This afternoon I spoke with a former coworker who had very recently resigned. I vaguely remembered my own resignation from that organization, but when I read Christopher Koch's blog "The Cult of Leadership", the memories came flooding back. 

Challenges in business are a fact of life, but when the executives in an organization won't face the truth and share the challenges with their employees, there's little hope of a turn around.

I'm totally on board with Koch's comments, and in particularly firm agreement with David Sirota, co-author of The Enthusiastic Employee: How Companies Profit by Giving Workers What They Want (Wharton School Publishing), who Koch references. Here's a quote from an interview with Sirota for those folks who are still trying to turn their organization around:

"The conventional wisdom is that if there is a problem, it occurs on the front line. Our data shows that large percentages of employees are quite positive about their immediate bosses. The biggest problem is not the first level of supervision. It tends to come from the middle. Workers see the problem at the levels above the immediate manager. They often consider their own bosses as buffers to middle management. Workers say, 'I like my boss.' Morale goes down when it comes to middle management, then goes up again at the senior level. The top guy can do no wrong. That's a fairly common response. What workers don't realize is that all the pressure is coming from the top. They are the ones telling the middle what to do. The villain is viewed as middle management, but the real villain is senior management."

The advice for management: don't treat your employees like enemies, children, or paperclips. If you want them to behave as allies, partners, and adults, you have to treat them as such. Hmmm, does this seem like a restatement of the Golden Rule to you, too?

6:27:55 PM    
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