Originally published at: https://www.bullshido.net/jiu-jitsu-and-the-paradox-of-tolerance/
Leif Babin, who co-authored the excellent leadership book Extreme Ownership alongside Jocko Willink, once said:“When it comes to standards, as a leader, it’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.”This quote contains a critical insight for team-building: it only takes one toxic person to ruin a team. Leaders must show zero tolerance for bad behavior, because once normalized, toxic shit attracts toxic people.This is a lesson I had to learn the hard way. I believe in inclusion, forgiveness, and second chances…but these virtues can be used against you if you’re not vigilant. Too much “tolerance” and you become a doormat. You wind up letting some awful people in the door, who will corrupt everything you’ve built from the inside out.The Paradox of ToleranceDuring World War II, legendary Austrian-British philosopher Karl Popper introduced a concept now known as the paradox of tolerance.The paradox of tolerance makes a simple but surprising claim:To remain a tolerant culture, we must tolerate everyone except the intolerant.In other words, we should be inclusive of everyone except those who are hateful, bigoted, or otherwise determined to destroy our culture of inclusion. Those people must be immediately removed from the group.You might bristle at this statement. Tolerance…