"Why Are We Losing All Our Good People" - Case Analysis
Background
Sambian Partners is a family-owned architecture and engineering firm. It was known for innovation and had been a front-runner of the industry for "green building" movement. The CEO Helen Gasbarian firmly believed the company offered a great environment to work, however, for some unknown reasons the company struggling to retain its top talents. After Tom Forsythe, one of the star employees left and defected to a rival company. Helen urged May Donillo, the head of human recourses to conduct an employee survey to find out the root causes behind the departures. Meanwhile, Adrienne Perle, another top performer from engineering was going to quit, Helen promoted her regardless the objections from Mary. When the survey results came back, it did not define any problems or raise the red flags for the management.
Diagnosis of The Problems
There were three major management issues in Sambian Partner and caused its keep losing talents:
1. Problems With Leadership
2. Poor Leader-Member Relationship and Communication Barriers
3. Lack of Recognition and Motivation
Problems With Leadership
Helen inherited this position from her father. Although she was an award winning architect and very passionate about the firm, she was extremely overwhelming and was lack of leadership skills. In fact I believed her personally was not suitable to the company leader role. My first impression about Helen was her impatience and quick tempered. She was meaning, impulsive and made people feel stressful. I noticed that every time she had a conversation with her subordinates, they always felt so nervous and chose their word very carefully. Secondly, Helen was lack of long-term vision and decision making skills. She tried to fix problems with short term solutions. She bypassed the suggestions of Mary and ignored the long term impacts of her decision of promoting Adrienne on other employees. In addition, Helen failed to empower leadership and preferred to make decisions on her own.
Sambian Partners is a family-owned architecture and engineering firm. It was known for innovation and had been a front-runner of the industry for "green building" movement. The CEO Helen Gasbarian firmly believed the company offered a great environment to work, however, for some unknown reasons the company struggling to retain its top talents. After Tom Forsythe, one of the star employees left and defected to a rival company. Helen urged May Donillo, the head of human recourses to conduct an employee survey to find out the root causes behind the departures. Meanwhile, Adrienne Perle, another top performer from engineering was going to quit, Helen promoted her regardless the objections from Mary. When the survey results came back, it did not define any problems or raise the red flags for the management.
Diagnosis of The Problems
There were three major management issues in Sambian Partner and caused its keep losing talents:
1. Problems With Leadership
2. Poor Leader-Member Relationship and Communication Barriers
3. Lack of Recognition and Motivation
Problems With Leadership
Helen inherited this position from her father. Although she was an award winning architect and very passionate about the firm, she was extremely overwhelming and was lack of leadership skills. In fact I believed her personally was not suitable to the company leader role. My first impression about Helen was her impatience and quick tempered. She was meaning, impulsive and made people feel stressful. I noticed that every time she had a conversation with her subordinates, they always felt so nervous and chose their word very carefully. Secondly, Helen was lack of long-term vision and decision making skills. She tried to fix problems with short term solutions. She bypassed the suggestions of Mary and ignored the long term impacts of her decision of promoting Adrienne on other employees. In addition, Helen failed to empower leadership and preferred to make decisions on her own.