You will now be aware I am an avid, but long suffering, Manchester United fan. This has meant I have witnessed very closely a lesson in tolerating things that shouldn’t be accepted. After Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013, Manchester United didn’t collapse overnight. They began their slide quietly.
It wasn’t because of one single catastrophic decision. It was instead a classic example of tolerating issues that compounded year after year:
- Tolerating average recruitment
- Tolerating unclear leadership
- Tolerating short-term thinking
- Tolerating low accountability
- Tolerating cultural erosion
This has meant that the Club that was once one of the consistently highest-performing teams in world football became a revolving door of managers, strategies, and excuses. A laughing stock for everyone else.
No single season destroyed United. Simply speaking: Tolerance is drift and drift becomes decline.
Tolerating in Business
Every business owner has a list of things they know aren’t working, but somehow, they keep putting up with them.
Are any of these familiar?
- The client who pays late every single month
- The team member who delivers good work but drains all of your energy
- A clunky, inefficient process you know is slowing you down
- A service provider who misses deadlines, but is nice
- A pricing structure you know needs reviewed and updated
- A continual habit of avoiding hard conversations and conflict
- A system you kept promising myself you’d replace “once things have quietened down”
Businesses not acting on these are not necessarily failing. However they are tolerating things they shouldn’t.
And tolerance is a slow poison. It doesn’t blow up your business. It erodes it quietly.
When Tolerance Looks Like Toughness (But Isn’t)
Marco van Basten was one of the best, if not the actual best, strikers in late 80s, early 90s world football. However, by his mid-20s, he was playing through constant ankle pain at AC Milan. He was tolerating:
- Training sessions he couldn’t finish
- Ice baths after every match
- Painkillers just to put his boots on
Until one day he couldn’t continue. He ended up having three surgeries and eventually he retired aged just 28. Van Basten later said: “I thought I could cope. I was coping… until I wasn’t.”
That is the business owner’s experience in one sentence. We tolerate things thinking they’re minor, let them fester, until suddenly they are critical.
Why Do This?
1. We hope things will improve on their own
Hope beats confrontation.
2. We naturally avoid conflict
And especially with early clients, loyal team members, or people the business has outgrown.
3. We tell ourselves we’re displaying kindness
Kindness without boundaries isn’t kindness though, it’s self-sacrifice.
4. We’re too busy to deal with the problem properly
The irony? Tolerating it takes up so much more of your time.
5. We fear the consequences of action
- “What if they leave?”
- “What if it gets awkward?”
- “What if we can’t replace them?”
6. We underestimate the cost of inaction
The real cost isn’t financial. It’s the drain on energy, momentum, clarity, and culture.
The CFO Lens: The Annual “Tolerance Audit”
Try this audit. It is simple, honest, and transformative.
1. Clients
- Who drains energy?
- Who constantly pushes scope?
- Who pays late?
- Who sucks your margin?
- Who stresses your team disproportionately?
Your worst client is costing you more than they bring.
2. Team & Contractors
- Who is consistently performing below expectations?
- Who causes tension and friction?
- Who is doing “just enough to get by”?
- Who needs a reset, clarity, or, possibly, an exit and new challenge?
Culture is shaped by the worst behaviour you tolerate.
3. Systems & Processes
- What repeatedly needs fixed?
- What is still manual that shouldn’t be?
- What processes or systems cause the most errors?
- What would you rebuild differently today if time and money was not a constraint?
Broken processes accumulate hidden costs.
4. Your Own Habits
- What do you avoid as it demotivates you or you don’t find it challenging anymore?
- What activities or responsibilities drain your energy?
- What distracts you from the work only you can do?
- What did you promise to fix this year but never did?
Nothing changes until you start the changes yourself.
Simple Actions You Can Take This Week
- Write down 3 things you will no longer tolerate in 2026.
- Identify 1 client who needs re-scoping or releasing
- Have 1 courageous conversation you’ve delayed
- Upgrade 1 broken process before January
- Reduce internal meetings or online commitments by 20%
- Small acts of courage compound into structural change.
Closing Thought
We all love setting goals. What we’re less good at is raising standards. Your growth in 2026 won’t come from what you add. It will come from what you stop tolerating.
If you want a different year, run a different standard.
The business you want won’t be built by the behaviours you tolerated in 2025.
Helping leaders and businesses drive success forward
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Want to see if we could be a fit for your business? Let’s connect virtually (we’ll be live, no robots here).
