In today’s Globe and Mail you may have read on page A2 the sad story of Ira Hopmeyer, Chairman and CEO of Ritchies Auctioneers.
Poor Mr. Hopmeyer. Apparently, 27 of his employees were laid off without notice last week and he had NO IDEA that it happened. And we quote: “I found out [Aug 4] that senior management had laid off staff. For the record I did not lay off anybody off.”
WHAT??? To quote Ricky Gervais’ Extra’s character Ray Stokes… “is he having a laugh???”
Are we expected to believe that the CEO of a company has absolutely NO IDEA that people are going to be laid off.
This is a classic example of a situation where, whether the story is true or false, Mr Hopmeyer looks ineffective.
Shockingly bad leadership in action. Even if he didn’t know what was going on, he probably should have got his facts straight before being quoted in the media. Sure, there are times when direct reports do things without your knowledge, but if you find out about them, it’s your job as a leader to fix it. Hand wringing and giving excuses isn’t part of the job description.
Happy leading!
