Are there longer-term direct reports who are critical to the success of the organization yet periodically evidence marginal behavior that is overlooked or ignored? Is it possible to grow an effective leadership team when a few highly visible individuals send a message that you can live outside the organization’s values or vision and remain in good standing?

Our experience in executive and management coaching suggests that leaders are increasingly vulnerable to a settling mindset. This occurs whenever a disruptive or disregarding personality is retained, for compelling business reasons, at the expense of leadership and organizational values. The following signposts may prove helpful in alerting you to the presence of a settling mindset.

The Teflon nature of mis-hires: Entrenched leaders with marginal staff management practices often inflate their strengths and success to a point where new staff encounter a “deal with my idiosyncrasies or find another position” mentality.  Capable direct reports come and go for random and disappointing reasons that rarely point to the role the leader has played in undermining their commitment or success. With each staff mis-hire, the leader lives out her/his indispensability and becomes further entrenched in her/his own value and base of power.

The unsubstantiated rumor mill: Successful and misbehaving leaders often become adept at demonstrating their prowess in very discreet or distant ways.  Rumors of marginal behavior on business trips, office improprieties that are left to a he said/she said validation process, or the misuse of resources reframed as a misunderstanding of policy and practice are evidences of poor judgment that erodes leadership integrity and respect for corporate boundaries. The rumors may serve only to raise the stakes of excitement and challenge for the leader.

The frequency of excuses made by other longer-term staff who worked with or around the leader: It is not uncommon for bright, capable leaders and staff to adopt an acceptance of marginal behavior and then institutionalize that acceptance with comments like, “This doesn’t happen that often and it used to be a lot worse.” Years of marginal behavior going unchecked seem to lend credibility to the behavior instead of incredulity that is has existed for so long.

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Settling for marginal leadership behavior not only dilutes the value of the leader, but also diminishes the expectations for leadership in the organization. In doing so, the organization maybe losing high potential leaders who are migrating to places that hold to a higher and more compelling standard of leadership.

Organizations who take the risk of confronting valued leaders with limiting and marginal behaviors may find an initially resistant but open recipient wanting to grow, as well a newfound level of professional integrity that invites others in the organization to a higher standard of leadership.

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