Hard work or hard worry?

Hard work is tiring. Hard worry is exhausting.

The difference is that hard work eventually produces an outcome. Hard worry simply returns tomorrow morning, usually accompanied by a few new problems.

I was recently asked to advise a dental practice owner facing a serious people problem. An associate’s performance and behaviour had been causing concern for some time. The owner had recognised the problem, sought professional HR advice and understood that the situation was no longer sustainable.

But she had not acted.

Why? Because she was frightened of the gap.

If the associate left, who would cover the patients? How long would recruitment take? What would happen to revenue? Would the owner have to return to heavier clinical duties?

Those concerns were understandable. They were also becoming catastrophically expensive.

While the owner waited, hoping the associate would improve or resign voluntarily, good people began to leave. A trusted, long-serving team member brought forward her departure. Other colleagues followed. The issue was no longer the performance of one individual. It had become a question about leadership, standards and whether the remaining team believed that poor performance and unacceptable behaviour carried any consequences.

In trying to avoid a vacancy, the owner had created a much larger one.

This is the difference between hard work and hard worry.

Hard work means addressing the problem through a fair, documented and professionally advised process. It means having the difficult conversation, managing a temporary gap, covering sessions, recruiting energetically and properly onboarding the right replacement.

That will be tiring. It may temporarily affect production. It may demand more from the owner and leadership team.

But it is finite, purposeful and capable of producing a better business.

Hard worry is different. It means monitoring the individual every day, managing complaints and team frustration, explaining departures, losing sleep, rehearsing conversations that never happen and waiting for the next incident.

It produces no revenue, no solution and no end point.

Jim Collins gave us the enduring metaphor of getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus and the right people in the right seats. Dental leaders sometimes concentrate on the final part while avoiding the uncomfortable middle one.

Of course, nobody should be removed from the bus impulsively. Performance problems may require clearer expectations, better training, stronger management or a different seat. Behaviour concerns deserve honest feedback and a genuine opportunity to change.

But when expectations have been made clear, support has been provided and the pattern continues, tolerance stops being kindness. It becomes an announcement to everybody else that the stated values of the business are optional.

Your best people are always watching what you tolerate.

Inaction is paid for by the people you most need to keep.

Leadership is not measured by how successfully you avoid uncomfortable decisions.

It is measured by your willingness to make them fairly and decisively.

If somebody is no longer on the bus, stop spending your days worrying about them.

Begin the hard work of moving forward.