Don't Let Bad Actors Drag You Down

As leaders, we set the standards.

We do this through our own actions, of course—we are role models. We also can and should communicate our standards for honesty, integrity, kindness, inclusion, and professional excellence to our team. Let them know what you expect!

When someone does the wrong thing, we need to deal with it. People make mistakes, of course, and we can encourage them to deal with the issue and do what they can to make things right. But if someone continues to do the wrong things (and/or do things wrong), they will demotivate the other team members, drive away clients, and might even open you and the firm up to legal exposure.

We need to decide on a case-by-case basis if the bad behavior is due to correctable ignorance (in which case, we can help them correct it) or to low integrity. People with poor integrity do not belong on your team. If you know about an integrity lapse (e.g., someone falsifies their timesheet), that’s just the one you know about. The reason you don’t keep low-integrity people on your team is because they probably are not just doing the stuff you know about.

(image source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/55028426687021526/)