The Dark Side of Leadership
For the past several weeks, I have experienced a side of leadership that most leaders hope they will never have to face, but nearly all will. That time when you have to ask GOOD people to leave your company for reasons completely outside their personal control.
Day after day of reviewing names, considering what you will need in the future to succeed, and taking decisions that will affect peoples lives. It is a wearying experience, full of sleepless nights and stressful days. It is also a learning experience, one which I hope I never need to apply the lessons from (but probably will). I saw what was done well, and what was done poorly. I took part in decisions based on logic and principal, and saw other decisions based on politics and personal relationships. If I am completely authentic with myself, I’m sure some of my own decisions were influenced by personal relationships and politics, or at the very least I turned away when I saw it.
So often these decisions are taken in near vacuum, self imposed by management. It is a terrible thing for those inside the vacuum, starving for air (input), and for those outside, aware “something” is happening yet unable to have their voices heard. The need to “control” the information nearly always trumps the desire to communicate and collect input to assure the best possible decisions are taken. It is a great pity.
I learned and I grew. I saw great strength and determination in the faces of many who left, frankly making it even more difficult to let go of exceptional people. It’s tragic that companies are not as adept at adjusting their revenue to match their talent as they have become at adjusting their “resources” (what you call people to depersonalize them) to match the business level they accept.
Tags: leadership, work
