Leaders, Are You Holding a High Bar?
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With what is currently happening in the labor market (the Great Resignation, ya heard?), many companies are becoming acutely aware of the reality that was highlighted by a recent analysis of more than 1.4 million Glassdoor reviews.
The reality is this: A toxic culture is 10.4 times more likely to contribute to an employee leaving than compensation.
People are walking out on toxic cultures.
And one of the topics that has been skyrocketed to the forefront of many conversations involving organizational culture is around holding people accountable.
“And one of the topics that has been skyrocketed to the forefront of many conversations involving organizational culture is around holding people accountable.”
As an organization if you don't have a very intentionally defined culture that everyone takes ownership for, and you don't have a history of holding people to a high standard of accountability, then you very likely have what exists in most organizations which is a mishmash of inconsistency and behaviors when it comes to accountability.
Most organizations have a a mix of high performing, really engaged, positive employees, a good number of middle-of-the-roads and typically a number of people that are disengaged or even toxic.
The obvious fix is to hold people to a higher standard and a higher bar.
If you want to elevate your culture and improve employee experience then that means you have to hold a higher bar. It means taking a hard look at what you've allowed to let slide in the organization up until now, and making some changes for what going forward will look like.
Like I love to say, “What you allow, you endorse.” It is up to leadership to establish and drive a clearly defined, intentional behavior-based culture that the organization is committed to and that is consistent across the company.
And while that may be the obvious fix, it also presents a conundrum.
What a lot of leaders and organizations are faced with is this: if you raise the bar and say, “We're going to be committed to not allowing anyone, including leaders, to come to work with poor attitudes, exhibiting toxic behavior, mistreating their coworkers, or performing at low/mediocre standards,” then some people may quit.
And yes, it is a tough labor market right now and people are hard to find, For any organization that is already understaffed, the thought of potentially losing more people is hard to bare. But here’s the reality:
Companies have a choice to make about accountability.
“Who are you catering to when it comes to how high the bar is held on your teams — your highest performers, or your lowest?”
Here's something to reflect on: Who are you catering to when it comes to how high the bar is held on your teams — your highest performers, or your lowest?
In my opinion, you are going to lose people either way.
What I mean by that is whether you choose to raise the bar and hold everyone in the organization to a higher standard, or you keep the bar low and continue to tolerate and endorse poor behavior and performance, you are going to lose a segment of your people. The question is which one would you rather lose?
Yes, if you have poor behavior and low performing employees leave then you will have to replace them. The silver and obvious lining is that they will almost certainly be replaced with people who will contribute in a more positive way and be many times more valuable than the ones who left.
“If you continue with the same low bar, you will lose your highest performers and your most positive, productive people (if you haven’t already).”
However, if you continue with the same low bar, you will lose your highest performers and your most positive, productive people (if you haven’t already).
They may not quit their jobs. In fact, a lot of them don't simply because they're loyal to the company. But if you keep tolerating toxic, poor performers and leaders then the way that you will lose them is that they will stop trying or caring as much.
You will lose their morale, engagement, excitement, productivity, and loyalty to the company, They will care less and they will do less. All of which significantly affects an organization’s bottom line in a number of ways.
For just one example, any customer experience is made worse by interacting with someone who's disengaged or doesn’t care about their job. As a result the service you're providing or product that you're creating as an organization will suffer in quality control and delivery.
I say yes.
Raise the bar in your organization and hold everyone to a higher standard.
I can say with certainty that the highly accountable people in your company want desperately for leadership to do what only leadership can which is to address and correct (or remove) the people who are not pulling their weight and showing up with poor behavior.
That's the tea. Make the choice. and be a better organization as a result.
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This article was created by Galen Emanuele for the #culturedrop. Free leadership and team culture content in less than 5 minutes a week. Check out the rest of this month's content and subscribe to the Culture Drop at https://bit.ly/culturedrop
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