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Dear Bosses, Disrespect Will No Longer Be Tolerated
We’ll just leave you for someone with better leadership “hygiene.”
“I think I might close the business. There’s no loyalty anymore. It’s impossible to find good help! Plus, I can’t even yell at the guys anymore even when they do something stupid. They’ll just leave!”
I was talking to a business owner the other day who was depressed about the current state of the younger labor force. I knew immediately what his problem was. He failed to keep one of the most critical tools of leadership in his toolbox — a mirror.
He lacked the self-reflection needed to know that even though the workforce was changing and was not apt to stay with one job forever, he was the main reason his younger employees weren’t more loyal. He was the main reason he couldn’t find or keep good people. He was the problem, not them.
Yelling at people is disrespectful and because he did that often, the younger workforce was naturally selecting him out of economic existence.
Good.
As someone who has studied and practiced leadership in military and corporate settings for 25 years, I have seen a positive change in leadership. People won’t put up with disrespect as much as they used to which weakens the influence of…
