Posted on July 10, 2008 by Dennis Snow
This is a follow up to my post this past Monday, "Respecting Those Who Serve Our Customers." In that post, I discussed leadership behaviors that can make employees feel undervalued or "invisible." The very next day the Wall Street Journal printed an article that focuses on a related subject - "Bad Firings Can Hurt a Firm's Reputation." The article discusses the insensitivity with which layoffs and terminations are often handled. Reading some of the examples provided, you can't help but wonder about the impact on the loyalty and commitment of the company's remaining employees.
Most of us who have been in leadership roles have either had to fire people or lay people off - or both. The Journal article makes you reflect on how you handled the process. I hope I was much more sensitive than the bosses sited in the article - but it did make me stop and think about what an outside observer might have said having witnessed my handling of those situations.
Check out the article and please comment back to me if you have any of your own examples you'd like to share.