Every summer for many years my boys have had the difficult chore of pulling weeds in the berry garden. If you know anything about berry gardens, you understand that it requires you to sit in the hot sun (or cool early morning—my sons never figured this one out) weeding inside and around the bushes and being extra careful so as not to be pricked by one of the many abundant thorns.
Well, long story short, they hate this chore. So, one particular hot summer afternoon they had a “brilliant” idea. Instead of pulling the weeds from their roots, they would just simply throw as much dirt as they could over them.
The next day as I went out to water the garden; the weeds that they had thrown dirt over had magically popped up and appeared all over the garden again!
They learned a lesson that day, you can’t simply throw dirt over a weed and expect it to solve your problems. Likewise, leaders can’t ignore and wish away poor behavior and performance. The weeds will always be there. The same problems will continue to resurface over and over again.
You must care enough about those you lead to do the difficult thing and get a hold of the root, which could require moving people over or off your team and/or organization.
Difficult choices require courage. Courage is caring about something more than what you fear. Care more and courage will follow.
Note: The above story was taken from my new book, "Do You Care to Lead?: A 5-Part Formula for Creating Loyal and Results-Focused Teams and Organizations. Available in hard cover, e-book and audio-book formats. Get more information here.
May you all have a focused and teamwork happy week!
Michael | 
