Culture is What You Tolerate: The Three Silent Killers of Team Performance | Episode 345

Scott McCarthy [00:00:00]:
Every leader talks about culture, but few realize that it’s not built by slogans or posters. It’s shaped by what you allow. If you tolerate dysfunction, that becomes the culture. In this episode, I’ll break down three subtle yet destructive behaviors that are road high performance, and most importantly how to address them before they take root. Are you ready for this? Alright. Let’s do it. Welcome one. Welcome all to the Peak Performance Leadership Podcast, a weekly podcast series dedicated to helping you hit peak performance across the three domains of leadership.

Scott McCarthy [00:00:44]:
Those being leading yourself, leading your team, and leading your organization. This podcast couples my twenty years of military experience as a senior Canadian army officer with world class guests bringing you the most complete podcast of leadership going. And for more, feel free to check out our website at movingforwardleadership.com. And with that, let’s get to the show. Yes. Welcome one. Welcome all. It is your chief leadership officer, Scott McCarthy, and thanks for tuning in.

Scott McCarthy [00:01:28]:
First off, my apologies for last week for not getting the episode out. I was under the weather, not feeling a %, and reality is I’m still not feeling a %. But I said I will not allow two weeks to pass without an episode. So I said, Shagit, here we are, and we are going to do this. It may take me multiple times. That intro that you just heard took me four tries to get through without hacking or sniffling too bad. So, if it feels a little bit cut up, well, you now know the reason why. Anyway, I digress.

Scott McCarthy [00:02:08]:
Let’s move on. Before we dive in today’s episode, which is super crucial, your culture is what you tolerate, three silent killers of team performance. I want to take a moment because one of you reached out to me, and we were talking. And lo and behold, I didn’t realize that you guys didn’t know what I offered for services. So this person was interested in services, particularly the leader growth mastermind, but in turn, we realized that one to one coaching is better for them. So let me talk about those two things quickly and what the differences are between them, so you get a quick understanding before we dive in today’s podcast. Okay? Because, obviously, I haven’t done a good enough job for you to understand what I offer so here we are quick so the leader growth mastermind If I was to aim it at a particular demographic, we’re looking at team leads, managers, okay. That level that is where that community has been developed for.

Scott McCarthy [00:03:18]:
Okay. And especially for you new and aspiring leaders. So if you’re not necessarily a team lead, but you want to become a team lead, or you want to become a manager, this is still important for you because what it’s going to allow you to do is develop your leadership skills before you actually even get into the hot seat, which there have been people and are people in there that are doing exactly that, and I commend them. They’re phenomenal. It amazes me every day that doing that. So the format is a group style coaching format where people show up. We have our weekly calls. In fact, as soon as I finish recording this podcast episode, I’ll be jumping into our weekly call.

Scott McCarthy [00:04:04]:
And we basically discuss the challenges that you are facing as leaders or questions you have about leadership. So there’s no set curriculum unlike a course. You come with what you want to discuss and we bounce this around the group. There are no bad ideas. We talk about it through the group. Everyone gets to have an input and basically what it is it’s crowdsourcing wisdom get multiple perspectives get perspectives from everybody around the group different angles because there are people from all kinds of different industries there and you get a really holistic look Alright, and I’m there, and I will be definitely yes I will be putting my input in for sure you know that okay, so that is the basis of the leader growth mastermind That’s the core. That’s where you get the most for your money out of. Okay.

Scott McCarthy [00:05:04]:
A few other little add ons are there there are three courses which you get access to, and what these courses are there one course per domain of leadership that we talked about here. Are you leading yourself, leading your team, and leading your organization. You also get access to my AI tool, ScottBot, which enables you to ask it any type of leadership question that you are currently facing or have right now. And that enables you to get very specific and most importantly, vetted feedback through the bot. Okay. It has access to I have given it I should say access to hundreds of different resources which have all been vetted by me. So you know they’re good you know you can trust what comes out of it unlike chat Which has access to everything out there? Including the bad So keep that in mind when you just keep going to chat GPT or one of the other AI tools out there they have access to everything Which includes the bad stuff, and there’s some bad stuff out there alright, so that is the core of the leader gross Master mastermind again more geared towards the team lead the managers, okay group setting we have weekly calls once a week right now. We have one call team as the mastermind grows my intent is to grow that more.

