#leadership

Nobody's hearing the top performers gripe about how bad things are, and that's not because they're fine with it. They're just quietly working their networks, sending out applications, and planning their escape without making a scene. By the time leadership realizes they're gone, it'll be too late because all the people who actually carried the weight will have already found their way out.

I will be 3 steps removed from her? Is she a beligerent bulldog or sharp and savy?

It's wild how disconnected senior leadership is from the actual day to day. They sit in their meetings looking at spreadsheets and making decisions that have nothing to do with how things operate on the floor. Meanwhile, the people who actually know what's going on are put on ignore, and then they wonder why their grand plans never work out.

I cannot believe the direction our company has been going in. It is like the people in charge have lost their minds ! First the horrible change with our forklifts.. now we had to take all of our back end caps down . All this wasted space .. where do they think all the extra stuff they buy is going to go.. especially with the holidays coming soon. They over buy clothing … ugly clothing .. then we have to give it all away to a liquidator.. we have special events with mattresses .. which they over buy and we had to pull those to give to the backroom for the liquidator .. seems like we are in business to make them money instead of us

AI fraud salesmen have c-suites thinking that people managers are redundant and everyone will need to be at least half focused as an individual contributor. With the growth of complexity across business and the number of tools, regulations, policies, and the turnover/attrition environment, people managers have never been a more critical role. They own the direction/vision of their segment, keep workers focused (by reducing friction and distractions) and ensure the appropriate people are where they need to be and enthusiastic to be there. They are supposed to make sure everyone below them knows their purpose and can see a clear line of sight to get there. How many people at Fiserv today feel like they have a clear understanding of their role and their specific purpose AND feels like they will be appropriately recognized for meeting it.

Exactly what @b3+1kvwscm9b said.

We've undermined the trust you have that your specific expertise and contribution will be valued, that you will grow and advance your career, and that this will be a place where you can actually have an impact. -- Andrew Bosworth of Meta

Here we go again! You love to hear it, let's celebrate y'all. Even contractors are not safe, it's like they haven't learned from Chevron, P66 on MSP's. You gotta love these leaders who be flying on PJ's drinking champagne while the common folk get shagged.

We’re all adults here with careers, families, mortgages, and kids.

Yet we’re being treated like toddlers who need constant supervision, or maybe Stink just thinks we’re his prisoners.

Presence reports. Badge tracking. Attendance monitoring. Endless RTO enforcement. Isn’t it a bit much?.. All of it sends the same message, leadership doesn’t trust its employees, and once trust is gone, disengagement follows.

Seriously, why would anyone want to work in an environment like this?

The company talks endlessly about “culture” while implementing policies that actively destroy it.

The result is exactly what you’d expect, lower morale, higher turnover, and employees spending more time worrying about presence reports, FTW letters, and layoffs than innovation or growth.

When professionals are treated like they’re one badge swipe away from detention, it’s hard to feel respected or motivated. Especially when they’re blaming the masses for the faults of 1% who are no longer here.

You can mandate attendance, but you can’t mandate trust, engagement, or hard work & dedication. Loyalty and trust go hand in hand, and this CEO said “loyalty is dead”.

I keep hearing news that the useless "SVPs" are now getting hit. Let's keep up that momentum until they are all ou of there!

Layoffs are nothing new at Cisco. I often joke that there are three unavoidable things in life: taxes, death, and Cisco layoffs. But this latest round feels different. I've noticed a significant shift in attitude from the executive leadership team, and it's unsettling.

On one hand, I'm glad the "#WeAreFamily" and "#WeAreCisco" messaging has largely disappeared. Those slogans always felt difficult to reconcile with the reality of recurring layoffs. On the other hand, what has replaced them may be even more troubling. The message now seems to be that layoffs are simply part of life and should be expected. Fran has openly stated that Cisco does not offer job security. Mark's focus appears to be relentless cost-cutting. And Chuck seems willing to support whatever is necessary to keep the stock price moving upward.

What does that create? A company that grows through acquisitions, cuts headcount quickly, and offers fewer opportunities for long-term career development.

Why do I say that? If your skills happen to align with current business priorities, you're probably safe for the moment. But if your expertise is no longer considered strategic, you may find yourself included in the next round of layoffs.

I know Fran often highlights internal mobility as a strength, but in more than ten years at Cisco, I have never personally seen someone targeted for a layoff successfully secure a new role through the standard internal hiring process. I have seen people land other positions, but typically because they had strong networks and someone actively advocated for them. Once your name appears on a layoff list, hiring you can be seen as challenging a decision already made by management and approved by HR. Few people are willing to do that.

