𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨 𝐏𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐂𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐁𝐞 𝐁𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐁𝐞 𝐎𝐧 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞

This morning, I sat waiting at the eye doctor’s office for over 10 minutes past my appointment time. As I sat there flipping through my mental Rolodex, I was reminded of a former Director I once worked with. This was someone who was perpetually late or completely absent from meetings they scheduled.

Invariably, someone in the room would step up and kick off the meeting to avoid wasting more time. Just as discussions started rolling, the Director would finally stroll in and expect to be “brought up to speed” like we were interns instead of colleagues. The usual excuse? “An Executive Team meeting ran long.”

Now, if there is any group in an organization that should model respect for others’ time, it should be the Executive Team. Right?

When I voiced my concerns to my direct supervisor, I got a trifecta of excuses:

• That’s just the way they are.

• Those Exec meetings are really important.

• Sometimes the President calls meetings and they cannot say no.

I didn’t buy it then. I don’t buy it now.

All three responses dripped with disrespect. They revealed just how disconnected the “bosses” were from the people doing the actual work. The shrug from my supervisor, “oh well, you can’t change itc” was both disappointing and enlightening.

Translation? The hierarchy matters more than the humans. The worker bees are expected to stay on schedule. The Queen Bee’s time is sacred.

And it still grinds my gears.

So, here’s the question:

How many times have you watched leaders disregard their own schedules, miss meetings, or treat their workforce’s time as expendable?

Is it any wonder morale erodes and engagement drops?