Scott McCarthy [00:06:40]:
So you know you have access to more, and you get access to the three courses. Scott bought and a bunch of other stuff. Alright. It is only $97 a month. That’s it, and once you lock into whatever price you’re you’re in that 97, you stay there for life as long as you’re a member of the mastermind. So check it out, leaddon’tboss.com/mastermind, and, you know, sign up now if you are that team lead or manager or someone who’s aspiring to be one of those. Is a support community for those who have no support. So that’s the leader growth mastermind.

Scott McCarthy [00:07:26]:
My one to one coaching has access to all that stuff, but this is geared more towards that more senior level, executive level, and the biggest difference is, of course, you get one to one access to me. So you get to show up. I don’t have a program per se that we follow. Okay? Because I template my coaching to each and every single individual. Having a program forces you through a hole that you may not want to go through. Whereas, my style is to be adaptive to your needs, your wants, your goals. That is the difference on how I coach compared to many other coaches out there. Alright? So you get access to everything that the leader growth mastermind gets access to.

Scott McCarthy [00:08:29]:
You have access to me one to one. You obviously get more flexibility with scheduling the calls, whereas the mastermind calls are all scheduled. Alright. So that’s basically it for services, and the last thing I want to add in are obviously if you want talks you want group, training, yes, that can absolutely be done for sure. What I would suggest for you is to schedule a clarity call with me, by going to leaddon’tboss.com/clarity, and we’ll just get to understand what it is your goals are, what your needs are, and so on, and discuss and go from there. And, basically, what I can do is do a custom quote for you. The last thing that I will add in about both leader growth mastermind and the one to one coaching is that, you know, maybe it’s not for you, but it can be for your team too. If you need help in developing your team leads, managers, executives, so on, we can definitely work that out.

Scott McCarthy [00:09:43]:
So there you go. Those are all the options for you and how to work with you. I will definitely make sure to mention them a little bit from time to time now that I know that, of course, you guys are interested, but you need to know what the heck they are. Alright. So again, quickly, the links, to all those are for the mastermind, leaddon’tboss.com/mastermind. For coaching, leaddon’tboss.com/coaching. And then if you just wanna book a call, which I highly recommend, no pressure, no hassle, just simply let’s have a conversation on how we might be able to work together and what option is best for you just like I did with Colin recently. That is leaddon’tboss.com/clarity.

Scott McCarthy [00:10:33]:
And if one of those times don’t work, let me know because I do have flexibility with my calendar. Alright. That’s enough. Let’s move on into today’s episode, shall we? In talking about the three silent killers of team performance when it comes to when we talk about culture. Alright. And the first of the three is tolerating meat bureaucracy. I see this more and more with leaders out there, and I understand why this has occurred. It was a big crunch on with getting people and retaining people and the great, resignation, silent quitting, and so many pressures on us.

Scott McCarthy [00:11:21]:
And, essentially, leaders feel stuck that they have to hold on to as many people as they can, but they do it at the expense of mediocrity. And they think that’s the best thing and you think that’s the best thing for you. But the reality is is that it signals that excellence is optional, that high standards are optional. And what you need to realize as a leader is that if you don’t correct it you’re actually condoning it and eventually that mediocrity will become the standard and then people will start getting mediocre mediocre to that standard and it’s just this huge domino snowball combination, right? Just tumbling down and suddenly you’re burning out because you feel like you’re doing everything. You feel like your team isn’t doing anything and suddenly, you know, profits down, numbers are down, customer retention down, everything is down and you’re wondering what happened and how do we get here. Okay? So how do we actually get out of this loop? And the loop is you need to set clear standards. Like, hey. This is the standard.

