I was asked to come and ‘fix’ a bad behaving production manager (300 staff), survivor of 4 ownership changes, numerous GM’s and various MD’s. He was known for high staff turnover and ‘refusal to work’ with situations.
His comment to me was to remind me of his survival. Problem was management was scared to take strict action (which isn’t the answer anyway) in case the Union took action and the Union, well the Union just didn’t know what to do; he was causing them problems as well and they wondered why management hadn’t done anything! A very familiar case study.
They didn’t talk to each other. I brought them together, we put a unified, ‘we love you but you have to change’ scenario – a consequence that was able to be supported! On that day, after 35 years and some help with ‘what to do differently, what to say, how to act’, he changed.
My next task, some 3 months later was to help him manage the people who wanted him to mentor them! Same person, + leadership!