Persona Non Grata. Your Company’s Achilles Heels.

IMG_1405We have heard that getting the right people on the bus is extremely important. What we may not realize is that keeping the wrong ones from coming aboard is equally vital if we are to maintain a thriving organization. We need to understand and realize that “inclusiveness”, applied indiscriminately, is the most damaging lie of all. Forcing businesses to employ people detrimental to the character of the business is unfair to the business, unfair to stakeholders, and ultimately inflicts injustice to society at large. There really is such a thing as persona non grata.

Who might these persona non grata be? People who consistently demonstrate the following behaviours:

  1. Unfriendly, especially towards customers.
  2. Constantly late for meetings and appointments with no valid reasons.
  3. Engage in behaviour that goes against declared and known company values.
  4. Shoddy work.
  5. Refuse to learn about other aspects of the company’s business.
  6. Talk bad about company leadership and co-workers often, but refuse to have it out face-to-face.
  7. Outwardly compliant but actively disobedient.
  8. Constantly act in ways that sabotage the company.

The list can go on for quite a bit! Business leaders need to make it their business to see that such persons are not hired in the first place. If these persona non grata happen to surface at any time, they need to be dismissed summarily, regardless of any good services they might have rendered in the past. You wouldn’t want to retain cancer cells in your body, right? You get rid of them! Same thing goes for such people. This is assuming that the company leaders have already done all that they can to coach, counsel, train, redeploy or otherwise help the employee in question.

What is really needed is for responsible businesses to grow people who are willing to be grown as part of their value-providing services. If not, then the company risks having one or more Achilles Heels just waiting to be the cause of its demise. How do you feel about this?

Skip to toolbar