The Elephant in the Room. The Sacred Cow. The skeleton in the closet. Every company has certain issues that they avoid bringing up at all costs. Sometimes the issues are too uncomfortable to confront. Or the same issue has been discussed many times in the past and still nothing is being done about it. Sometimes it’s because we’re afraid that someone will get personally offended just because we brought it up.

The issues that are most often avoided are people-related issues. Someone is underperforming, but because they’ve been with the company forever, their lack of performance becomes the norm or status quo.

As your company grows, everything gets more complex. Keeping everyone in the loop used to be simple, and as more and more people are added to your team, it can become very cumbersome to keep everyone in the loop. Processes, systems and communications that seemed to at one time happen automatically, don't occur so easily anymore.

Then it begins to snowball. Workarounds and additional steps get added. Bandages are put in place to cover up the loose ends. Longer hours and working harder become the norm “just to catch up.” At this point it becomes tough to even see what the real issue is.

Sound familiar?