Meanwhile, only a limited number of roles seem to be available internally, while acquisitions continually bring in new talent and headcount. Combined with the lack of meaningful internal redeployment, it creates the impression that Cisco would rather acquire or hire externally than invest in helping existing employees develop the skills the company says it needs for the future.

So what are we left with?

For me, it no longer feels like a career. It feels like a gig, just a paycheck until something better comes along.

I haven't seen any true metrics shared from the CES. Just high level messages from leaders saying "we are good at safety" or "there is no trust for senior leaders". Anyone in the know, what were the true results? I have to imagine they were awful!

Although I’m no longer with Centene, I still care deeply about its mission and the people working to achieve it. That’s why I’m taking the time to write this.

One pattern I’ve seen across large organizations is the belief that the next framework, consulting engagement, or AI initiative will unlock better execution. Those things all have value. They bring fresh ideas, experience, and structure. But none of them can replace organizational clarity.

When priorities change faster than results can be measured, it becomes difficult to know what actually worked. Strategies get replaced before they can be fairly evaluated, and organizations end up changing multiple variables at the same time. At that point, you’re no longer learning from the strategy. You’re learning from the interruption.

From the individual contributor’s perspective, people stop asking, “Is this the right direction?” and start asking, ”How long until this changes again?” Eventually they stop optimizing for outcomes and start optimizing for adaptability. That’s not resistance to change. It’s a rational response to uncertainty.

The same challenge applies to outside consultants. They can bring experience, structure, and proven approaches, but they can’t create clarity where it doesn’t already exist. If priorities, success measures, and strategic direction continue to shift, even great recommendations struggle because the organization is still redefining the problem they were brought in to solve.

Landing the plane…

If I could offer one piece of advice, it would be this.

Create the conditions for success before looking for the next solution.

Define what success looks like.

Decide how you’ll measure it.

Give your managers and teams enough stability to execute.

Give the strategy enough time to produce meaningful results.

Then let the data, not the calendar, tell you what needs to change next.

Frameworks matter.

Technology matters.

Consultants matter.

• Employees matter most.*

Every reorganization, every strategy shift, and every new operating model is experienced by people who care deeply about the mission and genuinely want to do great work. When people lose confidence that today’s priority will still matter tomorrow, the organization loses something much harder to rebuild than a process. It loses trust.

To everyone still there, don’t lose sight of why you chose this work in the first place. Your knowledge, your compassion, and your commitment to members still matter. Those things don’t disappear because the organization is going through change.

I sincerely hope Centene succeeds. The mission is too important, and there are too many good people working every day to make a difference. My hope for leadership is simple: create the clarity, stability, and trust that allows those people to do what they’ve always wanted to do…serve members, support one another, and do their best work.

✌️

• AI helped me tighten the writing. The observations, opinions, and experiences are my own.*

Being with Canon for so many years, I believe and feel we still have some inspiring leaders, maybe not enough of them, but we have hope with the ones that still hopefully remain in place. I know the site is filled with negativity right now, and I understand, but maybe one post that offers some positive light at the end of the tunnel will help? Who's your favorite leader by initial only and group?

I am trying to do my best to finish the month of June strong productivity wise. Will leadership look at our first half of the year performance in determining who they keep in the involuntary layoffs? Any insight would be helpful. Thank you.

Don’t normally attend these monthly calls but decided to tune in today. Well that was an hour wasted. Mainly insufferable people droning on in corporate speak about absolute BS. Main takeaway was hearing that 400 UK staff are on a PIP? Is this bell curve requirements, something for middle managers to do, a tick box exercise or all 3? Oh and not a word about pay review.

Since my last post got deleted, I won't go into specifics but the Londonderry office is a disaster. Lots of managers and senior people leaving. Morale extremely low.

I have worked at 4 other places in my career and the negativity flowing through this one is the worst. Please avoid IVS.

1. Meta's CTO, Andrew Bosworth, admitted the company's AI reorganization was poorly communicated and that leadership did "an atrocious job explaining the vision."

https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/the-worst-its-ever-been-why-metas-massive-ai-reorg-backfired-spectacularly/91363370

1. Bosworth acknowledged employee morale has likely reached "the worst it's ever been."

2. The new Applied AI division left many engineers feeling directionless, unsupported, and disconnected from leadership.

3. One major problem was excessively large management spans, with some managers overseeing well over 20 direct reports.

4. Employees reported feeling like anonymous members of oversized, hastily assembled teams rather than valued contributors.

5. Meta now plans to cap managers at roughly 20 direct reports, reduce unnecessary manager changes during reorganizations, and introduce AI coaching tools.

6. Organizational psychologist Bob Sutton noted that research has long shown large teams suffer from coordination, collaboration, and communication problems.

