Last week I wrote about the cost of the decisions we keep avoiding. This week I want to drill into one specific scenario that comes up more than almost any other when I talk to founders and leaders.
The team member who is quietly undermining your values.
Not dramatically. Not in ways that create obvious incidents. Just steadily, quietly, and consistently. Eye rolls in meetings, dismissing ideas from junior team members, talking about people behind their backs. Treating the stated values as something that applies to everyone else.
You know exactly who I'm talking about.
This has a name
I call them culture terrorists. It's a strong term, and I use it deliberately.
A culture terrorist isn't necessarily someone who's obviously toxic or dramatically difficult. Often they're high performers on the metrics that are easy to measure. They might be good at their job in a narrow technical sense. They can be charming to the right people. That's exactly what makes them dangerous.
What they do is erode. Slowly, consistently, and often just below the threshold of anything that feels actionable. They chip away at the standards you've set, the behaviours you've said you value, the environment you've worked hard to build.
And here's the part that matters most: your team are watching every single day to see what you do about it.
The real act of sabotage isn't theirs
I want to be honest about something, because I think it's the most important point in this newsletter.
The culture terrorist does damage. But the greatest act of cultural sabotage is committed by the leader who sees it and stays silent.
When you give a leave pass to behaviour that contradicts your values, you're not just tolerating one person's conduct. You're sending a clear signal to everyone else about what the values actually mean. And that signal is: they don't apply equally. They apply to some people, sometimes, depending on how much we need them.
Your team are smart. They notice immediately. And over time, the message they internalise is that the values on the wall are decoration, not direction.
The trust you've built, the culture you've invested in, the people who are genuinely living those values every day - all of it gets quietly undermined every time you look the other way.
Why leaders hesitate
I've seen this play out enough times to understand why it happens. It's rarely indifference.
Sometimes it's because the person is a strong performer by the numbers, and the leader is worried about what it costs to lose them. Sometimes it's because the behaviour is hard to pin down precisely enough to feel confident acting on it. Sometimes it's simply conflict avoidance dressed up as patience.
And sometimes, if we're really honest, it's because the leader hasn't fully committed to the idea that culture is non-negotiable. That values aren't aspirational. That they're the actual standard.
Whatever the reason, the cost is the same.
What to actually do about it
This isn't about going looking for problems, or creating a culture of surveillance. It's about being clear-eyed when the evidence is in front of you, and being willing to act on it.
• Name the behaviour specifically. Not "your attitude" or "the way you come across." The specific thing that happened, and why it's not consistent with what this team stands for. Vague feedback is easy to dismiss. Specific feedback is hard to argue with.
• Connect it explicitly to values. This isn't personal. This is about the standard that everyone in this team is held to. When the conversation is anchored in values rather than personality, it's much harder to derail.
• Be clear about what changes, and by when. Feedback without expectation is just a conversation. Make sure there's no ambiguity about what you're asking for and what happens if nothing shifts.
• Follow through. If the behaviour doesn't change, you have to be willing to act on that. This is the part most leaders avoid, and it's the part that matters most.
And if they're genuinely good at the rest of their job?
This comes up every time I talk about this topic.
My answer is consistent: a high performer who undermines your culture is not a high performer. They're performing well on the things that are easy to count, while doing damage on the things that are harder to measure but more important in the long run.
No individual's output is worth the cost of what a culture terrorist does to a team over time. The people you'll lose, the engagement you'll erode, the trust you'll spend years rebuilding - that calculus never works out in favour of keeping them.
The question worth sitting with
Is there someone in your team right now whose behaviour you've been excusing, explaining, or quietly hoping will sort itself out?
If the answer is yes, you already know what this newsletter is asking you to do.
Values only mean something when they're enforced. Lesson 8 of Ready to Rise goes deep on how to build a culture where values are lived, not just listed. If you're not yet in the community, here's the link.
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