CUE, Inc.

A Formula For Leadership

  • July 6, 2017

Leadership is not a formula or an equation

One of the recurring themes I’ve been thinking about  lately has been this basic equation:

(Bad Leadership + Low Accountability) x Bad Culture = Big Problems

The lead company on this in the headlines has been Uber.  The litany of events that have cropped up to face Uber since the beginning of 2017 are epic in their scope.

Here’s a 5 month timeline:

Think about that timeline for a minute.  Five months from the time a former employee wrote a blog post about a pervasively bad culture to the termination of the CEO and the launch of a major employee relations program.  This doesn’t even take into account the brand damage suffered from social efforts like #DeleteUber or what the future impact to the business will be.  They’ve taken some steps recently and are hopefully getting started on getting things were they want them to be. 

This brings me back to my “formula” of which the Uber story is just one example.

(Bad Leadership + Low Accountability) x Bad Culture = Big Problems

The examples are plentiful, if you look for them.

You may wonder what all this stuff in Silicon Valley has to do with CUE and positive employee relations.  Most CUE members don’t work in startups or in the rarified high-tech air of Silicon Valley or Hollywood.  The thing that differentiates CUE members is they do good work in positive employee relations every day.  Doing that basic work to build a healthy culture and to foster good leadership is what keeps these problems at bay.

And if you think this is just a story from the tech world, this EEOC case against a Tampa based janitorial company was announced yesterday. Tampa-Based Janitorial Service Provider Rejected African-Americans for Jobs and Punished Black Employee for Opposing Discrimination, Federal Agency Charges.   We’ll see how the case turns out eventually, but it is surely not a headline any employer wants to see.

Here’s another headline from Miami: Did Miami’s biggest developer avoid labor taxes? The feds are investigating.

Here are some thoughts on how Silicon Valley might want to move forward from Reid Hoffman, Founder of LinkedIn.

Here’s another good way to stay focused on doing the right thing when it comes to employee relations.

CUE Member Early Bird Rate Now Available

Members can register now for the biggest savings by taking advantage of our Early Bird Rate of $775 now through July 29th.  Our theme is Building the Positive Employee Experience, and you can save money by registering at the Early Bird member rate of $775 now through July 29th.

 

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