Simon Sinek - Trust vs Performance

And this is what they told me: so, of course, nobody wants the low performer of low trust; and of course, everybody wants the high performer of high trust. But what they learned is that another person, the high performer of low trust is a toxic leader and a toxic team member, and they would rather have a medium performer of high trust, sometimes even a low performer of high trust than this person. This is the highest performing organization on the planet and in it a low performer of high trust is more important than the high performer of low trust.

And the problem in business is that we have lopsided metrics. We have a million and one metrics to measure someone's performance and negligible to no metrics to measure someone's trustworthiness. So, what we end up doing is promoting or bonusing toxicity in our businesses which is bad for the long game because it eventually destroys the whole organization.

The irony is that it's unbelievably easy to find these people. Go to any team and say “Who's the asshole?” and they will all point to the same person. Equally, if you go to any team and say “Who do you trust more than anybody else? Who's always got your back and will be there with you when the chips are down?” and they will also all point to the same person. That’s the best gifted natural leader who’s creating an environment for everybody else to succeed. And they may not be your most individual highest performer, but that person, you better keep them on your team.