David Turner, CEO of Velocity Now, a C-suite coaching firm.
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Every CEO reading this knows that one person who sits in the pit of their stomach. That one direct report who isn’t quite right, and they know it. Not blatantly toxic. Almost never incompetent. But a wrong variable in the high-performing team equation. Wrong for the season, or wrong for where the company is trying to go. And yet, still there.
In my 12 years of C-level coaching, I have yet to meet a CEO who lacked this awareness. The gap is never information or lack of feedback. It is always the decision about what to do with it.
That is the question I ask every CEO when we arrive at this conversation: Are you a Sheep-Herd or a Shepherd?
A Sheep-Herd is how I refer to a leader who drives the flock from behind with an eye on one. A Sheep-Herd protects the one. A Shepherd protects the flock: the executive leadership team (ELT), the company, the shareholders. Both believe they are doing their job. But you can only be one.
The Three Archetypes
There are three versions of this problem, and most leaders are sitting with at least one of them.
The Toxic Performer
Smart, knowledgeable and often the smartest of the bunch. But they don’t mesh with peers; they create a riptide of tension in every ELT meeting, and they cost the organization far more in distraction and morale than their individual output is worth. The CEO keeps them because the output says keeper, but the team is quietly screaming no.
The Legacy Hire
They were the right person when you were a $50-million company, but now you are a $300-million company. The role has outgrown them, and everyone can see it except the CEO, who keeps them out of loyalty, history or risk aversion. Deep down, the CEO knows a hard conversation is waiting. Loyalty is admirable. Letting it cost the company is not.
The Black Box Keeper
They hold the keys to something no one else fully understands: a customer relationship, a technical system, a process. The CEO believes they can’t afford to lose them, just in case they’re needed in a crunch. What the CEO is really saying is: I have allowed one person to make themselves irreplaceable, and I am willing to pay for that dependency every day.
The Rationalization Trap
CEOs do not keep black sheep out of ignorance. They keep them because the gremlin on the shoulder is proficient at constructing reasons why “not yet” makes more sense than now.
“They’re still delivering.” Translation: I’m willing to let one person’s performance justify the cost they’re imposing on everyone else. He or she is worth it.
“It’s too risky.” Translation: I’m choosing the risk I can see over the risk I’m ignoring. ELT engagement erodes, trust quietly follows and strong performers start questioning their future. That’s risk, too. It just moves slower, quieter.
“I’ll deal with it after the quarter.” Translation: I’m making a permanent decision by making a temporary one. Every cycle you wait is a cycle you don’t get back.
The Transfer Of Ownership
This is the part most CEOs don’t see happening or coming. But I can assure you it’s there or on its way.
When the issue first surfaces, the problem belongs to the black sheep. The CEO’s job is to coach, give direct feedback and provide a fair runway for change. But it’s chalked up as “That’s just Dan being Dan.”
There is an inflection point, though. And it comes faster than most CEOs think.
The moment the team has watched the black sheep act out repeatedly, watched the CEO coach and extend the runway and watched nothing change, the problem gets ported. Completely. It is no longer the black sheep’s problem. It is 100% the CEO’s problem.
The team stops asking, “Why is this person doing what they do?” They start asking, “Why is our CEO allowing this?” Those are very different questions, and only one of them damages your credibility.
Most CEOs feel this shift but aren’t willing to face it head-on in the form of action.
The Legacy Risk
I worked with a CEO I’ll call Larry. By nearly every measure, exceptional. Strategically at the top of any benchmark. His team followed him with reverence and respect.
But he had a black sheep, and I dare say a diabolical one, running operations. I’ll call him John. Every ELT meeting fell prey to his Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde routine. And Larry’s answer was always some version of: He’s delivering, and I can’t afford to make a change right now.
Larry eventually left the company, and I continued to talk to the ELT members. Every one of them called him one of the best CEOs they had ever worked for. Four or five things they loved about Larry. But they all ended with the same thought: I just don’t understand why he kept John.
That one unresolved decision unfortunately became part of Larry’s legacy. Not the dozens of things he did right, some of them uniquely so. His lack of courage, his lack of fortitude to let John go.
Every CEO knows who the black sheep is. The question was never awareness. It was always courage.
Are you protecting the one or leading the many?
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