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.
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.