Patio Pondering: The Drift from Responsibility

Enjoying my coffee this morning on the patio is refreshing. Another beautiful sunrise and the promise of a great way to end a busy week.

As I was getting ready for the day, a thought jumped into my head about two former colleagues who never really did the jobs they were hired to do. What frustrated me most, and others on the team, was that both were allowed to keep operating outside their roles and were even rewarded for it.

One was hired to help grow a key part of our business. From the start, it was clear their interests were somewhere else. While the rest of us focused on building the commercial market, this person chased a specialty segment that had little to do with our goals. When I raised my concerns, I was told, “He’s selling feed, don’t worry about it.” But we should have worried. The market we were responsible for dried up, and that business never recovered.

The other was brought in to lead a team, complete with the title, the meetings, and the talk of collaboration. For a while, it looked promising. Plans were made, ideas were shared, and it felt like we were on track. Then the meetings stopped, the vision that once stretched like a clear vista over the Rockies turned into a Jackson Pollock splatter of half-formed ideas. “Scheduling conflicts” piled up. The calendar filled with Out of Office or Travel placeholders, while the team that needed direction was left to fend for itself. The team fell apart. The leader kept moving, but the team stopped growing.

So where does the blame really belong? Is it with the employees who chase what’s fun or flattering instead of what’s needed? Or with the managers who look the other way, mistaking movement for progress?

Maybe the real issue is that accountability fades when results are measured by activity instead of impact, or when made-up metrics are used to hide what’s really happening. Hide the truth and you’ve already excused the drift from real responsibilities.

As you lead your teams, how do you reward creativity and initiative while keeping the focus on core responsibilities? How do you balance maintenance with growth?