What are you
tolerating?

Every business has frustrations. Missed deadlines. Unclear communication. Recurring customer complaints. Processes that require more effort than they should.

Most leaders can identify these problems quickly. The harder question is why they keep happening.

Sometimes the answer is uncomfortable: we have become used to them.

We work around the issue, explain it away or promise to address it when things settle down. Gradually, something that once frustrated us becomes an accepted part of running the business.

That is why one simple question deserves a place in every leader’s thinking:

Pause and consider

What am I tolerating today that I shouldn’t be accepting tomorrow?

It shifts attention towards the standards we set, the systems we maintain and the problems we allow to continue.

What you accept becomes the standard

Your team learns what matters by watching what happens each day.

If deadlines regularly slip without discussion, people may begin to treat them as optional. If recurring quality issues attract little attention, fixing them becomes less urgent. If meetings consistently start late, punctuality loses its value.

Written expectations still matter. Their credibility depends on what leaders consistently model and reinforce.

This applies to your own behaviour too. Are you clear about priorities? Do you follow through on commitments? Do you address difficult issues promptly?

The standard you demonstrate gives weight to the standard you expect.

Raising that standard starts with noticing where your actions and expectations have drifted apart.

How small frustrations become normal

Listen to the language people use around recurring problems:

• “That’s just the way it works.”
• “We’ve always done it like that.”
• “It’s only a small issue.”
• “We’ll fix it when we have time.”

These phrases can signal that a problem has become familiar enough to escape attention.

People are often very good at keeping work moving despite a poor process. They create another spreadsheet, add an extra check or develop a personal shortcut.

Those workarounds may help today. Over time, they can make the underlying problem harder to see.

The leadership opportunity is to make the work easier to complete correctly.

The hidden cost of leaving things alone

Some problems are too small to appear as a separate line in your financial reports. Their combined effect can still be substantial.

Think about the time your business spends:

• Searching for information that should be easy to find.
• Entering the same details into different systems.
• Chasing decisions without a clear decision-maker.
• Repeating work because expectations were unclear.
• Attending meetings without a defined purpose.

For illustration, ten people each losing ten minutes a working day adds up to more than eight hours a week.

There is also a cost to motivation. When employees repeatedly raise an issue and nothing changes, they may stop suggesting improvements.

A recurring frustration can become a message: this is something the business is prepared to accept.

When firefighting becomes the routine

Many leaders want to improve their business. Finding time is the challenge.

A customer escalation needs attention. A staff member is away. A supplier misses a delivery. Another deadline approaches.

The immediate problem gets resolved, but its cause remains. Next week, the same issue returns in a slightly different form.

Responding well under pressure is valuable. It also helps to ask whether the pressure was preventable.

After a recurring problem, pause long enough to ask:

What needs to change so we are less likely to deal with this again?

That question connects day-to-day problem solving with longer-term improvement. It creates a reason to examine the process, clarify ownership or remove an unnecessary step.

Raise standards while making problems safe to discuss

Higher standards work best when people feel able to explain what is getting in their way.

If raising a problem leads to blame, useful information may stay hidden. Leaders then see the consequences without understanding the conditions that created them.

Start with curiosity:

• What happened?
• What made the task difficult to complete correctly?
• Were the expectations and responsibilities clear?
• What would help prevent a repeat?

This approach still leaves room for accountability. People need clear expectations and responsibility for their commitments. They also need workable processes, appropriate support and timely decisions.

Lean leadership encourages leaders to observe how work happens and involve the people doing it in improvement.

A practical starting point is to ask your team: “Where are we making good work unnecessarily difficult?”

Then listen carefully to the answer.

Five places to look in your business

You do not need to review everything at once. Start with a familiar source of frustration.

1. Unclear communicationLook for tasks that require repeated clarification or rework. Are the expected outcome, owner and deadline clear?
2. Inconsistent processesFind work where variation creates errors or delays. What needs a simple, agreed way of working?
3. Delayed decisionsNotice where work waits for approval. Is it clear who can decide and when a decision is needed?
4. Low-value meetingsReview meetings that continue out of habit. What decision, outcome or coordination do they support?
5. Recurring problemsIdentify issues that return despite repeated fixes. Have you addressed the cause or only dealt with the immediate effect?