Scott McCarthy [00:12:50]:
We expect you to meet deadlines. We expect you to do your best. We expect you to show up on time and hold people to account to those standards. Now of course you have to make sure they are communicated that people are aware right because obviously they can’t obtain the standard if they’re unaware of it but if you do inform them of the standards you have to hold them to it Because then you’re not condoning the action, okay? You’re actually in a way coaching people and you don’t have to be a quote unquote Jerk about it. You know, that’s the whole lead don’t boss thing. Right? You can coach people to achieve the standard You don’t need to be a jerk about it but at the same time you also can’t continually accept excuses right there are differences between reasons and excuses reasons are you didn’t do something because there was something else more important that took you away from doing that I Didn’t show up on time because I was busy saving someone’s life on the highway who got into an accident That is a reason an excuse is when someone forgets to do something or makes a decision to do something else in lieu of what they should have done. I didn’t show up on time because I was out late with partying with friends last night, and I forgot to turn on my alarm that Is an excuse ladies and gentlemen? That you don’t condone the former you celebrate Okay We need to stop accepting this bureaucracy. And again, we don’t need to be jerks about it.

Scott McCarthy [00:15:02]:
We need to coach people to the acceptable standard. But first and foremost, you have to explain to them what that standard is. Got it? Alright. Let’s move on. The second silent killer is tolerating passive resistance. Okay? So what is passive resistance? Passive resistance is basically when you don’t get feedback from your team. It could be silence in meetings. It could be that quiet nine compliance, like not following the rules, but not making a big deal about the rule that they’re breaking.

Scott McCarthy [00:15:45]:
It could be, you know, eye rolling in the execution of doing something. And this kills your culture because it’s festering underneath the surface. Right? We don’t hear passive resistance, but we all see passive resistance. And what it does is it makes accountability feel optional for all team members. And we just talked about how important accountability was in the previous way. One. So you need as leader, you need to get into the mindset that you must invite challenge, but address disengagement. Okay? So someone, you know, you’re in a meeting, you’re looking for feedback on something, and someone says, well, you’re just the you’re the boss, so go ahead and make the decision.

Scott McCarthy [00:16:35]:
You go stomp it out right there. No. It’s not just that I’m just the boss. I need and I’m looking for your feedback here. I want your input because this affects you just as much as it affects me and I need to know what I don’t know. Alright. When you got people who are, you know, breaking the rules, but doing it quietly, again, you need to address that. That goes back to tolerating the bureaucracy.

Scott McCarthy [00:17:11]:
You need to address it. Hey. That is the standard. Sorry. But you can’t just quietly not be compliant to things that I need you to be compliant to. There’s reasons for it, and you explain the reasons for it, and you hold them to account for it. And if people, you know, eye rolling and I mean, you know, both figuratively and literally eye rolling. Okay.

Scott McCarthy [00:17:36]:
It’s get them to understand the why behind it. Alright? You need to get them to understand the why behind it, and A good tactic is to get them to repeat it back to you Okay, so a few other things that you can do Get back to fostering psychological safety making them feel like they’re they can be seen heard as well as they have their input. This will help with that passive resistance because they’ll feel like they can go ahead and provide feedback to you. Alright. But at the same time, you do need to be a bit direct when you see this. You have to write them there. Like I said, that person who says, well, you’re just the boss anyway. And you stomp it out right there like, no.

Scott McCarthy [00:18:26]:
Sorry. But it’s not one of the times where it’s just, I’m just the boss and I’m gonna make the call. I need your input here. Alright. And then finally, you can use your one on ones very tactically here in trying to undercover the friction. What’s going on? What actually is the problem? People may be more willing to open up when it’s just one to one, it’s just you and them. Okay. Especially if you want to make, if you go and make it comfortable for them.

Scott McCarthy [00:18:55]:
K. Don’t have that at your desk. Maybe have it at a couple couches. Maybe have it somewhere else that is, you know, neutral per se, but yet, you know, away from others. Okay? Just keep these things in mind. You don’t have to have your one on ones, k, across the desk. If it’s on Teams, maybe you say, hey. You know, go and, you know, in the meetings, they bring a drink or a cup of coffee.

Scott McCarthy [00:19:21]:
Just something different to break it so that it’s not exactly the same as every other meeting. Maybe go and change the background for fun. You know, different ideas. I’m sure you can think of something, but my point is you need to change up something to break it from the usual routine of your normal meetings. Alright. So that’s number two. Alright. The final silent culture team performance killer is tolerating poor communication.

