by Catherine Malchaire
“Thank you for this conversation. You know, I don’t think we’ll be working together.”
That was my response to an HR Director (let’s call her Sophie) after a first one-hour meeting. And we didn’t work together.
Yet we had great chemistry and she was genuinely interested in our approach. When I asked whether the CEO was involved, the answer was: “He gave his approval, but he doesn’t really believe in this kind of approach.” Oops, not a great start.
And digging deeper, it turned out his entire leadership team was afraid of him, and he had created a climate of fear. When I asked whether he was aware of this, Sophie told me he was proud of it.
So the equation was simple: the CEO isn’t ready to change + he’s a big part of the problem + he won’t agree to meet me directly = no matter what we do with this leadership team, nothing is going to change.
“Sophie, how do you feel in this company today?” “Tired. Demotivated.” “Then for your own wellbeing, you might to seriously consider moving on.”
I ran into Sophie recently. After our meeting, the CEO didn’t go with our proposal and chose to do a laser tag session instead. The result? He lost 75% of his leadership team, including Sophie. They understood that this CEO had no desire for things to change and that they would never thrive in that company again.
Today, Sophie has a great HR Director role at a highly dynamic company where she can finally do real HR work and focus on employee development. And fingers crossed, we may well collaborate soon.
So yes, when we work together, I require genuine commitment from the team’s leader. That throws some people off. A while back, I shared how a team cohesion project helped a CEO rediscover joy in his work. So it really does ask something of them and it’s also where they stand to gain the most.
What about you ? Have you ever turned down clients because you knew you wouldn’t be able to bring them any real value?