ISSUE #008 | THE LEADERSHIP CONTRARIAN
In the early days of Half a Bubble Out, we grew roughly 400% in about 18 months.
It was exciting.
and
It was exhausting.
Kathryn and I were buried in client work. We had a small team of six or seven people and the pressure was mounting. We knew we needed help managing operations and staff. We couldn’t keep doing everything ourselves.
So we decided to hire at a level we had never hired before. We hired an operations manager to oversee the team.
We sought counsel.
We interviewed carefully.
We did our best.
And we still got it wrong.
The person we hired was competent. Likable. Capable in many ways. But they were not aligned with who we were becoming as a company.
And we tolerated it for far too long.
Almost three years.
Kathryn and I felt the tension. We were frustrated. Something felt off. But we assumed we were carrying that burden alone. We didn’t realize how deeply it had spread through the team.
The day this person left, we had an informal staff meeting.
One of our team members said quietly,
“It’s just so much nicer now.”
And then the stories started coming out.
The stress.
The relational tension.
The way performance had quietly suffered.
The subtle pressure people had been living under.
I remember sitting there thinking: I had no idea.
No idea how much it had affected our culture.
No idea how much it had slowed performance.
No idea how much our tolerance had cost the team.
They lose it every time they tolerate behavior that doesn’t fit with their company's core values.
That experience forced us to ask some uncomfortable questions.
What exactly were we hiring for?
Were we hiring for skill… or alignment?
Were we training people toward our standards… or assuming they would absorb them?
And when someone consistently pushed against how we believe people should behave, were we correcting it or rationalizing it?
That season changed how we lead.
It changed how we hire.
It changed how we fire.
We learned a simple lesson, one that cost us three years to fully understand:
Hire.
Train.
Fire.
To your Core Values.
What does that actually mean?
It starts with something many leaders skip.
You have to actually have Core Values.
Not slogans.
Not words on a website.
Three to five clear convictions about how your company will behave as it pursues its vision.
For example, HaBO's are:
How will we act while we chase where we’re going?
Research consistently shows that a leader’s ability to create a clear, complete, and compelling vision is the strongest predictor of long-term success. Embedded inside that vision are three to five Core Values.
If you don’t have clarity on them, you may still grow.
You may even make money.
But you will leave alignment, trust, and performance on the table.
Core Values are not about whether someone is “good” or “bad.”
They are about fit.
You can hire a highly competent, hardworking, even admirable person, and still create friction if the way they operate doesn’t match how your company is committed to operating.
That’s why hiring to Core Values matters.
Competency matters.
But alignment multiplies.
Training is reinforcement.
If you don’t talk about your values, they will fade into the background noise.
Values must be modeled under pressure and reinforced.
They must show up in performance reviews, team meetings, and one-on-one conversations.
If they are not present in everyday decisions, they become slogans instead of standards.
This is the one most leaders avoid.
If someone repeatedly violates the values that define how your company behaves, you act - not out of anger - but out of stewardship.
Tolerance communicates permission.
And permission reshapes culture.
It is defined by what you allow.
So let me slow you down for a minute.
Do you actually have Core Values clear enough that your team could name them without guessing?
And if you do… are you using them?
When you hire, are you hiring for more than skill?
Are you paying attention to whether someone fits how you expect people to behave in your company?
When you train, do your Core Values show up on purpose?
Do they appear in meetings, in one-on-ones, in performance reviews?
And when someone consistently pushes against your core values, what happens?
Do you address it?
Do you coach it?
Do you hold the line?
Or do you keep tolerating it because they’re good at their job, because replacing them would be hard, or because the conversation feels uncomfortable?
Leadership isn’t just about casting vision.
It’s about protecting it.
If this issue is hitting you in the chest a little, good.
That’s not shame - that’s clarity.
Because the fastest way to weaken your culture is to say your values matter… and then let them be optional.
If any part of this resonated with you,
even a sentence,
Would you send me an email and tell me?
I read every reply.
Until next time-
Keep learning.
Keep growing.
And God bless,
- Michael