Scott McCarthy [00:19:55]:
We often see this as last minute updates, ambiguity, unclear expectations, or withholding information. Okay. This is going to kill your culture because it leads to confusion, wasted effort, unnecessary conflict, and so much more. And often, leaders are kind of the beginnings of this one. K. This is normally our fault at first, but then it trans, you know, transcends and goes into rest of the team, and then essentially, it goes everywhere. So you need to develop the mindset that clear is kind but vague is careless Okay, clear is kind vague is careless, and you’ll see like these all tap into each other right because you need to establish psychological safety to ensure that you are being clear. You enable your team to ask clarifying questions as needed when you’re not necessarily being clear.

Scott McCarthy [00:20:55]:
Okay. So you want to normalize over communicating during those times of uncertainty. You’ve got to model it yourself and demand it of others. Okay? Communicate communicate communicate with your team and force them to do so with yourself. And maybe that is your schedule a little bit more extra update briefs on certain projects. Maybe you have a little bit longer meetings. Maybe you are out of your office and talking with your team or having more meetings with them because you want to make sure that things are clear. Okay? But one very tactical way to ensure people are understanding what it is that you’re communicating to them is using the mirroring method.

Scott McCarthy [00:21:44]:
Okay? And this is just one way to use the mirroring method. I talked with this a long time ago in the podcast. I’ll talk more about it now because I think it’s a great tool. I use it all the time myself. And a simple way to use the mirroring method in this context is after you explain or you communicate something to a team member or a team, just get them to bring it back to you in their own words. That is a form of mirroring. And what you’re doing is is that you’re looking to confirm that, they actually got it, got what you’re trying to get through to them. Now what you don’t wanna do is be coming down and then degrade them and saying, well, you know what? Can you just tell that tell me back to me what I just told you to make sure you understood what I just said? K.

Scott McCarthy [00:22:36]:
Super degrading. You don’t wanna do that. What you wanna do is say, hey. You mind just, you know, bringing that back to me in your own words so that, I make sure that I actually communicated that properly to you? K? Those are two totally different ways of going about and doing it. Alright? So just keep that in mind. You want to make sure you get it so that you’re not attacking the person, but at the same time you are confirming they actually understood. And the mirroring technique, out of Chris Voss’ book, if you haven’t read, Never Split the Difference, go grab a copy now. It is phenomenal.

Scott McCarthy [00:23:19]:
Love it. I’ve read it multiple times myself. Mastermind members actually all got copies once of it, because I just absolutely love it. So there we go. Alright, ladies and gentlemen. Those are the three silent killers of team performance due to, you know, having impacts on your culture. Again, those are tolerating mediocrity, tolerating passive resistance, and tolerating poor communication. They can all be cured.

Scott McCarthy [00:23:50]:
Just takes, time as well as a lot effort on your part as a leader. Alright. So final thought for you here is that your team will always take more cues from what you accept than what you announce. If you want high performing culture, start auditing your own tolerance level. You know, a couple questions to ask yourself right now is what’s something I’ve let slide recently, and is that reinforcing the standards I want, or is it eroding them? Alright. Food for thought for you on this great day. Again, as always, the leaders were here for you. I’m here for you.

Scott McCarthy [00:24:33]:
You’ve got this. You can do it, but none of us do it alone. Keep that in mind. Alright? Till next time, lead don’t boss. Thank you. Take care, and we’ll see you next time. And that’s a wrap for this episode, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for listening.

Scott McCarthy [00:24:55]:
Thank you for supporting the Peak Performance Leadership Podcast. But you know what you could do to truly support the podcast and know that’s not leaving a rating and review. It’s simply helping a friend, and that is helping a friend by sharing this episode with them. If you think this would resonate with them and help them elevate their performance level, whether that’s within themselves, their teams, or their organization. So do that. Help me help a friend win win all around and hey, you look like a great friend at the same time. So just hit that little share button on your app and then feel free to fire this episode to anyone that you feel would benefit from it. Finally, there’s always more.

Scott McCarthy [00:25:43]:
There’s always more lessons around being the highest performing leader that you can possibly be, whether that’s for yourself, your team, or your organization. So why don’t you subscribe? Subscribe to the show via movingforwardleadership.com forward /subscribe. Until next time, lead, don’t boss, and thanks for coming out. Take care now.