"Believing in people's potential is a great quality, but repeatedly excusing someone's negative behavior based on 'who they could become' can lead to poor leadership decisions and real organizational costs."
"I wasn't just seeing people's potential. I was making decisions based on a version of them that didn't exist yet. And I was giving second chances, third and fourth - not based on evidence of change, but based on my own stubborn faith in the person I was convinced they were becoming."
"Each individual act of grace was defensible, but collectively, they led to a significant organizational cost that could have been avoided with a more balanced approach to leadership."
Believing in people's potential is valuable, but it can lead to poor leadership if it results in overlooking negative behaviors. Optimism is essential for entrepreneurs, yet unchecked optimism can become costly. Leaders should assume positive intent but also rely on data and allow for mistakes without enabling manipulation. A personal experience illustrates the danger of promoting someone based on potential rather than evidence of change, leading to negative behavior and poor decision-making.
Read at Entrepreneur
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