Merge earlier, you jerk!

You’re driving down the interstate highway at 75 miles per hour trying to get home. You’re making good time, and you’ll be home soon.

No, wait. You’re slowing down. You see red brake lights everywhere, and cars slightly swerving onto the shoulder to avoid the bumpers in front of them. What now? You just want to get home!

There’s construction ahead? An accident, perhaps? Ah…now you see the large blinking arrow directing everyone to merge into the right lane. So, everyone begins making their way into the right lane, slowly but surely, with polite waves and nodding heads.

And that dear reader…is a fairy tale.

Because as we all know, not everyone is merging, are they?

Tolerating toxicity is easy

There are always those drivers who continue driving in the blocked lane until the last minute. They want to cut in line. The rest of us are playing within the constructs of what is expected and acceptable on the road of life, but this other group of people…not so much.

Their only concern is themselves. They couldn’t care less about the rest of us or how long we’ve been doing the right thing. This happens in organizations every day.

Leaders tolerate toxic behavior for several reasons. It’s easier than disciplinary action. It’s more cost effective than termination that results in being short-staffed, recruiting, interviewing, hiring and training a replacement. It’s too time consuming to deal with the person behaving badly.

And besides, the person is good at their “job” and contributes to the bottom line. They always hit their numbers, or they are subject matter experts.

Kick toxic teammates to the curb

Here’s the thing: toxic team members must go. The best thing you can do for your organization is get them off the bus as soon as possible. Give them a chance to change behavior, and if they can’t…cut ties.

Leaders are always more willing to discipline and terminate for objective reasons (numbers, goals, ratios, etc.) than they are for subjective reasons (behaviors). But behaviors are the whole game.

If someone is not behaving the way we expect, they are simply not a good fit and never will be. They may be good at sales or operations or lending or accounting. So what? So are many, many people. Go get one of them that is a good cultural fit.

Think about yourself in that lane of traffic. You are, quite literally, screaming at the behavior of those who won’t merge quickly enough — who won’t follow the rules. They may be objectively good drivers…maybe even exceptional drivers.

But they are toxic. And you want something to be done about it, don’t you?

Enforce the rules of the road

That’s exactly how the rest of your staff feels when they see you tolerating toxic employee behavior. Either you have expectations, or you do not. There is no middle.

And when you enforce standards of behavior, everyone wins. The mood changes, the culture changes and the environment changes. People are more productive because everyone is playing by the same set of rules, and they all know there is a culture of accountability.

No cheating. No toxic people. No jerks.

Leaders: create standards of behavior, live them, enforce them and be intolerant of anyone who does not live them. Nothing kills a great employee faster than watching you tolerate a bad one.

Remember, the traffic moves much faster when everyone merges earlier.