Sometimes people let us down.
They promise one thing and deliver another. We expect performance at this level, but we get it at that level. We get disappointed or hurt, and sometimes it undermines our ability to achieve what we set out to accomplish.
Imagine being in a relationship where the other person consistently lets you down by promising things but never delivering.
What would happen to that relationship if you never dealt with the problem?
What would happen in a team at work if someone consistently underperformed and the supervisor never addressed it?
What do you think would happen if the majority of managers and supervisors in a company dealt with poor performance and bad behaviour by ignoring it?
It’s not a difficult question! We can’t expect change to come from doing nothing.
As responsible individuals and motivated leaders, we can’t let situations like that occur without paying a huge price. Unaddressed problems tend to get worse, not better.
When we do nothing, we pay a price in both our results and our relationships.
A few months ago we were touring the brand new headquarters of a Fortune 500 company we work with. It was absolutely beautiful with it’s brass and glass and new technology. The vice president who was showing us around was so proud of this new building.
The tour ended in a massive auditorium, the crown jewel of this state of the art facility.
As we were standing there in awe of this magnificent room, I started making small talk with the VP and asked, “So, how many people work here?”
He responded, “On a good day, about forty percent of them.”
Daniel Yankelovich performed a nationwide poll of workers in America and found that 44% report doing the bare minimum required to keep from being fired, and nothing more.
Our work culture is losing something in productivity. We’re missing out on performance and what we can accomplish if we don’t handle problems in a different way.
I define a crucial confrontation as a face-to-face, accountability conversation around something that matters.
If someone disappoints you and it’s a minor issue, by all means, let it go.
But if the issue is high-stakes, it’s crucial. You must take action.
If you don’t have that accountability conversation, your results and relationships will suffer in a big way.
