founder of naked leader
‘Transformation’ – The Biggest Con Of All?
Naked Leader Week 945 – 18 October 2021
Time to read: 55 seconds
Please – please – stop hiding behind the word ‘Transformation’ when what you really mean is downsize, save costs and/or get rid of people.
I had a disturbing phone call over the weekend with a good friend I will call Julia:
Julia: “Hi David, I wondered if you have any tips to help me. Our organisation is having its next quarterly transformation in January and I think I might be on the list”
(Pause)
Me: “What list?”
Julia: “To go. Last week – in October’s transformation, the company got rid of 5% of people”
Me: “Sorry, Transformation?”
Julia: “Yes that’s what they are calling it”
Me: “OK…”
We then discussed her situation etc.
After the call I went for a walk to calm down
It didn’t work
Why, why, why in this day and age, of WellBeing, of having company values and purpose, are some – by no means all – leaders hiding behind that word.
Of course, I understand that organisations have to survive, and save money etc.
In doing so, please be honest, logical and remember the blindingly obvious
Honest: Meet with people – Zoom/Teams is better than nothing – and be truthful about what is going on – if people don’t know what is going on they will make it up for themselves, and our brains will always lean towards the negative. So your very best people may be very nervous, right now.
Logical: Too many ‘C’ level leaders are saying to me ‘Yes David, we get WellBeing, we just need our people to work a bit harder first, then we can look at that.’ This line of argument only has one slight flaw – it doesn’t work. WellBeing is not a result, or a symptom, it is the very cause of whether people give you their best, or not. Duh!
The Blindingly Obvious: You can get rid of all the people you want and need to, you can do it as unethically and dishonestly as you like, but that will still leave you with a rather big problem…
The people left behind
Who will never trust you again
Rant over
With my love and best wishes to you all
David
X
@nakedleader across all social media