Tolerance nowadays is usually seen as a leadership virtue. But often it does more harm than good.
I once worked with a leadership team where the company’s quarterly results were not good.
New client acquisition in specific segments was one of the company’s top strategic priorities. Everyone knew this, because it was written in the strategy, defined as a yearly objective, and reviewed at every executive meeting.
When the results and lack of progress were questioned at the meeting, the Head of Sales didn’t have a specific plan to fix things and make progress.
Week after week, the answer was the same: “We have some good deals in the pipeline, and we hope they’ll convert next month”. There were no specific actions on what the team would do differently to make real progress the following week.
And week after week, the CEO didn’t push and didn’t hold that person accountable. He didn’t ask for a specific plan or a deadline. He just listened and moved on to the next topic.
It continued like that for months.
Nobody said the priority had changed. But every leader in that meeting, and their teams, understood that it had changed, or that it wasn’t THAT important – just by watching what was tolerated.
Why it matters
The CEO was patient with a person and didn’t want to hurt the relationship.
But somewhere along the way, tolerance toward a person turned into tolerance toward underperformance.
This sent two messages to everyone:
- one of the company’s highest priorities wasn’t as important as stated
- underperformance is acceptable here
We live in a world of constant change – life happens, markets change, client needs change, and we all make mistakes in the process.
And I believe tolerance has its place: with people who are learning, with honest mistakes they make while trying something new, and with people who have different opinions on important topics and how to solve specific problems. A team that’s afraid to make mistakes will not experiment and innovate.
But if we’ve said something is important, we have to hold people accountable for it.
That means no tolerance for missed outcomes without focused efforts, for “we hope it converts” instead of a plan, or for the same problem discussed for the fifth week with nothing changing.
The same goes for behavior and attitude: blaming others instead of owning the problem, ignoring commitments when they become inconvenient, or a negative attitude that drains the team’s energy.
That’s not about being hard on people. It’s about the culture we create every time we, as leaders, decide or don’t decide, act or don’t act, ignore or don’t ignore.
And it’s also not fair to everyone else.
Think of the people on the same team who hold high standards. They work hard, they keep their commitments, and when something goes wrong, they come with a plan, not a hope that it will work out. They see the vague answer and poor results accepted week after week, and they draw a conclusion: effort, commitment, and ownership don’t really matter here.
Some of them lower their standards. Some of your best people will probably leave eventually.
A company’s culture develops in any case, with or without your direction as a leader.
Your team learns more from what you do than from what you say:
- the missed targets nobody mentions, or the project accepted below the quality and outcomes that were agreed
- the vague answer that gets accepted week after week
- the leader’s own “super urgent” request that overrides the quarter’s priorities
- the rumors and comments behind people’s backs that nobody stops
- the customers who get poor service because teams are busy passing responsibility back and forth
- the person who treats others rudely or without respect, and is excused because they deliver results
Our actions are a reflection of what we actually believe is true and important. Not what we say we believe, but what we do.
So if something is a priority, show it through your actions. Ask for a specific plan and a deadline, and hold people accountable. Stop unacceptable behavior when you notice it, and explain why it matters. And if someone consistently doesn’t meet the standards you’ve agreed on, don’t let it drag on.
Your action this week
1. Take your top priority
What happened the last time someone didn’t deliver on it? If the answer is “nothing,” that’s the new standard everyone sees.
2. Check your own actions
- Where did you override your own highest priorities this month?
- Which behaviors or attitudes in the team do you tolerate because addressing them feels uncomfortable?
3. Separate the person from the performance
- Where are you being patient with someone, and where has that patience become acceptance of results you’d never agree to on paper?
- For any priority that’s off track, ask for a plan: specific actions, an owner, and a date. Then put it on next week’s agenda.
4. Not a formal leader?
You shape the culture you work in too. What do your actions show your colleagues, in meetings, in private conversations, and in how you keep your own commitments?
Cheers, Andrey Sergeyev
For short ideas on leading, living and scaling business with focus on what matters – follow me on Linkedin
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