I watched the movie Gladiator II the other day. 2 things struck me: 1) as leaders, be careful whom you trust - they may not have your best interest (or that of the “empire”) in mind 2) it’s much easier to tear down than to build up.
The Virgil quote really resonated with me: “The gates of he-l are open night and day; smooth the descent, and easy is the way. But to return and view the cheerful skies, in this the task and mighty labor lies."
Sorry @op, I can't take your post seriously with you using that horrible movie as your inspiration.
@jz S & M are fitting initials...she gets off on your pain.
@jj Yes. To highlight how stupid SM is, remember in that town hall years ago when the burning topic was inflation outpacing wage growth? She said “I understand how you feel. I saw the other day that a half gallon of milk was $11!”
SM, where in tarnation are you getting your milk from? Saks Fifth Avenue? She’s so clueless. Perfectly encapsulates PP’s ineptitude of building a good team around her.
This! There are several contributing factors to EJ’s demise (including to the prior post’s note that some are market/competitive), but the biggest contributor in my view:
Penny is one of the worst judges of talent ever to sit in a CEO role.
Smart CEO’s surround themselves with leaders who offset their weaknesses. To offset her weakness, Penny selected an HR Chief who is both toxic and an epic level of stupid.
It’s baffling to me how myopic she is in the people she’s surrounded herself with - and how that alone can destroy a legendary culture in a matter of a few years.
@ah exactly! Let me first say that some of the direction is not misguided for example segments and financial fulfillment. The challenge starts at the top with an executive leadership team that is in shambles and PP is too proud and arrogant to see it. Some members of ELT are completely clueless about the business or focused on angling for the next big job. The environment is do as I say not as I do. Talk about a group of people who do not lead by example? They do not show up for town halls, they stick patsies on the stage to deliver the tough messages. I had a partner tell me that they never get any comments in success factors or discussions about their mid year or annual review and their leader is an ELT member. Some of them do not come in for the required two weeks in HQ a month as they are trying to say the NY office counts yet team leaders near the NY office do not get the same luxury. No one is perfect and people had complaints about previous leadership but one thing was for certain, what they expected from associates they expected from themselves.
Amazing how it takes over 100 years to build a great company and only takes a few years and handful of people to completely undo everything. PP is the kid who was given the great great grandfather's watch to keep to hand over to the next generation. Instead of taking care of the watch, she took the damn thing apart and lost 1/2 the parts. Now, we are in a bad spot. Either declare the watch totally broken and unfixable, OR finds some poor soul to maybe put a bunch of time and effort into putting back together, maybe.