You Don’t Get What You Preach—You Get What You Tolerate

What are you tolerating – Right now?

Let me ask you a straight-up question—what are you tolerating right now in your team, in your business, or even in yourself… that you know damn well is dragging down performance?

Because here’s the truth: You don’t get what you preach—you get what you tolerate. And if you’re letting standards slide, even a little, you’re not leading… you’re babysitting.

In today’s episode, we’re going to rip the lid off the silent killer of high-performance teams: tolerance of mediocrity. I’m going to show you how to spot it, fix it, and use it as the fuel to raise the bar and light a fire under your culture.

By the end of this episode, you’re going to have a tactical, no-fluff plan to stop preaching and start enforcing—and trust me, this might be the wake-up call your team’s been waiting for.

Buckle up. This one’s a game-changer.”

Tolerating instead of Leading

If a manager is tolerating instead of leading—if they’re avoiding accountability, ducking hard conversations, or letting things slide—here’s what starts to show up fast and loud in the business:

1. A-Players Check Out
   Top performers won’t stick around if they see you let underperformers skate by. Why should they bust their ass when slackers get a free pass? You’re bleeding talent—and guess what’s left? The ones who need constant babysitting.
2. Deadlines Get Treated Like Suggestions
   If you’re not holding people to what they committed to, projects get late, quality drops, and people stop taking timelines seriously. “It’ll get done eventually” becomes the new standard. And that’s a slow death in business.
3. Excuses Become the Norm
   When accountability disappears, so does responsibility. People start blaming others, blaming the system, blaming the market—anything but themselves. Ownership evaporates, and the victim mindset takes over.
4. Standards Slide Across the Board
   Dress code? Communication? Response times? Meeting prep? It all starts to slip. Why? Because no one’s reinforcing the expectation. When nobody calls it out, it becomes acceptable. And the culture rots from within.
5. You Spend Your Day Putting Out Fires
   If people aren’t owning their roles, guess who ends up doing the cleanup? You. Managers who tolerate too much become professional firefighters—constantly solving the same issues over and over instead of preventing them.
6. Passive-Aggressive Behavior Spikes
   When there’s no accountability, resentment brews. High performers get fed up. Underperformers get defensive. Teams stop talking openly, and start talking around each other. Gossip goes up. Trust goes down.
7. Your Coaching Has No Teeth
   When you avoid enforcing consequences, your feedback becomes background noise. People stop listening because they know nothing’s going to change. You lose credibility. Fast.
8. Morale Tanks
   Nothing kills motivation faster than watching someone not do their job and get away with it. Even your most committed team members will lose the will to care if mediocrity becomes the status quo.

These are the signs that a manager has slipped from leading to tolerating. And the longer they let it go, the harder it becomes to turn the ship around.

Let me hit you with a hard truth right out of the gate: policies don’t lead people—leaders do.

I’ve seen it a thousand times. Managers spend hours crafting the perfect set of policies, putting together glossy playbooks, hanging laminated mission statements in conference rooms like they’re holy scripture. But when the rubber meets the road? When it’s time to enforce the standard?

Crickets.

Here’s the deal. Words don’t drive performance. Action does. Leadership doesn’t live in a binder—it lives in the behaviors you tolerate every single day.

If you let the standards slide, even once, you just told your entire team, “This isn’t serious.” You’ve diluted the mission. You’ve damaged morale. You’ve opened the floodgates to mediocrity—and now you’ve got a culture problem.

That’s not leadership. That’s negligence wearing a name tag.

Standards Are the Ground You Stand On

Let’s break this down.

Every winning team—whether it’s in business, sports, or the military—has one thing in common: clear, non-negotiable standards. Standards create alignment. They tell people, this is how we show up, this is what we do, and this is how we win.

And here’s the key: standards should be simple. Crystal clear. No room for interpretation. If your team has to guess what “great” looks like, you’ve already lost.

You want consistency? You want results? Then you need a clear definition of success that everyone understands and agrees to. But most importantly, you need someone who enforces those standards like their life depends on it.

That someone is you.

When Standards Slip, Culture Cracks

The second you let that one team member slide because they’re “usually good,” or you ignore that one minor miss because you’re too tired to deal with it—guess what just happened?

You told your entire team that the standard is flexible. You just showed them that your words mean nothing unless they’re convenient.

And trust me, the team notices.

The A-players see you tolerating the B-player behavior. The people who bust their ass every day now wonder why they bother. The culture begins to rot from the inside out. It doesn’t happen all at once—but it happens fast.

This is how winning cultures die. Not from some major blowout. From quiet, subtle tolerance.

Leadership Is What You Enforce

Here’s the shift: leadership is not about being liked. It’s not about giving motivational speeches or high-fiving your team after wins. It’s about enforcing the standard even when it’s uncomfortable.

Especially when it’s uncomfortable.

Do not confuse this with punishment. This isn’t about chewing people out or playing the corporate cop. This is about ownership—of the mission, of the results, and of your role in making sure everyone rises to the standard you’ve set.

That includes you.

Because let’s be real—the hardest place to enforce a standard is with yourself.

Where have you been slacking? What behavior are you tolerating in your own performance that would never fly if someone else did it?

Maybe it’s not following up on time. Maybe it’s giving vague direction and blaming your team when they miss the mark. Maybe it’s avoiding hard conversations. Whatever it is—you know it.

And if you won’t hold yourself to the standard, don’t expect anyone else to.

Start With One Thing

You don’t need to go in guns blazing and flip the table over. This week, just find one place where the standard isn’t being met—by you or your team.

Name it.
Own it.
Communicate it.
Fix it.
And don’t stop until it’s executed properly.

That’s leadership in motion. That’s how teams win. Not because of a speech, not because of a memo—because someone had the guts to say, “This isn’t good enough,” and did something about it.

Humility Builds Authority

Let me tell you something most people in leadership roles never learn: your authority is built on your humility.

If you’ve let something slip, own it. Tell your team, “I missed the mark on this. That’s on me. And we’re fixing it—together.”

You’d be amazed what happens when people see a leader who’s willing to take the hit and raise the bar.

Suddenly, people show up differently. They work harder. They care more. Because now it’s real. Now it means something.

Leadership starts with setting the tone. But it ends with setting the example. And that means holding the line—even when it’s uncomfortable, inconvenient, or downright annoying.

That’s how you build trust. That’s how you build culture. That’s how you win.

Bottom Line

Success doesn’t come from what you say—it comes from what you tolerate.

Don’t tell your team what you value. Show them.

Don’t expect high performance if you’re letting low standards slide.

Leadership is a full-contact sport. It’s not for the faint of heart. But if you’re willing to hold the line, to live the standard you set, to own your part and enforce the mission—your team will follow you through fire.

Now get after it. Find the standard that’s slipping, and fix it. That’s where real leadership begins.