Wouldn't you love to be paying people who are actually unified toward one common goal? Few companies have that, but it's well within reach.

A leader builds unity by fighting the five enemies that tear it apart: poor communication, gossip, unresolved disagreements, lack of shared purpose, and sanctioned incompetence.

1. Poor communication is when the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. Most companies use mushroom communication—leave them in the dark and feed them manure—as a growth strategy. That won't work. Winning organizations must have a culture of communication. Without it, team members are detached and insecure.
2. Gossip is discussing anything with anyone who can't solve the problem. Gossip is degrading and destructive. People need a place to express themselves, but it should be to someone in a position to do something about it. In our company, negatives go up and positives go down—period. We've made gossip a fireable offense, and we're crystal clear about that in the hiring process and in staff meetings. The team loves it!
3. Unresolved disagreements destroy unity. Sometimes the leader doesn't even know they exist; that's poor communication. Other times the leader avoids confrontation; that's denial. Either way, the team loses. With hundreds of people working together, some will inevitably lock horns and bump into each other. A leader should act quickly and decisively when that happens by pulling the splinter out, cleansing the wound, and allowing some time to heal. Sometimes it's messy, but the alternative is to act like nothing has happened and later wonder what went wrong.
4. Lack of a shared purpose is caused by the leader not restating the goal, vision and mission early enough or often enough. At our company, new team members memorize the mission statement and our leaders constantly review it with the team. Everything we do is measured by that mission statement. And, since our company has a unified purpose, every team member knows exactly how he or she fits into the grand scheme.
5. Sanctioned incompetence is when someone has a destructive attitude and no one addresses it. That demoralizes everyone. Team members will eventually become de-motivated when they see a leader who will not take action when someone on the team cannot, or will not, do their job.

A leader will go to battle early and often with these five enemies of unity. There is going to be a lot of drama in any workplace, but leaders must invest the time and energy to deal with issues instead of blindly writing paychecks and hoping for the best.

Dont be scared to address these problems in your workplace whenever and wherever they appear. That's called leading. It's not easy. It's not pretty. And it's not going to be your best day in the office. But it could just be your best day as a leader.

Learn more at EntreLeadership, Dave Ramsey's ultimate business conference.

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