is some genuine need that that person has and you know you can coach them to become a better leader and that will fix it. And if it's not option A and not option B, then a clear exit is the best thing to do. And that's difficult. It's so difficult because they're friends. However, in my experience, both parties will be happier in the long run. You will be happier.

[00:06:08]Your company and the team will be happier. And that person after the initial shock and uh you know not knowing what to do, they will also find something that is more in line with who they are and they will also be happier.

[00:06:24]And you you don't have to brutally just fire them and then never see them again.

[00:06:29]No, you don't do that. Help them help them find something that fits them better. You know, you sort of owe them that. um because they have been in the trenches with you. You don't just want to cut them loose because they're not the top performers right now. That that's that's not you. So write them glowing recommendations, you know, ask around in your network, find them something. But a clean separation makes everybody happier in my opinion. So promoting side promoting coaching sometimes helps. I would say 20% of the time, but 80% of the time, you know exactly what to do and just trust that it will work out in the long run. All right. Um, if that seems like a daunting thing to do, DM me and let's just talk about it. Sometimes getting an external person in like a coach can really help um, solving that. and you know having a neutral person in the room a little bit like a marriage counselor you know like you know let everybody talk and move through the five stages of grief so to say that can really help. Um all right I hope this was helpful. Have a beautiful rest of the week. Bye.