Navigating Levels of Health within an Organization
Carey Nieuwhof tweeted out this quote recently: “A healthy culture spits out toxic people. Here’s the surprise. No one gets kicked out; they just leave when they can’t get traction or validation.”
It’s been my experience in organizations and in turning around several organizations that there are closer to 4 types of “healthy” people in organizations:
Healthy people who leave
Unhealthy people who leave
Healthy people who stay
Unhealthy people who stay
For years I have said, one of the hardest things to discern is of the people who stay, who is healthy and who is unhealthy. This has been the case over and over again, whether with a church or a business. The interesting thing about both categories is they are driven by capitalism. By capitalism, I mean this; people do not have to be loyal to either a business or a church. People are usually paying to be at both organizations. Either through their giving at the church or their buying of a service, which the business is providing.
This is what I have noticed though. . . By and large, people self select whether they will continue with an organization. Healthy people who are go-getters will quickly leave an unhealthy organization and a lousy leader. Healthy people who are loyalists and plodders will try to stay with the organization through thick and thin because of an intrinsic desire to help the larger group.
Unhealthy people will stay in an unhealthy organization led by a bad leader because they are usually allowed to run wild through power trips, manipulation, and other acts that are out of line. I jokingly say most churches have 30 crazy people in them. Whether that church has 1000 people or 50 people. . .
However, I have noticed unhealthy people will quickly leave an organization that is turning around and which is led by a healthy leader. That is encouraging! An organization that brings on a healthy leader will see the heat turned up on those who are unhealthy, whether those people are employees, clients, or parishioners. The new leadership dynamic leads to a showdown between the two “powers” in the organization. If the leader can be steadfast and is not cannibalized by the people they are serving, then, usually, the unhealthy people leave, and the organization has a shot at moving forward.
When I jumped in with a partner to turn around a business, the retail store was losing about $30–40k/month over three years. Times were desperate, and we had two options: save it or close it down.
The culture was toxic.
The customer service was bad.
The products were non-existent.
Because of this, customers had left in droves, driving over an hour to the nearest competitor just to get proper service. After a few weeks of observation, it was time to make some drastic changes. We began to liquidate older inventory. We worked on regaining trust with the community, as well as trust among the staff. The number one salesperson was selling almost twice as much as everyone else. Yet, he was a complete jerk to both the associates and the customers. After addressing a few issues with him directly and waiting to see it turnaround to no avail, we decided to let him go. The termination was in a private setting, but he chose to enter back in and walk throughout the back of the store, yelling, cursing, and then took his rant briefly to the customer section of the store. After he left, we gathered the rest of the shell-shocked employees together, who were mostly college students, and let them know about the termination. If there were any questions, the employees could talk to me one on one. To my surprise, business went on, as usual, about 15 minutes later. That atmosphere immediately got better. The employees were more light-hearted and seemed to genuinely enjoy their work. Better than that, not only did we not drop in numbers, but our overall sales went up by 30% over the next month. We went from losing $30k a month to profiting $10k/month in less than two months. That’s a turnaround! And sure enough, we did not have to add anyone else to the team. The rest of the employees simply filled in the gaps and started to shine.
Sometimes you have to let your highest performing employees go because they are hurting the overall organization.
Leader: when you are looking at your organization, please understand that you are the lid or the springboard for success in that organization.
Leader, please understand that you are the lid or the springboard for success in your organization. You will always be one of the two. It is your responsibility to recognize that paradox, help encourage and equip the healthy people in your organization while developing or moving on the unhealthy people in your organization. It is that simple. It is not easy, but it is simple. So, in this time of budgets, fiscal years, evaluations, and deep reflection, while taking the pulse of your organization, take your own as well. Who is with you? Who has left? Why?
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