Be stern with resisters
You will never have a perfect culture because there will always be people in the organization who are not completely buying in to it.
Even worse, that resistance may be coming from one of your top financial performers.
Gregory once had a great producer who was helping the bottom line, but she was always complaining and causing trouble.
So, he took one step back in order to take 20 steps forward, and he fired her.
“We worked with her for months,” he says. “This is something that we really avoided doing. Not to mention we’d lose production, but she’d walk across the street to my competitor. It was a lose-lose. But, it became so disruptive. She just didn’t get it. It was everyone’s fault, and she complained about everyone. She was making my work-life miserable.”
It’s not the easiest decision, but it’s one you might have to make one day. Like Gregory, you want to at least attempt to work with the employee to see your point of view and explain how buying in to the culture will help that employee’s future.
“You need to try to get that person to relate to you,” he says. “(Tell them,) ‘Maybe you’ve seen a situation or maybe I used to be like that and I learned the hard way. You’re so talented, but you are going to be your own worst enemy. We take culture over your revenue, and we don’t want to lose you, but we aren’t going to lose my entire culture that I’ve built over the last how many years because you are a great producer.’”
There really is no timetable for getting that person to buy in. You should take each situation on a case-by-case basis.
“You really don’t want to pigeonhole yourself into set rules,” he says. “If you do that, you’re really going to hurt in the end. I think you need to leave yourself open, and you need to be ready to adjust to different situations.”
While it may hurt temporarily, firing a great producer who is a malcontent makes a great long-term statement to your company that everyone needs to be on the same page.
“It’s a great statement,” he says. “Nobody should have you, as a leader, in a corner where they can dictate to you.”
