...taking action and making tough decisions with regards to the employee who's not keeping pace or performing at the level expected. As a leader every decision made (or decisions they avoid making) go into creating the culture that exists in the organization. If they let personal feelings about a nice guy who's doing mediocre work cloud their judgement before they know it they have an organization filled with mediocrity where lowering the bar and under-performing is acceptable..
Paul said it best in his letter to the Corinthians "But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully."
When CBers were saying Bronco had peaked and BYU was ready for a change with their football team, many sphincters on CB were gripped in fear and they would say, "We can't replace him, who would we get???" My response was always that nobody is irreplaceable and just because you don't have an obvious replacement that's no reason to maintain the status quo. That's why you vet and interview, to find that next guy. After all, did we know Bronco would be a good head coach when he replaced Crowton? We had no idea. Did we know Rose would be a good coach when he replaced Cleveland? We had no idea. Yet it worked out.
When the time becomes apparent that Coach Rose has jumped the shark and it's time to go, I'm not worried about who we'll find to replace him. That next great coach is just an interview away.