If you want to create a constructive culture where employees are engaged in their work, you need to be prepared to hold people accountable—even if they seem to be a rockstar.
Imagine you have an amazing salesperson on your team who consistently brings in a lot of money for your company. This makes you, as his boss, happy. It might even contribute to your annual bonus. Thank you rockstar salesperson!
On the other hand, this person is not a team player. He makes promises to clients without working with others to ensure those promises can be met by the company. He makes no effort to develop the less experienced salespeople—after all, he doesn’t want them cutting into his commissions. You put up with these behaviours because this guy makes money.
What you’re telling your team with your actions (which speak louder than words) is “we want a collaborative culture…unless you’re a great salesperson….then you don’t need to be collaborative…which means you don’t have to be collaborative to be part of our team” to which employees might say, “why should I be collaborative?”
Rather than ignoring these undesired behaviours, what if you held him accountable for collaboration? What kind of results might you be able to see?
He mentors other salespeople and soon you have a sales team full of star players
Your customers are happier because he has worked closely with other divisions to make sure the team is able to deliver on what has been promised
He brings feedback from customers back to the product development team resulting in better products and services your customers will love!
Culture has an impact on your bottom line. Don’t make exceptions when it comes to holding people accountable for the behaviors that contribute to a constructive culture.