Fear, Loathing and No Respect

[Eric Brown]

In an environment full of fear, loathing and no respect of the leadership, how does one engage employees?

Before you answer, let me set the stage for the question:
I've been working with a client as a consultant trying to help them implement some cultural changes to bring their processes and technology into the 21st century (they are stuck in 1985).

In order to do this, we have to get the employees engaged and 'own' these changes....but...it's almost impossible to do this since almost all of these employees are convinced that their efforts will be wasted. Why do they think this way? It took me a while, but I finally found the issue: the leadership of the organization.

It seems as if the CIO of this organization isn't liked, isn't respected and is feared. He's the kind of guy that will go off and make a decision on a new system without really thinking about how that new system will 'fit' into the overall strategy. He's also the type of person that will raise his voice and berate people that don't agree with him.

So...back to the question...how does one engage employees when they fear, hate and don't respect their leadership?

The easy answer is to try to get the CIO to understand how he's affecting his staff, but that's been tried before by people much better than me.

Another answer is for the organization to replace the CIO with someone much more suited to leading an IT staff in today's business environment. This is a bit out of the scope of my project though :)

Yet another answer is to try to get employees to focus on their goals/objectives and not on their dislike of the CIO...but this is a difficult one. It's my belief that employees have to feel valued and cared for in order for them to fully engage and I don't see that changing in this organization any time soon.

Any thoughts?

[Ian Buckingham]

Phew! Tough call Eric. I'm a bit of an iconoclast myslef in that I don't really believe that the Top Team/CEO/any exec is the be all and end all. In the main they aren't the brand but the brand is something that lives and breathes in the everyday actions of the employees. I have a similar case at the moment where I've just completed a diagnostic of their internal communication and the Chief Exec is loathed. He won't listen to any independent analysis and has a Board full of locums and non-execs. He sacked my client (Head of Corporate Comms) within a week of the start of my project. Faced with no senior support and a management ideology the employees loathe, it has had the impact of unifying employees within their own teams. The business provides an essential Healthcare Service and the employees love what they stand for, how they help customers and - the Brand. They have some great local leaders but this really is a case where the Chairman and non-execs have come into their own as the senior mentors and, gradually, through the line managers leading by example and extending invites to key leadership stakeholders to attend local "good news" events, the senior stakeholders are starting to understand the beating heart of the culture. The comms team are doing all they can to seek out good news at a local level.
Few good news stories, however, are stemming from the CEO's office and it's gradually becoming clear that the CEO isn't long for his leather throne. But it's a painful process.

[Jo]

Maybe look for leverage appreciatively?

Ask everyone how the day went and then surprise them with this question:

Why did you do so well?

They will find it hard to resist identifying what lead them to do whatever went well and be quite surprised at the factors that led to that success.

[Terrence Seamon]

Eric,
Based on what you have shared with us, looks to me like a baaaad situation for employee engagement. And for organizational outcomes, I might add.

The CIO appears to be a person who...
- Does not involve his staff in decisions (goes off and makes decisions without thinking about "fit")
- Does not respect his staff (berates them in a raised voice)

These two (involvement and respect) are key engagement factors.

Reading between the lines, I'll bet this CIO is a stress-carrier whose conduct has pushed people to the extreme on the Yerkes-Dodson curve, where fear is lowering productivity.

One suggestion that comes to mind is for the staffers to begin polishing their resumes and packing their chutes.

Terry

[Eric Brown]

Hi Terry - You are very correct...you've pegged the CIO perfectly and from what I can tell, the resumes have been polished for quite some time.

Thanks for the link to "The Practice of Leadership"...great blog.

[Rocky]

If the CIO is that bad and unwilling to see his part in the problem I am not sure that anything can be done short of removing the CIO. I would be interested to know the history of the business and the prevailing culture. It is often easy to blame the leadership, but I have seen many cases where the corporate culture is so strong (in a negative sense) that Mother Theresa can be made to look bad. Blame, excuse and deny is sure fire way to get failure. It would be interesting to see which directions the Blame, excuse, deny is coming from. Leadership often makes mistakes. That in itself is not necessarily the formula for doom. if the leadership is unwilling to see their mistakes and make restitution and learn from them, then that is a good recipe for failure. On the other side, a negative corporate culture can create a sense of doom very quickly. Either way there is no simple solution. it may be simpler if the problem is the CIO. A negative corporate culture can take a monumental effort to overcome. Great topic. I would like to hear more. Thanks.

[Zane Safrit]

Tough, tough, tough assignment. What you describe sounds like a group with no hope, no means to generate that hope. Being from the outside you see clearly where the obstacle exists. And it's unlikely from what you describe, this obstacle will change on his own. Unlikely, improbable, doubtful, not impossible.

I think they need a rallying point for their emotions, dreams, hopes...I can only see building a business case that shows the ROI for your changes and the costs for not implementing them. You'll have to customize it for each audience: employees and management. Customize means just emphasize what's "in it for them", "why they should care" and "why they should believe". That last one is most important for the employees.

Eventually, dealing with the numbers and not the personality, you can help them make a data-based decision.

[Nick McCormick]

Eric,
You have a very difficult assignment. It sounds to me that you are working on instituting significant change across the organization. That requires support from the leadership team. If the leadership is loathed, their support is useless, and probably a detriment. I would bet that there have been several similar efforts within this organization that have failed in the past.

Your best shot is to convince enough of the people in the organization that there is a huge benefit to them (preferably in both the short and long term) to implement these changes. Even then, success is a long shot.

[Eric Brown]

Hey everyone...looks like my concerns were well founded. This is a difficult assignment for sure. There are some organizational changes coming soon and I hope that some of these issues are resolved. I'll keep everyone posted.

[Mike Healy]

I have shared my experience HERE

Maybe this will help

Mike

[Eric Brown]

Thanks Mike...great story. Some excellent information there.

[Rob Fox]

Hi,

BIG Challenge.

I agree with Mike.

The key inside this is to mark your ground with the CEO.

His bullying behaviour is simply unacceptable; a product of his fears and insecurities projected onto his people.

Hold the proverbial mirror up to him and tell him directly how his people - and you - feel about him.

The result will either be you heading for a beach pronto, or a new kind of rapport.

Either way, it's the right thing to do right.

When I'm in a situation like this, thankfully not too often, I remember this line when preparing - we don't see people as they are, we see them as we are.

Best of luck and if you want some big friends to help, call Mike!