A leader's loyalty to underperforming team members can feel good but hurts the business. You need a clear rubric for when to let someone go, especially at a startup where every role matters. The line between loyalty and performance isn't obvious, but it has to exist.
Lots of different roles and having the right people on your team is even more critical to success. But what's the shadow side of loyalty? What's, what's the dark side of this? Well, it may come up in hiring and firing. This is one of the most important things we do as leaders. The decisions we make about the people on our teams is critical to our success. And for us as high performers, it can be really comfortable to shoulder the load. So, and if you think about this in military terms, if there's someone on the team who is underperforming, a lot of times we'll just put the team on our back and we'll carry that person along with us. And, and that actually makes us feel good about ourselves and that we're doing the right thing, we're helping our teammates. But again, here's a difference in business and combat. Like, there has to be a line, there has to be some kind of rubric when we cut an underperformer, right? Especially when we think about a startup, because at a startup we're wearing multiple hats, lots of different roles, and having the right people on your team is even more critical to success. So where is that line?
