Commander Eric Rasch, You’re Fired

Last week, the U.S. Navy announced it had fired the commander of the 10 American sailors who wandered into Iranian territorial waters in the Gulf in January and were held for 15 hours by Iran.  Explaining Commander Eric Rasch’s dismissal, the U.S. official said the executive officer of the squadron had demonstrated a failure to provide effective leadership, which led to a lack of oversight, complacency, and standards.

My reaction?  Bravo, U.S. Navy.  It’s about time we start holding senior leaders accountable for their failed decisions, strategies, choices, and behaviors.  Millions of bad leaders and supervisors get away with murder in the workplace each and every day, and it has to stop if we are going to have companies, a government, and an education system that America can be proud to call its own.

As I say in my book, If Not You, Who? Cracking the Code of Employee Disengagement, there is nothing more demoralizing to an employee than a management team who allows a person to stay in a role who is not pulling their weight, who has a toxic attitude, or who can’t effectively manager others.  Regardless of the person’s issue, this behavior is like a cancer.  The only way to stop the cancer from spreading is to develop then employee and if this doesn’t work, terminate the individual.

If you care about employee engagement, and you should as it has a direct correlation to profitable revenue growth, you need to take a serious look at every employee in every chair.  If you have people who don’t belong in your company, put them on a development plan and if that does not work, you know what you have to do.  Looking for more ways to catapult productivity, customer satisfaction, and profitability?  I have three more strategies to drive increased employee engagement and performance.  Let’s have a 30-minute discovery session and discuss how to get your company in the top tier of business results!