Leadership Really?

Office politics has never been my forte, that's for sure, I don't play games when it comes to my career. I have always worked hard and put in the extra effort daily believing that the effort would, eventually, be rewarded. Before this job, that was definitely the case. At this job, things are entirely different.

Change of leadership is the greatest detriment to hard working employees, period. You get your reputation out there with those who matter, then they leave and you have to start again, and again, and again. If you're lucky, those that are in a position to help you will take you under their wing and bring you with them. If you're not, you continue to get passed over time and time again, until you start over with the next leader. That usually takes about 2-3 years. By the time you realize it, you're looking at 11 years gone by and nothing has happened in your advancement!

Then, if you're really unlucky, you get someone who is a poor leader in charge of the overall department. What constitutes a poor leader you may ask. Well, after seeing so many come and go, there are key factors that indicate good leadership in my humble opinion:

1. The investment both knowledge based and financially based in your employee assets
2. Communication down chain from the leader
3. Involvement in Operational as well as project activities

Coming into a department as a leader and "cheaping" out on all merit increases given to the department is definitely a sign of "uncaring" leadership - especially after the entire department was given 0% merit increases over the last 3 years and were told they should be happy they still have a job. Once a company announces it has money to spend and won't re-invest in their best assets - the longevity and knowledge investment in their employee assets - it is bound to have a negative effect on the MORALE and the overall expectations of the employees. There is only so much that people will take from a company, regardless of the time investment.

When will leadership understand that going from a department of 68 to a department of 28 with the same workload minus new openings creates inefficiencies and low morale. Couple that with lack of compensation and you're playing with fire once the economy comes back online with positions available. When will companies realize that having a department of 28 people with 12 of them having more than 10+ years in the department and at the company actually is a knowledge vested interest the company has in keeping them.

It all falls back on leadership. A leader who is absent is a leader who doesn't have the confidence of its minions. A leader who doesn't communicate with its minions and makes them feel a part of the greater picture doesn't have its minions' respect or emotional investment any longer. A leader needs to show leadership to the people who are doing the daily grind work otherwise there will be consequences to pay in turnover, knowledge transfer loss AND in cost. Companies don't realize people coming onboard will want MORE than they are currently paying the employees. There are some people who will require (2) bodies to replace and I don't say that lightly.

Having worked for those leaders who really understood keeping the minions happy and informed, I really miss those days and wish they would return. Just my two cents...

Thanks for listening...