Have you ever heard of anything quite so pathetic?

I was having a meal with an old friend recently when he told me how frustrated he was with his employer. Not that unusual in itself, you might think, except that he was on the point of resigning because his bosses had just approved his plans for transforming his business division! 

Obviously we are not talking junior level here, my friend is a VP.  He told me that was sick and tired of trying to persuade his other VP colleagues to implement their part of the changes and cost cuts that they had all agreed to, more than a year ago.  It is not as if his company no longer needs cost reduction and efficiency improvements, it does badly.  Until very recently it was at the point of going out of business completely. 

My friend is the kind of guy that does not like to sit around and do nothing while Rome burns.  Recently he came up with a new proposal for trimming down another division and the board agreed, not because they thought it important but, because they could sense that he was becoming so frustrated by doing nothing that if they didn’t let him do something then they thought (quite rightly) he might resign!

So there you have it, A board of directors agreeing to changes, in order to try and retain an important employee.  Now my friend is not stupid; he’s proud for sure but he genuinely wants to turn the business around and bring it to another level of success.  But his motivation is understandably lacking when he knows full well that his board is not committed, or able, to get it’s VP’s to work together to deliver the changes that the business so badly needs.

Have you ever heard of such a thing and how far would you go to keep a valued employee?

Have a good week,

Harley