photo courtesy of Laura Leavell, Florida
I hear it time and time again;
“We want to find employees who really care about our business, who are passionate about our customers and who will fight to do what’s right.”
They are employers who lament over how hard it is to get ‘good help’ or who again and again repeat phrases like, “employees aren’t what they used to be” or “this new generation just doesn’t care.”
I call their bluff and I up the ante.
A recent article in our local paper caught my eye last week about an employee who IS passionate, who is fighting for his customers and who is trying to do what’s right. His name is Dr. Lloyd Maybaum, a psychiatrist in Calgary who truly wants to make a difference for his patients. This man is not only concerned about his own patients, according to the article, but he is concerned about all patients in his field of practice. He has tried to care about them using his voice, his friends and his heart, begging to have a mental health unit built as planned for the South Campus.
His reward according to this article is… a letter stating;
“I am forced to make a clear statement that further communications of this nature without discussion and review with members of the Executive of Mental Health and Addictions will require . . . (asking) the Executive to formally review your role as physician leader for psychiatry to the South Campus project.”
So, for asking other doctors to lobby and help his cause, he is slapped on the hand and told to keep quiet. I bring this article to attention because of the leadership priority involved in the situation.
What can we learn from such a disastrous treatment of a well-meaning employee?
- The leadership in this case is obviously the priority – not health care, not the patients, not the cause, but what is important is the decision of the leadership.
- The direction cannot be challenged.
- The right thing to do is defined by the leadership and anyone who disagrees might just as well keep their mouths shut or be threatened.
Sadly, he is not alone in this kind of behaviour by an executive or management group – we see it all the time within organizations who are unwilling to admit their culture is more about covering their rear-ends than caring about the customer or the actual role the company plays in business.
Managers who squash information, hide facts, deflect responsibility, and punish employees for caring about the customer will at worst bury the company and at best, leave it scarred with members who are frustrated and angry. Not exactly what one looks for when seeking a positive, collaborative and innovative culture.
We need passionate employees who care about how we deliver our services, people who see it from a customer relationship side, people who understand the service or product as it is being used, how it is being serviced and what kind of experience we provide. They are the voices we NEED to hear, the voices who challenge us to, as Rebel Brown puts it, Defy Gravity and reach success. We need to celebrate folks who are brave enough to help us understand where we are falling down, not punish them because their voice might make us appear like we don’t know what we are doing.
Do you have an example of a leadership who steps in and tries to quell the voice of reason?
[PostFooterP]