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Short thread about the Bill Michael saga at KPMG. Strewth!
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/feb/12/kpmg-bill-michael-resigns-after-telling-staff-to-stop-moaning
1/10
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/feb/12/kpmg-bill-michael-resigns-after-telling-staff-to-stop-moaning
1/10
These are difficult times. Everyone is feeling the pressure, more or less. This is where Bill Michael could have started. It might have saved him a lot of grief.
2/10
2/10
He wasn’t completely wrong. KPMG staff, and especially partners, are not having the worst time of it. They are better paid and better treated than many.
3/10
3/10
But this is no time to attack colleagues, or belittle their views, or sneer about their concerns. Far better would have been to recognise how weird working life is right now and acknowledge how people are feeling.
4/10
4/10
Celebrating the fact that he was breaking lockdown rules was an odd move for the chairman of an accounting firm. This did not help.
5/10
5/10
It is piquant that today was the funeral of Gareth Jones, who (along with Rob Goffee) wrote one of the best books on leadership you could ever read, called “Why Should Anyone Be Led by You?” https://www.waterstones.com/book/why-should-anyone-be-led-by-you/rob-goffee/gareth-jones/9781633697683
6/10
6/10
Gareth and Rob’s succinct advice on how bosses should behave at work is this: “Be yourself. More. With skill.” By which they mean: draw on the strengths you have, and make the most of them, but judge the mood and the moment carefully.
7/10
7/10
Bill Michael was certainly being himself – “authentic”, as people like to say. But he did not judge the moment well. He lacked skill.
8/10
8/10
A bit less machismo, and a bit more compassion, could have avoided all this. A lesson.
9/10
9/10
You can read my short tribute to Gareth Jones here https://garethjones.muchloved.com/Lifestories/612501762 (you may have to log in to read it).
Ends
10/10
Ends
10/10
