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AT WAR WITH LEADERSHIP SERIES

Contributed by Arne Pedersen, President, Human Capital Management, LLC

“The Company Vampire”

What is the number one reason that people leave their current job? According to SHRM, Society of Human Resource Management, it’s the immediate supervisor irrespective of what level within the organization. Or, is it the company vampire? We will explore what a company vampire is, explore a few things about leaders, and then tie all of this back to our employee economic value added measurement.

Before we get into the definition of what a company vampire is, let’s explore a few things about our leaders first. Picture in your mind all of the leaders to whom you have had accountability. It’s important that you answer these next two questions honestly. Were they powerful? Did they care about you?

If the answer to both of these questions is yes, that is a leader that you trusted and respected. If the answer to one or both of these questions is no, that is a leader that you tolerated, feared, or despised. Generally speaking, you will be able to count on one hand the number of leaders whom you trusted and respected. This is not “an a-ha” moment. Rather, this is a get real moment. As we discussed before in the first article, there are approximately 10% of the population that are natural leaders. It’s their gift and it is second nature for them. We know who they are. We’ve always known. We knew who they were when we were growing up. We knew who they were when they walked in the room.

What does that mean for the remaining 90% that are in leadership positions? These folks either don’t know or refuse to acknowledge that they are not natural leaders. They abuse power and people. In most cases, they are not even aware what they are doing. In most cases they are not bad people. They need help to learn how to lead people, daily.

With that context in mind, what indeed is a company vampire? A company vampire is a person who is in a leadership position, carries great authority within the organization, and is part of the 90% who does not have the natural leadership gift, refuses to acknowledge it, and intentionally engages in abusive behavior. Depending upon the size of the organization, this person is usually operating at a director level or above. This can include the CEO, a Board Member, or even an Owner.

In terms of sustainability, it’s imperative to identify these people, attempt to help them change, or eventually help them out the door if they refuse to change. In addition, the best way to approach this is using a skilled third party who can be accountable to you to guide your organization in identifying, training, and coaching, teaching, and mentoring these people with a program that has proven and measurable success. Again, using the employee economic value added measurement; we can explore one such company and what has happened with them.

A quick background on this company, whom we shall call ABC Company, is that it in fact is a publicly traded company and has an individual on their senior team who is indeed a company vampire. His behavior includes an argumentative style with employees, demeaning and degrading comments to employees, and generally a coercive leadership approach. This person is feared. He has power and does not exercise genuine care for employees.

What we learned before on the employee economic value added measurement is that with good leadership that is trained and executed daily the slope is not only positive but the actually numbers are positive.

So what has happened to our company, ABC Company? We can see that the numbers over the eleven year period are negative except one year. Yes, the slope is positive, but remember the numbers must also be positive. In this case, the slope is positive and the numbers negative. In terms of long term sustainability, this company is actually in trouble. A deeper dive into the management discussion of the filed 10Ks demonstrates that the only growth is inorganic. This means that something is amiss with the business model and/or how the business model is being executed. Since this trend is consistent over the eleven year period, companies like ABC Company need to engage a third party trusted advisor who can help them identify, strategize, plan, implement, and execute a strategy to help them either pull out of this current trend or increase the value enough to sell it.

Please join me for the next follow-on case study as part of this series, “At War With Leadership.”

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Arne Pedersen is Founder and President of Human Capital Management, a Leadership Consulting firm delivering value through business strategy services, such as business and strategic planning services as well as business advisory services, and leadership development services to include the leadership center of excellence program, to clients from start-ups to companies who employ up to 1,000. Arne has over 20 years of leadership experience in the U.S Army and Corporate America. You may contact Arne via email at arne.pedersen@hcm-llc.com for more information about how Human Capital Management can help your company break through.