One frustrating thing about Cisco is realizing the slacker sittng next to you is safer than you as a high performer…. Slackers are annoying… but they are harmless. They do not ask many questions…they do not challenge decisions, and they usually do not expose problems. They just coast along, do what they are told… and stay out of the way.
High performers do the opposite…They push& question things, and try to move fast or fix broken processes. That creates pressure, and pressure exposes where systems or decisions are not working well. The irony is slackers frustrate high performers, but high performers can make leaders uncomfortable because they reveal where the system is broken.