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All organizations have challenges. As a leader, it is your job to identify and deal effectively with these problems. They can take many forms, the worst are what I call cracked-tooth issues.

What is a cracked-tooth issue? It is a seemingly small issue that left untreated develops into a much more serious problem – the way a cracked tooth can eventually develop into a root canal. (Click here to read the 60 Second Insights that inspired this article.) Most leaders are faced with cracked-tooth issues everyday. Few, however, respond to them. Instead, too many leaders allow the Tyranny of Urgent Tasks to overtake their schedule and cracked teeth are left to fester.

See if you recognize any of these common cracked-tooth issues.

Lack of healthy conflict in senior management meetings
Departure of long-term employees
Lack of significant time spent on visioning and strategic planning
Manager disinterest in employee development
Defensive responses to customer and/or client complaints
Reliance on team retreats or staff parties to boost morale
Keeping a difficult manager because of the work they produce

Lack of healthy conflict in senior management meetings – Are your senior mangers able to disagree with you and with each other? When they disagree, do you treat it as a good thing or something to nip in the bud? Commitment is impossible without healthy conflict. If your senior managers are unable to speak their minds, disagree openly or express concern in the meeting room, they will do it outside the room.

Departure of long-term employees – Each employee departure needs to be examined. This is doubly true with the departure of any long-term employee. While not always indicative of bigger issues, the exit of a formerly loyal employee can indicate serious problems.

Lack of significant time spent on visioning and strategic planning – Do you know where you are going? Do you spend time planning for the future daily? Your leaders should be spending 80 – 90% of their time on leadership issues. Unfortunately, most leaders spend more than 90% of their time on managing the day-to-day business. The long-term impact of this choice is devastating for an organization.

Manager disinterest in employee development – Your employees are your greatest asset. Your managers should be regularly investing in their growth and development. No excuse is good enough. If they lack the vision and desire to provide growth opportunities, good employees will find someone who will.

Defensive responses to customer and/or client complaints – Can your clients speak openly and honestly when they are dissatisfied or disagree with you? Is this information readily accepted or does your organization immediately become offended and defensive? An organization that is characterized by defensiveness and lack of openness will ultimately pay a stiff price when clients and customers grow weary of a difficult relationship.

Reliance on team retreats or staff parties to boost morale – There is nothing wrong with well placed motivators. However, if a organization relies heavily on occasional boosts to motivate their employees without looking at the other important factors of employee performance –regular feedback, effective measurement, written standards and reasonable job conditions, they will ultimately find their morale boosters not only fail to work, they backfire.

Keeping a difficult manager because of the work they produce – Underestimating the cost of keeping any employee who has “personality problems” is one of the most common mistakes leaders make. No amount of work produced will matter if an employee is leaving a wake of upset co-workers, teammates and clients in their wake.

What to do if you recognize a cracked-tooth issue

Now what? If you’ve identified a cracked-tooth issue in your organization, you only have two choices –

Ignore it and prepare to deal with the long term consequences.

or
Deal with it by investing the time and resources now to uncover the root issue and develop a long term solution.

If you choose to deal with it, congratulations! Although challenging, it is always better to deal with issues as they arise rather than waiting. Be prepared, however, to encounter resistance from your managers and others. As you know, it’s easy to make excuses for cracked-tooth issues or avoid them all together. Stay the course. Spending time, energy and money now to find the most effective solutions will prove to be the best decision in the long run.

And that’s what makes you the leader.

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