Our lead operations manager is incredibly competent and hits every scorecard metric, but he is defensive, resists feedback, and is toxic to our team culture. He is clearly a wrong-person-right-seat issue. How do we handle this conversation without causing a mass exodus of our production staff?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When you have an employee who excels technically but violates your Core Values, you have a right-person-wrong-seat issue. This situation is toxic because keeping them tells the rest of your team that high performance excuses bad behavior.

You must handle this immediately using the three-strike rule. First, have a direct, loving, and honest conversation. Mirror back the specific behaviors that violate your Core Values, such as defensiveness or resisting feedback. Do not sugarcoat the message.

Give them thirty days to correct the behavior. If the behavior does not change, have a second conversation to warn them that their seat is at risk. If they still fail to align after another thirty days, you must part ways.

Your fear of a mass exodus is usually worse than reality. Often, the rest of your team will feel relieved when a toxic person is removed. Make the right-person-right-seat call with confidence. Rely on your remaining team and use the IDS process to handle any short-term operational gaps.