I feel like it’s a common script that most good companies eventually fall to short term focused management types who are happy to shred the company as long as they get their golden parachute.
Why does this seem to be the case? If you wanted to build a company that was more immune to this sort of thing how would you go about it? Examples and counter examples of these sorts of companies would be awesome to hear about.
Their CVs are full of 1 to 3 year stints at organisations. The first thing they do when they get somewhere is make “big changes”. They think you can turn a supertanker like a speed boat if you could just shed all that extra weight. They’re good at telling you what they don’t want but not so good at telling you what they want instead. Their real passion in life is something expensive (flying their private plane, collecting cars, buying new homes, etc). They’re overly confident about products or services without spending time getting to know them from engineering leadership etc.
How to be immune? Honestly, look for leaders who do long stints at organisations; 6+ years. Look at the health of the businesses they were at during those time periods. If they had downturns, grill them about what the org and they themselves did to turn it around. Look for leaders who have signs of empathy. Look for leaders who are there because it’s their passion (and not what payrolls their Rolex habit). Look for leaders that know an org will remain a supertanker unless you kill the products and codebase that made them one and there’s nothing wrong with supertankers, you just have to plan your turns and be watchful for hazards so you can turn much earlier.
The empathy part is a big part of it. If a leader has to make headcount cuts, it should hurt emotionally. It should feel like a personal failure (hiring too many, hiring for wrong projects, etc). The redundancy package or whatever you call it should be above and beyond the legal or industry minimum. Staff should be supported through the journey of finding their next position (internally or externally).
I’ve worked with leaders like this in huge companies (Fortune 500/FTSE 100 etc) and thankfully still do - and I’m currently trying to be one myself.
They’re the leaders that engineering managers sing praises about, support teams love, sales engineers idolise. They get consistent growth year on year but not at obscene, obviously unsustainable rates. They’re the leaders who don’t push for things to be delivered early, but push for things to be delivered reliably. They don’t need to raise their voice to “win” an argument. They use words like “honesty” instead of “no bullshit”. They’re open and supportive about mental health and enact regular “mental health” days off for the whole company as extra, free, paid holiday.
They’re the leaders that are everywhere but don’t make the headlines because they’re not as attention grabbing as psychopaths and sociopaths and they’re too busy being the backbone and cortex of their respective businesses.
Great to hear! I guess others who are not in leadership roles would like to hear more about guys like you, and would like to know that some of you are also taking the time to teach other leaders take a different approach to work management and leadership culture.
Honestly, I think a huge number of leaders are like this and it’s only a loud minority however they often turn up in executive positions with a complex and desire to make a mark and justify their presence. I also swear their playbook is set about huge change so that you can make excuses for poor performance then bounce off to the next org and do the same.
Making cuts is often a necessity - to stay afloat or cut the losses from a failing or failed project. I think anyone who works at a large org has to accept that - I’ve been let go of before. It’s about how you implement them that is the difference between a leader on paper and a leader of people.
Last big round of cuts we did many years back, we set up interviews with our direct competitors for our outgoing staff, provided licenses to training platforms for a year, did CV work with everyone, provided references, and several months full-pay beyond statutory or industry standard.
It hurt us financially but it gave us the breathing room we needed to turn, and it helped both our remaining staff know we valued those we lost which helped retention greatly, it also meant that several engineering architects that we loved but had to lose rejoined us a couple of years later and the experience elsewhere before returning made them even more valuable.
The thing is, we didn’t get a news story about it, it didn’t make waves on social. Being good to people is sadly not a big deal and thus I think everyone just hears about the bad. There really are good orgs out there, just talk to staff. Ask about the last wave of redundancies/lay offs. Ask about the pandemic period. You should know how an org acts in time of struggle.
We let people work from home full-time (still do) and increased number of holidays. Productivity went up.