One of the biggest challenges faced by leaders is what to do about a rotten apple on the team.
Rotten apples come disguised in different clothes but they share some common qualities. They are typically poor performers who blame everyone and everything for their weak performance. Their negativity and disrespect for others make them a nightmare for their peers. Leaders hear that the rotten apple takes issue with just about everything involving the team, especially their leadership.
In the rare case when the rotten apple is a high performer, they act as if everyone else owes their success to them. They hog credit and shift blame for anything that doesn’t go their way. They tell everyone who will listen how indispensable they are. They offer a critical view of just about anything that they don’t initiate. The rotten apple in any form is insufferable.
Yet leaders often delay in dealing with them. Why?
Leaders often consider the rotten apple as unfireable because they are beloved by customers, hold irreplaceable institutional knowledge, or have protection from more senior leaders above them. The impact of getting rid of the rotten apples on colleagues who like them as people is also a common consideration, as is the loss of the considerable investment already made in them.
Avoiding or delaying the decision to terminate them places the team at risk. The rotten apple can do considerable damage to the team’s morale and influence other underperformers to become more negative and vocal. They wear down the best people and often deflate the positivity of team discussions. They are a curse.
The only spell to erase the voodoo is to remove them from the playing field. Allowing them to engage others in any capacity undermines the team and often destroys the will of others to perform at the highest level. As hard as this decision is for most leaders, the longer they delay, the more rotten the apple becomes.
The optimism leaders have in the potential of others to develop, improve, and perform can get in the way of an obvious decision. Good leaders don’t like giving up on anyone, even the rotten types. Nonetheless, the team must matter more.
The best leaders find the courage to do what they must. As far back as the 16th century, writers have described the power of one negative colleague to infect their peers with their bad behavior. The reality of “one bad apple spoils the whole barrel” applies to all teams. Removing the rotten apple from the team barrel as quickly as feasible is nearly always the best decision.
What’s in your barrel?
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