No 4 - News You Can Use - March 2009

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Dear Readers,

Welcome to my March ‘News You Can Use’. Thank you to all our newcomers and also to those of you who have stayed tuned in.

In one of the English newspapers recently under the headline “Internet snoops gave me the sack”, was described the story of a 16 year young female employee who was marched out of her office and was made redundant because she went on to Facebook.com and wrote to her friends that her job was boring.

Taking aside the legal side and that I do not agree with her using valuable work time to use Facebook which is dishonest; also taking aside that there may be other issues that are not mentioned in the article as well as that the newspaper printed only her side of the story, this is a great example of failed leadership because if we assume that she was really bored, a great leader with real people skills ought to have noticed that a long time ago, before this happened. How? Because by noticing her change in behaviour and her body language, the way she speaks, her pitch, power and pacing of her voice and how she does her work is a sign and an indication of how much she enjoys it. Body Language is always more accurate than the spoken word and a leader ought to know this.

I do believe that people do not get bored just like that. It is a gradual process and it takes time. A great leader ought to have picked up on this but hey, is real leadership still important? Isn’t revenue, growth, profit and shareholder value more important than real leadership? And why do we need leadership anyway? People are nowadays “ten a penny” if they do not perform, they just get replaced and especially in this current economy, there are more employees than jobs…..so what is the real problem? Maybe this is something we need to think about.

Are we really living in an environment where there is just an attitude of 'hire and fire'? Are our employees worth so little that we can sack them whenever we want to? Have we forgotten how much employees really cost us to employ, leaving aside the emotional issues and smashed confidence that may remain with our employees for a long time once they have been dismissed?

To what lengths do we go to find the right employees that fit our culture and business? How much money do we invest in them and this includes valuable management time, just to fire them at one point when things do not go according to our plan and to make us feel better. Is our business world saying “I am right, you are wrong! And you do what I tell you to do"?  So that employees must do what they have been told in a culture of fear?

For leadership coaching or redundancy support, call +44 (0) 20 8668 2000 please call my office on +44 (0) 20 8668 2000 for a FREE consultation.

This Month Special Offer:
I am offering Redundancy Support and one-to-one Leadership Coaching for 90 minutes sessions for the investment of 60 minutes sessions. So if your company is laying people off or if you know of anyone who has been made redundant or is about to be made redundant, pass on my details and call my office +44 (0) 20 8668 2000. This offer lasts until 31st March 2009.

My guarantee still stands: You get results within 90 days or your money back. (Terms & Conditions apply)

Looking forward to hearing from you.

All the very best.

Peter