Thursday, September 18, 2008
Three Most Important Reasons to Fire the Fat (part 3 of 3)
By Christine Regan Lake
The Anchors
So if the first two reasons weren’t enough to make you start questioning who may need to be called into your office and shown the cold light of day, maybe this reason will be enough to push you over the edge. B and C players bring to work with them their bad habits, cynical attitude and contaminate your environment. A great analogy is to look at your company as its own little ecosystem. Think of it as a little fish bowl with everyone living together in this tight little bowl doing their thing. Now, if you have a good filter everything is fine and dandy, and everyone goes on thriving indefinitely. What happens when the filter breaks or if–god forbid–you don’t even have a filter. The toxic build-up becomes overwhelming and the fish start to die. Do you think your office is any different? When you have B and C players who bring in their toxic garbage day in and day out…… and there is no filter, meaning there is no consequences for pessimistic attitude or not taking responsibility or blaming others or the trivial backbiting or always bemoaning their situation. All of this and more is toxic waste, and when you allow it to go on you have removed the filter on your fish tank. Very slowly over time, the result is that your environment becomes polluted and you don’t even know it. Everyone seems a little less hopeful, a little less excited and as these players drag your company’s energy down like an anchor so goes the revenue. Your company starts to experience a slow and painful death as it fights for oxygen in a toxic waste dump.
Congratulations, if you have made it this far that means you forced yourself to read this article and I’m very proud of you. You’ve taken the first step in fixing the problem. I can guarantee you that we lost some folks somewhere along the way because the truth was far too painful. My one last request is that you get up right now and go find a mirror, take a few deep breaths and then stare intently into your eyes for a few moments. DO NOT LOOK AWAY and ask yourself the following question. From this moment forward what is it going to be: respect or likeability? If you choose the first, it will change your destiny and dramatically reshape your company.
Leave a Comment