The Proverbial Grand Canyon Between Leadership And Talent

We all know that the smaller the gap between management and front-line consultants, the higher the overall morale and enthusiasm of people will be. Yet, we can see quite a few consulting firms that remind us of the disaster Bob Nardelli created at Home Depot, and for which he was eventually booted out.

Some details have recently appeared in the New York Times.

Nardelli created a great example of elitism at Home Depot. One aspect of this elitism was that he offered catered free lunches for top management in the executive lunch room, while the “grunts” would eat downstairs in the “grunts’ eatery” on their own dime.

In contrast to Nardelli’s pompous elitism, the new CEO, Frank Blake has already started changing the culture into one that appreciates talent and promotes company-wide relationships regardless of rank and position.

Read the New York Times article and learn from it. How many Nardellis do you have in your firm? How much longer are you willing to tolerate their behaviour just because it brings in money.