Three Common Leadership Behaviors that Kill Performance, Culture

What I’m about to share with you isn’t pretty.  It’s going to make you uncomfortable. 

And it should.

Have you ever looked at your team and thought:

• Why don’t my people do what they say they’re going to do?”
• How come [first name] is the only one who can consistently deliver?
• Why can’t my people carry their own weight?
• Why aren’t we improving, even with all the tools and training?
  
  

You're not alone. 

Many leaders see a gap in performance and assume it is a motivational issue or a training issue.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth:

It’s not a people problem. It’s a leadership problem.

You’ve invested in hiring. Onboarding. Training. Tools and technology.
And yet—execution still falls short.

There’s a reason for that. And in this post, I'm going to confront it.

I’m going to expose the silent killers that sabotage team performance — the three common leadership behaviors that kill performance and culture. 

Over the past two decades, I’ve worked with hundreds of organizations, and in that time I’ve witnessed a consistent pattern of behaviors that quietly kill performance, morale, and culture.

Double Standards

Here are some classic quotes I’ve heard from leaders over the years:

• “Our new hires follow this process, but our tenured people do it however they want.”
• “I don’t want to micromanage.”
• “She hits her number, so I let her do her own thing.”
• “Everyone has their own style.”
  
  

These are excuses. 

When I hear statements like these I know the company has no standards.

And in my experience, companies that lack standards can’t scale revenue growth. 

When you hold people to different standards, it quietly erodes the foundation of performance, culture, and trust you’re trying to build.

Here’s how it plays out:

Creates a Two-Tier Culture

• Top performers get a pass
• Veterans are “trusted” to freelance
• New hires must “follow the process”
  
  

The message? Rules are optional… if you’re good enough

This breeds resentment, and drives employee turnover.

Kills Team Morale

Your high-effort reps & recruiters stop caring. They tune out.

Why put in the work when others cut corners and get away with it?

Eventually, your hardest workers:

• Lower their standards to match the team
• Or leave for a place with real leadership
  
  

Creates Confusion

When standards are fluid, nobody knows what’s actually expected:

• “Are we supposed to log calls?”
• “Are call blocks required?”
• “Do we follow the sales framework or just wing it?”
  
  

That confusion leads to hesitation. Hesitation leads to inconsistency. And inconsistency kills performance.

Setting Expectations

I’ve delivered hundreds of consulting engagements. 95% of the time, each engagement begins with a discovery process to facilitate introductions and help me familiarize myself with the organization. I interview the leadership team, middle management, and a handful of individual contributors. 

I ask simple questions like:

• What are the core values of the organization?
• What are the company goals for this quarter/year?
• How is the company performing against those goals?
• What does management expect of you in your role?
• How are you being measured?
  
  

Most individual contributors struggle to answer these questions.

Middle managers and leadership usually give conflicting responses.

How can this be?

Two reasons.

First, most leaders don’t just fail to set expectations — they outsource them.

They rely on the annual meeting, an internal memo, a company deck, or a Teams or Slack message to communicate what's expected. 

But expectations aren't real until they’re repeated, reinforced, and reviewed consistently.

When a leader communicates expectations only once a year in a slide deck or during an annual meeting, it creates the illusion of clarity, but in reality, it introduces ambiguity and drift. 

Your culture is shaped by what gets enforced, not what gets announced.

Second, leaders don’t communicate expectations because if they don’t set expectations, there’s nothing to hold people accountable to.

This allows them to avoid discomfort, the difficult conversations when performance dips.

But when you fail to consistently communicate and reinforce expectations:

• Standards drift
• Accountability fades
• Performance plateaus
• Top performers leave
• Your culture weakens

And the worst part? 

Nobody notices right away.

A few months go by. Suddenly you realize:

• Pipeline is down
• Morale is low
• No one can explain how things got off track
  
  

Being Liked vs. Being Respected

Most leaders build strong rapport with their team — but then avoid holding people accountable for fear of disrupting the relationship.

They confuse camaraderie with credibility, and in doing so, sidestep the uncomfortable conversations about missed commitments and underperformance — the very conversations that drive results.

The leader is more concerned with being liked than delivering results. 

Trying to "protect morale" by avoiding accountability creates silent resentment. Especially from your best people — because they’re left to carry the weight while others coast.

Here is the kicker.

When performance becomes too costly, the leader will fire the direct report. But they do it without ever having the proper conversations in which they provide constructive feedback along the way. And that is a disservice to the employee and the business.

Accountability is not micromanagement. It’s a feedback loop.

It sounds like this:

• “You said you were going to send that recap — did it go out? May I see it?”
• “You missed your outreach target yesterday. What’s your plan to make it up today?”
• “You said you would have interview feedback — what happened?”
  
  

It looks like this:

• Asking recruiters to follow the outreach cadence even when results don’t come instantly
• Calling out your top performer in front of others when they break the rules
• Validating that a sales opportunity is actually qualified before delivery lifts a finger
  
  

Managers who fear being disliked often create a fake sense of harmony.  Everyone smiles in meetings… and silently underperforms.

Conclusion

The silent killers of performance—unclear expectations, fear of accountability, and double standards—don’t show up all at once. They leak into your culture slowly. Quietly. Until suddenly, you’re wondering why results have stalled, why morale is low, and why your best people are leaving.

This isn’t a motivational issue. It’s a leadership issue.

If you want a high-performing team, you must lead with clarity, consistency, and courage. That means setting the bar, reinforcing it daily, and holding everyone—yes, everyone—to the same standard.

Culture isn’t what you say. It’s what you tolerate.

So ask yourself:

Where is culture leaking in your organization?

And what are you going to do about it?