Leaders Beware: Rotten Onions in Your Team

“Should have left it untouched. Or should have looked earlier.” 

The moment I turned it over, I had to hold my nose to avoid the stench! Maybe I should have looked a little earlier. Yes, I’m talking about a sack of onions in the balcony of my own home. 

How come I haven’t got any hint, or even a whiff, of the fact that the onion has gone from bad to worse? This experience was simply so visceral that it got me thinking—about many different things, from toxic team member to leadership to some of my stinky attributes. 

Good Onions: Make Constant Feedback and Coaching

If the onions in your sack look okay and feel okay, keep them healthy by offering them cool conditions. Likewise, when you’re leading a well-functioning team, have a regular face-time with each member of your team to keep a healthy connection. 

Just like onions, your team members need to stay fresh, healthy, and in good condition. The only practical way to keep them that way is for a leader to be vigilant, caring, and attentive to details, like a very weak sign of distress. Once rotten, there’s no turning back. 

Bad Onions: Keep Them Away from the Others

When an onion shows a sign of damage, it affects the onions nearest to it in the sack. The neighboring onions got tainted and begin to stink, too. Leaders need to tell if and when a team member’s passed the point of recovery. 

If there’s still some hope of recovery, it’s time for damage control. Cut away the rotting parts, or bad behaviors or negative attitudes, and salvage and re-vitalize the good parts. These onions, after recovery, can be put to good use. 

Rotten Onions: Time for Disaster Recovery

When the onion is rotten way beyond the point of damage control, it needs to be thrown away. Otherwise, the whole sack of onions begins to stink, and there’s no telling which one’s making all the stench! The team’s damaged already. Some of them got hurt in the process. 

The rotten onion at home has got me looking back on myself, to see which part of me is rotten, or showing signs of damage, or in good shape. A sudden burst of anger, the sarcastic comments that I make from time to time, focusing on the dark side of a person, and complaining out loud. These are all my rotten attributes. 

Beware: Rotten Onions in Yourself and Your Team

Still gripped by the stench, or memory thereof, I’m still kind of traumatized. Negative elements, like rotten stench, bad aftertaste, or hurt feelings, have a lasting impact on our lives. You may say that, “Hey, what’s gone bad is just one person, or a single onion, or one defective attribute of mine.” 

Take that as a rotten onion, and you’ll understand what you have to do—as a leader, a father, a mother, or a citizen in your community. A single rotten onion is bound to ruin the whole sack, just like a single foul-mouthed person can hurt the feelings of the whole team. 

So, leaders beware: A rotten onion will ruin the whole sack, just like "a rotten apple spoils the barrel." A single person with terrible attitude, who fails to learn and grow, will damage the whole team. A single bad attribute in your personality will ruin your personal brand. 

Take a deep and conscious look, and you’ll find a rotten onion and stay away from its perils and stench. Be mindful of yourself, your team, and your onions. That’s the only way to stay clean, stay healthy, and stay young and grow.