7. Studies indicate that smaller teams are particularly important for creative, innovative, and highly interdependent work like AI development.

8. Research covering more than 50 million papers, patents, and software projects found teams with fewer than five members were most likely to produce disruptive innovations.

9. The article compares Meta's situation to Jeff Bezos' "Two Pizza Rule," which advocates keeping teams small enough to be fed with two pizzas.

10. As Amazon evolved, it shifted toward assigning a single accountable leader to large initiatives while preserving clear ownership and coordination.

11. Meta's reorganization appears to have done neither: teams remained very large without strong centralized ownership, contributing to confusion and declining morale.

12. The article warns that current trends toward eliminating middle management can backfire, particularly in knowledge work requiring creativity and close collaboration.

13. Leadership coach Beth Steinberg argues that managers with too many reports cannot effectively coach, develop, or support employees, leaving them only able to push work forward.

14. The overall lesson is that organizations seeking flatter structures should carefully balance efficiency with effective management, communication, and team size, especially in innovation-driven environments like AI.

EH failed. This decade is widely different than the time period he worked at Nike before. He is a boomer, and doesn't belong anymore in the age of social media, AI. Time for him to retire (again...duh!) and Nike need to bring young radical minds to work in the framework of urgency, and eliminate junk VPs roaches by deliberately failing it to show their prominence and not being an athlete in Nike terms. He is not thinking to capture market share by being brutal in seizing it from competitors, but being defensive to save Nike - which will not work...He is going to take everyone down with it.

I'm genuinely excited about the IBM watsonx Challenge. As a team leader, I've spent the last several weekends planning our project, brainstorming ideas, and working with the team on how we can build something meaningful. It's been a lot of work, but it's also been a great opportunity to learn, collaborate, and push ourselves.

One of the things I've always enjoyed about IBM is that it gives people the chance to tackle real-world problems with emerging technologies. Whether our project wins or not, I'm proud of the effort our team is putting in and the skills we're developing along the way.

Looking forward to seeing what everyone creates. Good luck to all the teams participating!

Anyone else participating?

Biry will hire Asplund Leadership Consulting. Lightning crashes.

The biggest difference between the two companies isn’t technology. It isn’t strategy. It’s leadership and culture.

At SpaceX, employees are working toward a clear mission. People know the goal, understand the direction, and believe they’re building something important. Here, the only mission we’re working on is RTO and presence reports.

At AT&T, many employees increasingly feel like they’re being blamed for problems they didn’t create.

One of the most common traits of failing leadership is scapegoating. When results disappoint, instead of asking whether the strategy is wrong, leaders look for someone else to blame. Employees become the problem. Feedback becomes the problem. Dissent becomes the problem.

That’s why the 8/1/25 email struck such a nerve and why everyone here is checked out. His message to the employee base was “You don’t matter”.

When employees raised concerns about morale, flexibility, retention, and RTO, the response wasn’t introspection. Employees were told “loyalty is dead” there “might be a disconnect between you and your current professional choice.” Concerns were dismissed as “more outliers than we’d like.”

Many employees read that and saw a leader more interested in defending their bad decision than understanding why so many people opposed it.

Another hallmark of poor leadership is rigidity. Strong leaders adapt when the facts change. Weak leaders treat every challenge to their strategy as a challenge to their authority and it damages their ego. They double down, no matter how much evidence piles up around them that they made a mistake.

Then comes the most dangerous stage, isolation.

Because of the fear of retaliation for pushing back or telling the truth, leaders stop hearing bad news. Dissent gets dismissed. Feedback gets filtered. Executives surround themselves with people who tell them what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear. “Yes men”

A bubble forms, and Inside the bubble, everything is working.

Outside the bubble, morale is collapsing, talent is leaving, recruiting is harder, and competitors are pulling further ahead.

Employees aren’t asking for miracles. They’re asking for basic respect and leadership that listens, adapts, and accepts responsibility when something isn’t working.

Instead, many feel they’re being asked to sacrifice more, commute more, give up flexibility, and then accept blame when the outcomes don’t improve.

The most dangerous thing a CEO can do is become so convinced of his own correctness that he stops hearing what everyone else is telling him.

That’s the disconnect employees have been talking about all along and why another company will soon pass us by.

Honest question: Why does Dell have software Engineering Leaders and 10s of thousands of software developers?

Every piece of enterprise software we develop either doesn't work, has to be recalled, or is already 10 years behind the competition when it releases. So why do we have these groups?

Kudos to our IT leadership.
It takes real talent to invest millions in new software and end up with something less capable than what we already had. I can’t help but feel for the business leaders who are funding these projects and expecting better results.

Push the button and nothing happens (people die). Can’t recall Patriot systems deployed.

