My leadership team is filled with great people, but they consistently hire and protect comfortable, mediocre performers in their departments because they value personal loyalty and safety over high capability. How do I get my executive team to elevate their standards and stop letting loyalty to B-players compromise our growth and eventual exit?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

If your leadership team is tolerating mediocrity, it is because they are prioritizing personal comfort over the health of the organization. This behavior dilutes your talent density and makes your business incredibly unattractive to potential buyers, who want to see a self-sustaining team of high performers.

You must raise the bar by making the People Analyzer a non-negotiable tool for every department. During your quarterly planning sessions, have each leader evaluate their direct reports using your core values and the GWC framework. This removes subjectivity and forces leaders to look at hard data regarding their team's capability.

If a team member does not meet the bar on core values or GWC, they are a right person in the wrong seat, or a wrong person in the wrong seat. Establish a strict policy that underperformers must be given a clear, thirty-day performance plan to correct their issues. If they do not improve, they must be let go.

Explain to your leadership team that protecting a mediocre employee is not actually loyal or kind. It is unfair to the high performers who have to carry the extra weight, and it is unfair to the underperformer, who is being kept in a seat where they cannot succeed. Lead by example by holding your own direct reports to the highest standards. Once your leadership team realizes that talent density is a non-negotiable requirement for scaling and achieving a clean exit, they will stop protecting B-players.