Pretending To Like Staff

In one consulting arrangement, we were restructuring an organization for significant growth and making dramatic changes to the entity’s culture.  We were training staff, building the management muscle and helping the executive leadership to amend their historical behavior toward the staff.  Things were progressing, when the CEO said, “How long do I need to pretend to like the staff?”

 

All the management consulting in the world can move organizations, but as I have said before, “a fish starts to rot at the head first”.  What can be said to a company CEO that believes that the way to make positive changes in his organization is by pretending to like his staff?  These are some of the more challenging issues with companies that want to grow, but they are held hostage by an Owner/Leader who wants to make changes for appearance sake, not for the benefit of the organization and team members.

 

For the record, our answer to the question raised by the CEO was that he shouldn’t pretend to be anything other than honest and sincere and that his inability to sincerely appreciate his staff was a fatal flaw in his character.