Back in the day of top down leadership it was assumed that the leaders had all the answers and the rest of the organization’s role was to simply execute the plan. It still amazes me in this day of high collaboration that so many organizations still dramatically undervalue their front line workforce. Ken Blanchard literally wrote the book on this subject and his example of this one company is spot on:
“In spite of competitive wages and benefits and an overall positive assessment from employees, the plant was experiencing large spikes in people leaving every summer and management couldn’t figure out why.”