The Hidden Risks of Upward-Focused Leadership and the Pitfalls of a Lack of Operational Experience and Grip: Thoughts on Paula Vennells and the Post Office Horizon Scandal.
Like many people, I have been watching the Post Office Horizon inquiry; but yesterday and todays performance by Paula Vennells was particularly striking for me personally, as I realised I had seen Paula before.
When I say I had seen her before I don’t actually mean her, but that over the last 45 years that I have seen (and worked in) organisations where the very top of the tree was occupied by someone who didn’t have operational experience of a similar organisation, lacked the curiosity to understand the business and had little or no interest in the day-to-day lives of the people they were charged to lead.
I worked with some great ones as well, but this post is not about them.
Based on the number of times that Paula answers an inquiry question with, “I didn’t know”, “nobody told me”, “I can’t remember”, “I don’t know” et al; It’s plain to see that understanding the issues people in the Post Office faced and exercising operational grip to solve them was/is not her forte.
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#Leadership #CorporateCulture #PostOfficeInquiry