Joseph

Bad Leader/Good Leader Many years ago when I was working at an Information Technology call center for the United States postal service

I was a team lead and the call center was sub-contracted with Hewlett Packard • • • •

Hewlett Packard ran into a problem Came up with a solution Problem was not enough profitability Solution had to be creative, effective, and work without detriment to the current work force or at least minimize damage as much as possible to remain a employee friendly company.

The reputation of the company • • • • •

At that time: no lay off’s policy Every persons dream job Lot’s of benefits Family like attitude Long standing relationship with the community. • Highly trained workforce that kept the company competitive.

When the problem became worse Hewlett Packard was forced to make further cuts/Call Centers • Gloria • Appearance/outside – – – – – – – –

Funny Definite in Directive Charismatic Great sense of Goal Had a Reason For… Logical Fortitude Demanded Loyalty

• After working under Gloria for a time it began to seem that the loyalty Gloria demanded and the buy in that managers had seemed more for the sake of Gloria and not for the sake of the companies needs.

Gloria’s Assets as a Leader • Had a way of reframing actions she made in order to give reason for everything she did. • Kept the managers interested in what she was doing. • Was able to get a complete buy in to her strategy.

The Strategy! • She decided the call center was to be the sacrifice. • The employee’s were at the bottom of the company as far as skilled workforce. • There were so many lay off’s from other company’s that replacing these employee's was easy…

Plan into Action • Anyone that had been there for years knew the good life and were gone. • People that stayed were the silent agreeable type. -Loss of all benefits effective immediately -Pat cuts across the board -No promotions

– The coffee centers disappeared. – The security staff changed. – All current rules became strictly enforced to the point of detriment to the everyone. – Lots of new rules were created. – Level promotions became nearly impossible to achieve even over time and effort. – Communication ended between all departments. – The management staff changed to fit what she was doing.

How she did these things and make it look good • She was a master of framing actions. – She framed anyone that quit as cowards – She framed anyone that disagreed an nonunderstanding of the big picture. – She framed her actions as logical. – She could frame a person to look bad. – She could frame a bad situation as good. She mastered the art of perspective.

The immediate impact • Her ideas worked; the company saved money and nobody over the call center was laid off. • There was money for management bonuses. • Buy in personnel was rewarded with keeping their jobs giving a sense of reward.

The long term impact… • After three years the talent that left from above the call center had to depend on the employee market for replacement so advancement to that upper echelon ceased and the two areas fought. • Moral went to an all time low. • Extremely high turnover because people felt unimportant; then one day she was gone

Coming into the picture as the new Operations President Andrew: Big, White, Bald, Ugly, Silverback looking- according to him and not us; we always wondered if his appearance gave him an edge.

Andrews Assets as a Leader. • • • •

Obviously had a sense of humor. Treated people as equals. Re-arranged the entire promotion scheme. Promotion stopped working on being a yes man. • Really easy to approach, communicated well, and inserted an open door policy; he gave attention to all that came.

The immediate impact. • For the company – – – – –

High moral People stayed Less Turnover meansHappier atmosphere People were happy with less now – All communication channels open

• For the employee – – – – –

Happy joy, joy Advancement avail. A feeling of apprec. Coffee centers return Felt genuine gain although the gain they felt was nothing more than what they had before the crisis

Who do you think I personally respected more? I respecter them both but…. • Gloria who clearly was looking for methods for firing people, removing expenses at the cost of moral, and bringing a sense of dread to the job. • Andrew who was everyone’s new hero and raised the hope and profits for the company by treating people like people.