That's Still a Pothole!

When I was growing up in New Orleans, I spent a lot of time at my grandmother's house. Her street was not well-maintained at all. In fact, there was one particular pothole on my grandmother's street that I swear had been there my entire life. I don't remember when it first appeared. I don't remember a time when it wasn't there. It was just... there.

Every now and then, somebody would come along and fill it with something. Gravel, asphalt, dirt... who knows? And for a little while, it might look better. But eventually, whatever they put in that hole would wear away, and there it was again. Same pothole. Same problem. Different day.

The people who lived on that street didn't spend every day complaining about the pothole. They just learned to live with it. They knew exactly where it was, when to slow down, and which direction to swerve to avoid it. After a while, navigating around that pothole became so automatic that they probably didn't even think about it anymore.

But you know what? That was STILL a pothole!

And no matter how good everybody got at driving around it, that didn't make the street any better.

Now, let's talk about that employee. You know the one. The employee who has been struggling to meet expectations for so long that everybody has practically accepted it as normal.

You've provided training. You've had the conversations. You've offered coaching, additional resources, and opportunities for improvement. You've asked what they need to be successful. You've clarified expectations, explained the impact of their performance, and given them more chances than you can count.

And yet, here we are. Same pothole. Same problem. Different day.

Now, don't get me wrong. I believe in developing people. I believe in coaching, mentoring, and giving employees every reasonable opportunity to succeed. Helping people reach their potential is one of the greatest responsibilities of leadership.

But I also believe there comes a point when continuing to accommodate poor performance stops being supportive and starts becoming a disservice to everyone involved. Including the employee.

Think about what happens when an employee consistently fails to meet expectations, but nobody wants to make the difficult decision about what comes next. The supervisor starts double-checking everything the employee does. Coworkers pick up the slack. Certain assignments stop going to that employee because everybody knows they won't get done correctly or on time. Responsibilities get redistributed. Expectations get unofficially lowered. And eventually, the entire team develops a system for working around one person's performance. A lot like my grandmother's neighbors learned to navigate around that pothole.

Here's what's dangerous about that. The better your team gets at compensating for the problem, the easier it becomes to convince yourself that the problem isn't really that bad. After all, the work is getting done, right?

Maybe. But at what cost?

How much additional work are your dependable employees carrying? How much time are you spending managing around one person's performance? What message are you sending to the employees who consistently meet expectations? And what happens when your strongest employees finally get tired of swerving around the same pothole? Because eventually, even your most dedicated employees will begin questioning why they're being held to standards that someone else apparently doesn't have to meet.

And that's when a performance problem becomes a culture problem.

Remember how somebody would occasionally come along and throw something into that pothole on my grandmother's street? Organizations do the same thing.

Another training class. Another coaching conversation. Another improvement plan. Another adjustment to the employee's responsibilities.

And sometimes, those things work. Sometimes an employee genuinely needs more guidance, better resources, or a different approach to become successful. But sometimes we're just throwing another load of gravel into a hole that needs a real repair.

Not every performance problem is a development problem.

Sometimes it's an accountability problem. Sometimes it's a willingness problem. Sometimes the employee simply isn't a good fit for the responsibilities of the position. And at some point, leaders have to recognize the difference.

So, how do you know when you've reached that point? Ask yourself a few questions.

Have I clearly communicated expectations? Have I provided the necessary training, resources, and support? Have I given the employee a fair opportunity to improve? Have I addressed legitimate barriers to success? And most importantly, have I seen meaningful, sustained improvement?

Lastly, am I continuing to give this employee another chance because I genuinely believe improvement is possible, or because I'm uncomfortable making a difficult decision?

The painful truth is that sometimes we're not really giving the employee another chance. We're giving ourselves another opportunity to avoid an uncomfortable conversation. And while we're doing that, everybody else is still driving around the pothole.

Accountability doesn't automatically mean termination. It may mean formal corrective action, reassignment when appropriate, or ultimately separation from employment. The right response depends on the circumstances, including any applicable policies and legal obligations. But doing nothing shouldn't become the default simply because we've learned how to manage around the problem.

Remember, your best employees are watching. One of the biggest mistakes leaders can make is assuming that poor performance is a private matter between an employee and their supervisor. The details of personnel matters should absolutely remain confidential, but everybody sees the impact of poor performance.

They see who misses deadlines. They see whose mistakes they have to correct. They see who consistently gets another chance while everyone else is expected to deliver. And eventually, they start wondering whether accountability is something the organization actually values or just something leadership likes to talk about.

Your strongest employees shouldn't have to become experts at compensating for someone else's repeated failure to meet expectations. When leaders repeatedly avoid addressing poor performance, they're not just tolerating the problem. They're teaching the entire team what they're willing to accept.

I don't know whether that pothole on my grandmother's street ever got properly repaired. For all I know, somebody is still driving around it today.

But I do know this. The fact that people learned to navigate around it didn't make it any less of a problem. The occasional patch didn't make it disappear. And the longer it remained, the more everybody accepted it as part of the street.

Organizations can fall into that same trap. We normalize dysfunction. We make excuses for recurring performance issues. We celebrate our ability to adapt and compensate without stopping to question why we're still doing it. When we've done that for a long enough time, it can get easy to convince ourselves that we've solved a problem when, in reality, all we've done is improve our ability to tolerate it.

Leadership means giving people the tools, support, and opportunities they need to succeed. But it also means recognizing when those efforts aren't producing results and having the courage to make an appropriate decision. Because no matter how smoothly you've learned to navigate around an employee's recurring performance issues...

That's STILL a pothole!

And sooner or later, somebody has to fix it.