From Ford Authority:
Ford has a long history of supplying the U.S. military with various goods, beginning way back during World War I and extending to World War II, as well as the Korean and Vietnam wars. As Ford Authority recently reported, the Trump administration previously approached Ford and other automakers regarding the possibility of shifting some capacity to we-pons production, and Ford CEO Jim Farley later confirmed that the automaker was "in early discussions with the U.S. government on some defense-related projects" - as well as the European Union, too.

Now, those talks have seemingly progressed, as U.S. President Donald Trump recently revealed that both Ford and General Motors are in discussions with defense contractors that could result in the repurposing of certain plants for we-pons production, according to CBS News. Trump noted that those we-pons include things like the Patriot and the Tomahawk missile.

The B levels in my dept all got fully remote status a year ago. And the C levels got an increase from 2 to 3 days in office. Anyone know why this is? I thought at some point C levels would get remote status too.

a senior manager doesnt know how to do something like run python

therefore we need 6 meetings.

Hundreds of people axed in Kalamazoo, no WARN filing. Leadership has tanked the stock price and its in the toilet. A complete and utter disaster! CEO and CFO lied about Librela numbers and are being sued. Stay away from this company, more layoffs happening in Jun/July 2026.

St. Charles Health System eliminated 22 leadership positions. This action followed a reassessment of leadership roles. Twenty-three vacant positions will also remain unfilled. CEO Michael Hartke mentioned recent growth. Direct patient care staff were not impacted.

Bend, Oregon

https://bendbulletin.com/2026/06/23/st-charles-lays-off-22/

The people who actually know how things work are either retiring without documenting anything or getting laid off. And leadership thinks it's fine because they have their VPs. The same VPs who don't know the details and don't want input from anyone below them. It's scary to watch the company make such a huge mistake and not care.

The people I thought were untouchable are gone, while others seem to survive every reorganization without a scratch. After a while you start wondering if doing great work matters less than knowing who to keep happy and when to keep your opinions to yourself.

Serious question: where is the senior leadership team?

Employees are required to come into the office five days a week, yet it’s rare to see Directors, VPs, or SVPs in the Blue Ash buildings. Are they held to the same in-office expectations as everyone else? If not, what are the expectations? Can our CIO give direction to the entire KTD?

If leadership believes office presence is important enough to mandate, then employees should be able to see that leadership is present as well.

It was said before and it needs to be repeated. Our management levels are bloated and need to be thinned out. Layoffs are needed, but they keep targeting the wrong people. Focus on managers who do nothing and we'll be golden.

Well, Q2 is almost in the books, and you know what's cooking in the kitchen besides some 30oz steaks on the grill? More cuts, cut the fat, cut the hype, cut me a steak! Man, make it two!

Getting those lists ready as we really need to make the numbers to show just how much a difference getting a new head honcho is making. Let's make sure to keep it under 50 in every state just so that we don't have to put out any WARN notices, OK?

While we are at it, let's pretend we did something interesting with AI, like a security thing-a-jig that is not AI, but kind of sounds like it is. Or maybe we helped a mid-market company no one has ever heard of doing something wh-z-bang with AI? Yes, that sounds about right. Print it!

And also while no one is paying attention to us (really no one is) let's hire more Cisco folks who are washed up and were on the list for LR (go look it up).

Can you name a single company with a more embarrassing CEO? Just one?

If you could change things around, what would you do? Is there anyone who could fix what's broken? Who would you put in charge?

So many shakeups among the leadership over the years and things keep getting worse. It's like we're incapable of bringing in or selecting people who are actually capable of leading.

KELLY AND BILL SHOULD STAR IN THE NEXT SEQUEL.

This is just the most abysmal technical leadership from a cio I've ever seen at any company in a long career. Every word out of his mouth is cringe. This dip sh-t makes even good leaders like jen or olimpia look useless. Who the f makes these slides for our leaders, I'd be embarrassed to present these as a b2.

Previous cio had his flaws too but current guy has zero redeeming characteristics. Look at how pepsico it is leading in AI now that he's gone.

Ftlog p&g ditch this clown

We know someone is reading this...I heard today "this is the last one this year" this is the 3rd time this year I have heard that. That is why you are not trusted. It is that simple. You don't tell us the truth over and over again. This is the last one this year....most dont believe you. Board Members. The execs are not trusted. No exec managers. I know why you tow the company line. You dont want to be next. Grow a pair and stop lying also.

The leaders on this board covering up the poor decisions being made over the past two to three years is epic...right now you are neck in neck with workers that are viewing this board, thumbing up or down!

When the cuts start there won't be enough of you to quell the wave of anger!

Enjoy things for now :-)