Who are the “hot potatoes” in your organization? You know – the people who no longer are performing but have not been told. Instead, they just get passed along from department to department. We all have them.

Having difficult conversations is hard, especially when they involve someone’s performance. Despite this, not confronting poor performers is a problem.

Regardless of how much you try to isolate these people, they touch others. They may manage them, they interact with them, and they occupy leaders’ time and attention often at the expense of others. You can’t contain their influence. Their lowered performance affects all of the people they touch. The pull down morale and productivity.

Not dealing with these people properly also under minds your credibility. Everyone in the organization knows who these people are and what is going on. Any message or vision of building a high-performing team or holding people accountable become watered down with skepticism.

Most importantly, as my friend Ed Quijano once told me, it’s simply not ethical. Withholding information about someone’s performance and not dealing with the issue hurts the person. If someone were unknowingly paddling down a river toward a dangerous rapid, you’d warn them. If they were about to enter a building that had a gas leak, you’d warn them. So, why do we allow people to careen toward a brick wall in their careers?

No matter how hard the conversation might be, you are responsible for having it. You owe it to your organization, your people, and even the poor performer. And, who knows, maybe if you let the person know what’s wrong, he or she might actually fix it.