People are at the foundation of every great business. In order for a team to achieve the company’s vision, the team must be surrounded with truly great people, top to bottom throughout the company.

Many leadership teams know this, but they aren’t aligned on how to do this. Things quickly get muddy when it comes to what action to take, how to execute it, and when. In a survey of business owners, 82% cited people issues as their number one frustration.

Companies are made up of people. And sometimes people don’t get along. Sometimes people are inconsiderate or forgetful. Sometimes people lack motivation and stop caring whether they produce good work. And all of that has the potential to hurt your business.

Few executives enjoy sitting an employee down to have the “we need to talk” talk. But sooner or later, it becomes unavoidable. How can you have that difficult conversation in a way that promotes positive results?

Last month, a good client came to me with some concerns. He felt that his organization had been making great strides in defining their purpose, vision, and core values. He also felt like the work we had done together had really helped to restructure the organization and improve internal processes so that the organization was positioned appropriately to meet future goals.

But now, he felt the really hard part was kicking in – people issues. One of the key strengths of the EOS system is to help business owners get the right people in the right seats. However, sometimes that means moving or letting good people go, if there is no longer a seat for them.

The best basketball players in the league get it. The original Dream Team’s Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird come to mind. They understand the game so intuitively, it’s second nature to them. They make playing seem effortless. 

In my article on building your business dream team, I stated that you must have players who passionately share your vision and have the skills to help your business win consistently. Your players must get it, want it, and have the capacity (GWC™ in Traction terms) to consistently deliver what their position on the team requires.

So what does “get it” really mean?

You may have inherited, hired, or promoted people who you’ve recognized and rewarded for exceptional production and output—only to hear rumblings that they're getting those results in ways that damage your company’s reputation, aggravating fellow team members and undermining everything that you’re trying to accomplish for the long term. These are usually me-first versus we-first people who put their interests before the Core Values of the organization.

In the meantime, they continue to produce results, but they get those results in ways that go against the company culture. In other words, while they are highly productive short-term, they're killing your company long-term.