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Are Employees Saying “Yes” To Your Face But “No” Behind Your Back? December 30, 2014 (0 comments)
Merrick, NY—It’s an all-too-common scene at business meetings: the senior executive brings up an important issue that needs to be addressed, and the attending managers all nod their heads in agreement. Then nothing gets done because the managers and their staffs know that in real life—as opposed to meeting rooms—their performance will be judged more by producing the right numbers than addressing big-picture issues.
This is exactly what happened at General Motors with its ignition switch defect problem. It happened at Avon when cultural norms in international markets didn’t jive with the corporate values, and it happened at the Veterans Administration with enormous backlogs of patients waiting months for treatment, says an article on ThoughtLeadersLLC.com.
But it isn’t limited to big corporations or government bureaucracies. Small businesses are equally vulnerable when the actions of the owner or manager don’t match their rhetoric. Actions speak louder than words, and accountability starts at the top. When senior leaders aren’t living up to what they preach, the staff can easily see what’s really important by watching what the manager focuses on. And that’s what they’ll focus on. You’ll get the “head nod” but not the followup action.
Separately, a short video on SmartBlogs.com says that to successfully implement change initiatives, top executives have to make their influence felt one on one, person to person, in order to win over the rank and file. John Baldoni, an internationally recognized leadership educator and executive coach and chair of leadership development at N2Growth, offers quick tips to ensure your plans for change are successful—and that you don’t just get the head-nod. Click here to watch.
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