I met someone the other day who told me a very sad story about a well-known U.K. retailer. They had a famous CEO, until he retired a couple of years ago and his place was taken by someone else.
The conversation I was having started because the other guy was constantly checking his Blackberry while we were volunteering together at a homeless charity initiative in London last Sunday. I asked him if it was work that was interrupting his day.
‘How did you guess?’ he asked.
I asked him who he worked for. He told me. I asked him if the culture had changed there since the old boss left.
‘You’d better believe it’ he said. ‘And not for the better. The guy has no personality, he talks about himself all the time and isn’t interested in what anyone else has to say’.
I wonder how long it will be before the malaise that sounds as if it is already affecting the 3 – 4,000 people at this company’s head office will trickle down to the front line of the business, where many of us spend our money. And start affecting the bottom line of the business, which is what really matters to shareholders.
I used to work for a CEO who refused to use a large office ‘because it looks as if it was made for someone more important than me’ (his actual words) and who saw his role as supporting everyone else, not dictating to them. He was more interested in the service our customers were getting than his own status.
I know who I would enjoy working for most out of the two. I know who I would work harder for. I know who I would go the extra mile for. The danger of having a dictatorial boss who is a poor communicator is that there will be an imperceptible shift away from doing business with this company, and in the end it will fail.
I know where I would rather be working. For a boss who is more interested in providing a service to his internal and external customers than his (or her) own status.