A leader I admire
I have been fortunate to work with some of the best leaders in the world. They work across all sectors in small, medium and huge organisations. They have worked hard to get to their leadership positions, whether they have been advantaged or disadvantaged by birth, sex, ethnicity, or anything else. In over 30 years working with thousands of leaders, I am mostly in awe of the weight of responsibility they carry, their work ethic, and their determination to create more equitable organisations in ways that also deliver business benefit.
When a leader first calls in a consultant like me, it is often because something has gone wrong. It might due to a tribunal finding or discriminatory behaviour, or because there is conflict within the senior team, or between groups of people.
Making the call is not easy. It means being open about misjudgements or mistakes they or others have made, or dealing with hostile actions, or dramatic changes in their organisational landscapes.
Senior leaders need to face up to harassment — and the culture behind it
The best leaders quickly understand that they need to act, not dig in and try to bury the evidence. It requires courage and resilience as they face the presenting issue.
Sexual and or racial harassment are still common and, since the #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter movements, a little more likely to be disclosed. A dysfunctional and underperforming senior leadership team, where ingredients of neurodiversity and social class are in the mix, might need the sources of conflict unpacked, and to be ‘reset’.
The presenting issue is rarely the only issue. It lifts the lid on other aspects of the organisational culture that need to change, and the leaders I most admire, like the example given below, not only manage the immediate challenge but ensure their organisations emerge stronger and more equitable than they were before.
Here is one example of a leader I admire. Names and other identifying factors have been changed.
Addressing harassment and bullying at work: Mike’s story
Mike, a brilliant Chief People Officer of a large transport company dealt with a reported case of sexual harassment with skill and understanding and modelled how a great leader takes positive action in a testing situation.
The situation was made more testing because the alleged perpetrator was a popular and long-standing leader who was seen as a loyal ‘company man’, who had also played a major and successful part in settling a lengthy and complex dispute with government and trade unions that was a threat to the existence of the company. Budgets were under pressure, the disputes were regularly in the news, and good staff were leaving if they possibly could.
What Mike did could be described as straightforward. In my experience, it is rare.
Ten things Mike did
He ensured his CEO understood what he was about to do, and, most importantly, why. This required several conversations as the CEO was a friend as well as a colleague of the alleged perpetrator. These conversations were helped because the CPO had ensured all the senior team understood their responsibilities to prevent harassment and bullying, legal and ethical.
He suspended the alleged perpetrator, a male senior leader, with a proper acknowledgement that this was policy and done to protect both the suspended person and the complainant. The alleged perpetrator was offered counselling support. He made it clear that this action was not any indication of guilt. He also informed his senior colleagues of the basic facts, i.e. a complaint had been received and a suspension made, and ensured they understood a consistent narrative to protect all parties.
He offered support to the woman who had complained, who had recently been promoted to a middle management post.
He commissioned an investigation by an experienced specialist who understood how to consider the ways that power operates in organisational settings in relation to hierarchy, age, sex, ethnicity, neurodiversity, and so on. He had already ensured that the procurement of all external consultants (of any specialism) involved assessing technical skill alongside a deep understanding of diversity and equity issues. The investigation was commissioned within 10 days.
The complainant and alleged perpetrator were kept informed of progress and timing, and were interviewed more than once, with support.
The recommendation, dismissal on grounds of gross misconduct, was acted upon, with appropriate legal advice.
The CPO ensured that the communications about the removal of the senior leader were done well and took account of the wishes of the woman who had complained. He ensured that she felt supported and that she was not in any way punished for speaking up. He personally thanked her for her courage and apologised for the harassment she had been subjected too.
He thought deeply about what the organisation needed to learn from all this, including the fact that the sexual and racial harassment, with elements of coercive control, had been ‘known’ or suspected by many for at least 18 months.
Current learning and development interventions were revisited, re-designed and re-cast to ensure the learning was woven into leadership and other programmes. Before all this, the board and senior team had time to reflect together to ensure they knew it was, in fact, their responsibility to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
The CPO continued to reflect and ensured the focus was not only on preventing harassment and bullying, but also on how to create an organisational culture that was not overly dependent on powerful and charismatic senior leaders. He changed the culture away from one that had spoken of collaboration and cooperation but actually rewarded rugged individualism — to one that was equally driven but achieved through respect, clarity, and mutual benefit.
Great leaders are ambitious to make a positive difference and are able to reflect and learn even from very difficult things. In one way, dealing with even a complex case of harassment is straightforward, or at least it should be. Often these things are not dealt with well, let alone learnt from. The best leaders deal with the presenting issue and also take the opportunity to reflect and transform the organisations they lead.