Think about your team for a minute.

Is every person on it dependable, competent, and pleasant to be around?  Hopefully, that description applies to most of the people you work with every day.  But let’s be realistic.  Not everyone on your team has your company’s best interests in mind.  Some people’s performance is inconsistent and others have a terrible attitude.

So, of these two types of “problem people”, which category is more costly to your company… the one with the poor performance or the poor attitude?

Like most questions, there’s probably more than one right answer.  The poor performer might not have a huge financial impact on your business, and the person with a poor attitude might just be an annoying grump who’s easy to ignore.

Here’s one way to think about it… think of the two types of “problem people” on your team as heart attacks and cancer.

People who are poor performers are like heart attacks.  They do their damage and then it’s over.  The result of the damage may be extensive and expensive or it might only have a minor effect.  But when it’s done, it’s typically done.

People with a poor attitude are like cancer.  Their negative attitudes spread from one person to another, influencing their teammates’ thoughts and actions.  The damage they do is typically slow, hard to detect, and worsens over time.  When you finally notice you have a problem on your hands, the damage has already spread throughout most of your team.

So, between these two types of “problem people”, who are you going to continue working with and which ones do you think need to go?

You can choose to address your heart attacks and cancers, or just continue putting up with them.  Regardless of what path you take, every day you’re making a choice.  Choose wisely.

 

Photo Credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/15001405@N06/14136982123″>Taquicardía</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/”>(license)</a>