A few years ago I worked with a client who had several managers consistently demonstrating “unhealthy” work habits. While they weren’t completely abrasive, they were definitely self-focused, overly critical of team members and unskilled at setting expectations and holding team members accountable. The company had high turnover, a toxic culture and quality issues that all led to poor financial performance.
Instead of addressing the issue, the company made significant investments in sales and marketing to attract new customers. However, the company didn’t have experienced employees who were able to convert new leads into new business. When new customers were secured, their reputation for delivering poor service resulted in a need to sell services at a low margin. In addition, recurring quality issues resulted in issuing credits and refunds to customers.
Although the business owner was aware of the problem with leaders, he didn’t focus on improving their performance. Instead, the executive chose to invest in new sales strategies, programs to improve operational efficiency and a new ERP system. He thought these “strategic” investments would solve the problem and he would be able to ignore the issues that existed with leaders and team performance.
The business owner could have addressed the leader performance issues by taking three straight-forward approaches:
Nobody is perfect and every business has a leader who is at least a little “Out of Shape”. These unhealthy leaders cause the organization to experience unexpected pains, chronic issues and long-term consequences that impact the organization’s culture. Investing in new systems, processes and strategies will not yield the desired benefit if the leaders are not able to run the business and successfully implement new initiatives.
Are you noticing unhealthy team and leader issues within your business?
Don’t ignore those unhealthy habits. Get your leaders to the gym and help them adopt healthier habits that will lead to stronger performance for the organization.
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