We celebrate participation. We reward effort. We count the hours.
But the scoreboard doesn’t care how long we sat at the desk.
In sport, we recognize almost immediately. The double fault. The goal was scored in the wrong net. The finalist who never got off the start line. We see it, name it, and hold the player accountable.
In the workplace, we squint.
We reframe chronically missed outcomes as “still developing.” We call persistent underperformance a “fit issue” we’ll address later. We tolerate what we would never accept on the field.
And then we wonder why the culture drifts.
The coach who keeps fielding the player who perpetually misses the mark isn’t building loyalty. They’re eroding standards. Every player watching learns what the organization actually values.
We do the same thing in our organizations. We set expectations with clarity. We watch them go unmet. And then we reset the bar a little lower and tell ourselves we’re being supportive.
We’re not being supportive. We’re being conflict-averse.
Almost is a choice. So is tolerating it.
The standard we walk past is the standard we set.
