Ever notice how life’s lessons sometimes come from the most ordinary places? Recently, I read Seth Godin’s blog about his take on car dents. You know the scenario – you get a massive dent in your car, and there’s no question about what to do. You’re at the body shop faster than you can say “insurance claim.” It’s a no-brainer.
But here’s where it gets interesting.
What about those tiny dings? The ones from shopping cart encounters, the mysterious parking lot battle scars, or that time your neighbor’s kid got a bit too excited with their bicycle? Each one seems too minor to warrant a trip to the body shop. Too insignificant to justify the expense and hassle of repair.
So we live with them, one small imperfection at a time, until one day, we look at our once-pristine vehicle and realize it’s death by a thousand cuts—or, in this case, dings.
This got me thinking about leadership and organizational culture in a new way. Because let’s be honest, we’re all guilty of the same approach with our teams.
When significant issues rear their ugly heads, we act like corporate firefighters. Poor quarterly results? Emergency strategy session. Major client complaint? All hands on deck. Ethical violation? I’d like you to look into this and respond immediately. We’re great at handling the big stuff.
But what about the small stuff? The stuff we brush off with a casual “it’s not that big of a deal” or “we have bigger fish to fry”?
They’re connected by an invisible thread of tolerance that slowly, insidiously weaves a culture of mediocrity.
I’ve seen it happen countless times. A high-performing team gradually transforms into an average one, and nobody can quite put their finger on why. It’s because we’ve been ignoring the dings while waiting for dents.
Think about the last time you lost a great employee. Did they leave because the work was too hard? Or did they leave because they couldn’t stand watching the slow erosion of standards? In my experience, top performers don’t just wake up one morning and decide to leave. They leave after months or years of watching small compromises accumulate into a culture they no longer want to be part of.
Here’s a thought experiment: What if we treated every small issue with the same urgency as the big ones? I’m not talking about making mountains out of molehills, but rather about recognizing that molehills, left unattended, eventually become mountains.
Imagine addressing that slight tension between team members before it becomes full-blown conflict. Picture fixing that small inefficiency in your process before it creates a significant bottleneck. Think about correcting that tiny miscommunication before it leads to a major project derailment.
Why? Because people want to work in an environment where excellence isn’t just a poster on the wall but a daily practice. They want to be part of a team that cares about the details, that doesn’t accept “good enough” as good enough.
The truth is, as leaders, we are what we tolerate. Every time we walk past a small problem without addressing it, we’re essentially giving it our stamp of approval. We’re telling our teams, “This is acceptable. This is who we are.”
So here’s my challenge to you (and to myself): Start paying attention to the dings. Create a culture where it’s not just okay but expected to address small issues before they become big ones. Make excellence a habit, not an event.
Because at the end of the day, great cultures don’t erode overnight. They erode through a thousand tiny compromises, a thousand small allowances, a thousand moments where we chose convenience over correctness.
The next time you notice a small imperfection in your team or organization, ask yourself: Would I let this slide if it were bigger? If the answer is no, then maybe it’s time to visit the organizational body shop.
In leadership as in car maintenance, it’s not just about fixing what’s broken – it’s about maintaining what’s working before it breaks. Your team’s culture is either appreciating or depreciating. There’s no standing still.
So, what small dings are you going to fix today?
After all, the difference between a high-performing team and an average one often isn’t in how they handle the big challenges – it’s in how they handle the small ones.
Let’s stop pretending that small problems don’t matter. They do. They always have. And addressing them might just be the most important leadership work you do today.