The answer appears to be mixed. For every client who 'gets it', and they are increasingly out there, we come across headline stories like Goldman Sachs, News Corp, RBS et al where the culture appears to be far from healthy. What some of these worst examples share is an inability to see what's going wrong. Without kissing and telling we've sat in a meeting in the C-suite of one of the headline grabbing organisations and been assured in all seriousness and with a total commitment to the party line that everything in the garden is rosy. More than rosy, positively blooming and sweet smelling.
Sometimes it's a refusal to accept that perhaps, just perhaps, top leadership is sending out all the wrong messages. A company culture based on a load of vacuous words on a poster which, even if they are robust and grounded, nobody in the senior team is seen to live. Is anyone walking the walk or are they just talking the talk? Are they even doing that?
And even if they get all this are they prepared to invest the time and money to do something about it? Disappointingly those of us who practice in this area still come across senior managers and executives who say they've got far too many pressing operational issues on their plates just now to bother about employee engagement. Employee engagement is all pink and fluffy after all isn't it?
Well no. Wake up UK plc and smell the coffee. What's pink and fluffy about a cost to the UK economy of £64bn? Yes, £64bn. The annual cost to the UK economy of disengagement. Pink and fluffy? I think not.
So what's the answer? It lies in your brand. It lies in a commitment to create and lead a brand-hearted culture from the very top of an organisation. If you want to know how to go about then read Bursting the boardroom bubble
It is often the case that executive directors prefer to be perceived as successful by the consumer based on the profits and turnover of the company, rather being perceived as a great leader being in touch with the coalface from their employees.
ReplyDeleteI despise this trend of senior managers referring to themselves and each other as "leaders" or "the leadership". How arrogant can you get? They seem to have forgotten that leaders only exist because they have followers, and that following someone only because they have positional power doesn't really count.
ReplyDeleteThanks for you comment hught - puts me in mind of one of Woodreed's well-used sayings 'People don't quit their companies, they quit their bosses'
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