Changing Direction

This is the story of how an empowered leader changed the direction of the business whilst his predecessor was still navigating from the back seat.

Carl was the Managing Director in a food production business. The previous MD was the Chairman and still very much involved in day-to-day operations.

The workforce of 750 people was unionised, and Carl had a tough job trying to get the union to agree to anything; it held the business in a stranglehold. This wasn’t helped by the Chairman who would hang out with the union officials in the smoking shelter and often shared information that undermined what the MD was trying to achieve.

Carl worked long hours and his stress levels increased significantly. He looked pale, unwell and like he had aged 10 years in the space of 1 year. His initial energy and optimism disappeared, and he communicated less and less with his management team and the workforce, especially the union reps.

He put his head down and just got on with it. Carl said that the business was broken and felt that it was too far gone to fix it.

He knew staff were stealing stock, they were overpaid, attendance and performance levels were poor, managers fostered a blame culture and ignored the recommendations and initiatives introduced by HR.

Sounds pretty desperate, right? So, here’s what we did:

• We refreshed Carl’s vision for the business
• We aligned the management team by sharing the vision, clarifying their roles, restoring hope, providing support and empowering them to do their jobs;
• We went to the owners of the business with a clear report of the Chairman’s activities and a recommendation that he be dismissed (he was);
• We created a clear framework of positive behaviour at work;
• We communicated better at all levels, including with the union; and
• The managers began managing their staff properly with support from the HR team.

There were times when Carl felt like it wasn’t going to work. Was it hard work? Yes! Did it take a long time? 9 months, but Carl said that he wished he had done it much sooner and saved months of sleepless nights caused by work-related stress.

The company became a better place to work when Carl became a leader worth following. When the chips were down, the staff dug in and worked as a team to improve productivity. They also held each other accountable because they had a shared desire to see the company thrive.

The challenge of changing a longstanding negative workplace culture caused by a predecessor’s leadership can be daunting, but it can be done with focus and perseverance.