Something Just Doesn’t Seem Right
Over the course of your leadership career, you will deal with people from all walks of life, many different cultures, and a range of socio-economic backgrounds. You’ll also see just about every dimension of human frailty, and the issues that many of us face daily.
In any team, you’ll have a cross section of the population that lives in your general area. That’s it… so don’t expect your team to be any different from the rest of society.
What is it that your slice of humanity is likely to serve up on any given day?
I’ve got some fairly recent statistics for a few of the more common issues you’re likely to encounter. According to the US National Survey on Drug Use and Health in 2022:
- About 1 in 4 adults engage in binge drinking every month
- OK, so you’ll at least be dealing with very unproductive hangover days in your team
- Around 1 in 5 people regularly use illicit drugs
- And in the 18-25 age group, that rate is twice as high
- 17.3% of people have some type of substance use disorder
And the mental health picture isn’t any more encouraging:
- Almost 1 in 4 adults aged 18 or older had a mental illness in the past year
- That is absolutely mind-boggling
To add a little color here, statistics also tell us that, for example, kleptomaniacs represent about 0.6% of the adult population. That means that in a group of just 1,000 people, you’re likely to have half a dozen kleptos! But I know leaders who say, “My people just aren’t like that”… yeah… they are…
As leaders, we have to stay in our lane. The vast majority of us aren’t doctors or clinical psychologists, so we’re ill-equipped even to diagnose, let alone treat the people who are wrestling with these types of personal problems.
Some industries and companies have a built-in culture of substance abuse. It’s a little rarer these days, but in my early career the drinking culture was alive and well in some of the client companies I worked for: the typical Friday lunch consisted of 4 pints of beer and, as an afterthought, a large plate of fries to share before we went back to the office.
Some industries are notorious for a culture of substance abuse, like marketing agencies, and investment banks… they call it the work hard / play hard culture. It can serve to create very strong bonds between people (as any shared experience does).
But is this how you want to be known? It’s easy to see your credibility in tatters, when you know your people are thinking “Don’t tell me what to do mate, I saw what you did when you were wasted last Friday night”.
So let’s assume that you’re not the problem (although make sure you do reflect on the behaviors you model for your team).
Let’s face it, what people choose to do in their own time is their own business. Your job is to make sure that, when they are on the clock, they are meeting the standards you set, for both behavior and performance.
You should be attuned to the fact that these problems exist in your team, and when they do impinge on work performance, to not make concessions. You had a hard night? OK, but you don’t get to come here and distract your colleagues while you work off your hangover.
With remote work, it’s now much harder to see this, so you should probably be aware that people are taking more mental health days than you suspect.
Being a tolerant but strong leader means you recognize when people are struggling, and cut them some slack. Even your best people go through divorce; the death of a parent; health issues; a new baby… So it’s important to learn how to strike a balance between supportiveness, and the need to preserve a minimum acceptable standard.
When you see someone whom you suspect is undergoing a personal issue outside of work, try to refer them to the right support services; encourage them to look after themselves and to find a path to recovery; given them the space to deal with it, and show them you understand that they’re human, just like you.
But whatever you do, don’t throw the standards for behavior and performance out the window to cater for someone who is clearly making choices about what they do each day.