Nobody talks about the elephant in the room. It’s too uncomfortable. “It’s too embarrassing,” you think, “If I bring that subject up, then everyone will know about it.” But here’s the thing – people know about the elephant in the room, and ignoring it is causing more problems than it’s solving.
Let’s face it. There are very few secrets in most small companies. Everybody already knows about it. If it’s that employee that you can’t bring yourself to terminate for poor performance, everyone knows about him already. In fact, they are probably upset with you for not doing anything about him and expecting them to work harder to compensate for him.
If it’s that personal friend of yours, or of your family, who owes your company significant money or is taking advantage of your relationship in other ways that hurt the company, everybody knows. Every day that this continues, you lose respect in the eyes of your employees.
What elephant is in your room? What aren’t you dealing with? Resolve to name the elephant during your next meeting, and figure out how to deal with it – for good. You are hurting, not helping, your company more with every day that you wait.
If you want to learn more about the power of addressing tough issues, read this great article by my fellow EOS Implementer™, Connie Chwan.