David P. Schafer warns that avoiding uncomfortable conversations lets small toxic behaviors grow like a mustard seed into a mountain of dysfunction. Confront problems the moment they appear, respectfully and directly, even with family or close friends, to keep the business moving forward.
Folks will lean into initially hiring family and friends, and oftentimes this leads to conflict that's unnecessary. And instead of addressing it head-on, folks instead decide they're going to skirt it or they're going to avoid having the conversation altogether. And if you really wanted to avoid toxic behaviors, what you would do is as soon as you saw them happening is you would address it in that moment in a way that was respectful to everyone involved. I cannot tell you enough how what starts off as a very small mustard seed turns into such a bigger mountain of an organizational problem because folks just won't say what's really bothering them. I don't care if you've hired your cousin or your nephew or your son or whoever it is, you need to make sure you're having the conversations that actually move the business forward and not skirting those things later on down the line.
