The perception of performance issues and hypocrisy among employees often stems from gaps between stated values and actual practices in a workplace. This can occur because of unclear expectations, favoritism, or inconsistent enforcement of standards. Employees may notice that some peers or leaders are not held accountable to the same performance standards, which creates an atmosphere of mistrust or cynicism.

The is what the Claude 4 Sonnet (Thinking) AI Model spit out after I promoted it with this question:

Why are employees such hypocrites when it comes to others performance issues and how can we better a company’s culture where this occurs a lot?

This hit me right in the gut!

If it were in the Websters Dictionary my picture could be next to the top paragraph. If there is one thing about our culture, that needs to change it’s that all team members and I need to recognize our hypocrisy.

First me. To get going in the right direction I have to focus on me and eliminating my hypocrisy. As a leader, albeit not a great one, I can play a critical role in modeling expected behaviors like eliminating the hypocrisy in me and my business.

I owe many of my employees a note of apology. Many times, they got the worst of it for something that is equivalent to a mistake I’ve made in the past. To start, I am going to challenge myself to pause and not assume the worst, get the facts and then react. Four times in the last week I overreacted and was hypocritical because the situations were like times in the past where I made mistakes. So, this last weekend I committed to fixing me in these regards.

It’s time to have clear expectations, eliminate favoritism, be consistent with the enforcement of standards and hold everyone accountable to the same performance standards. This is not going to be easy, but if done overtime hopefully the whole team will notice and it will slowly change our culture.

Like the quote from John F. Kennedy, “A rising tide lifts all boats.” By making an effort maybe I can help others with the elimination of their hypocrisy. If you have been successful in defeating this culture destroyer I would love any recommendations.

Quote To Ponder

“You don’t need more time. You need more focus. Time isn’t the constraint. Your choices are.”

~ Shane Parrish