Perks of Leadership?
We had a fitness gathering with employees all over the region and it was fun, even though somewhat disorganised. Towards the end though, something unexpected did tick me off, and what's surprising to me is how little things can give insights and change opinions about how we perceive people. So what happened?
When we were done exercising and interacting with one another, light refreshments were shared to everyone present, or at the very least that was supposed to be the plan. What eventually played out was that a handful of people did not get their refreshments and went home empty handed. This ticked me off for two major reasons.
Firstly is that provisions were made to cover every participant of the exercise bonding session, as it was sponsored by the organisation. Moreso, quite a number of participants were not present as the organisation made participation voluntary and not compulsory. Therefore, there was absolutely no tenable excuse why refreshments would not sufficiently cover all participants present.
Secondly, and what got me upset, was that I noticed they put senior staff in charge of distributing these refreshments, and they could not account for it. As a senior with subordinates I believe they are supposed to be the example, therefore having questionable integrity over something as seemingly irrelevant as sharing of refreshments is quite upsetting. They may not see it that way from the top, but am sure many employees at the bottom of the organisations ladder will echo my sentiments.
Leadership does come with certain perks and privileges, but I think leaders in the corporate World also need to remember that they still require the trust and admiration of their subordinates to effectively function. It is the little actions that erode these things.