High Potential Concept Stunted by Unprofessional Executive Leadership
Pros
The brewers are passionate & work hard. Despite being overlooked and grossly undervalued they, and the servers/bartenders, are the true backbone of the company. Unfortunately, these employees are spoken about (gossiped about) poorly by leadership, specifically “executive leadership”. There isn’t one concern that is raised that doesn’t come with gossip from “executive leadership” (engaging other leaders in their gossip, which often leads to heated/stressful discussions that are taxing for the confided-in leader, who is tasked with promoting the ethics around discussing employees & deescalating the exec leader’s reaction.)The point here is, the hands and backbone of the company are passionate & work very hard to be seen, despite the burnout, neglect, and hypocrisy they experience from the company and executive leadership. The Brewmaster is a craft beer legend and one of the reasons to have pride in working at New Realm; however, he vastly undervalued by executive leadership. I use caution in stating this as I anticipate the exec leader assuming this was written by an employee who was on the brewing team with the Brewmaster or someone close to him- none of which are true (rest assured this feedback will lead to another unprofessionally reactive response, which I site as the reason it has taken me about a year to take the step to provide this review). I was very often on the receiving end of the sensitive information, that boarded on petty gossip most times, about the Brewery leadership. The personal rifts between exec & brewery leadership is evident in the poor treatment of the brewery & dismissal of the Brewmaster’s feedback/contribution when moved out of operations. Once again, this is an excellent example of emotions running the show from an exec leadership expected to growing this high potential business into a thriving business for both employees and stakeholder profit. The employees that are surviving here until they can begin seeking another job are the best part of this company. Everyone is a flight risk aside from the ATL lead management.
Cons
Almost all other elements of this company belongs in this “Cons” section, especially the poor performing & unprofessional ”executive leadership”. I predict at some point within the next two years or so (that is, if there isn’t substantial change in behavior/strategic approach), there will need to be a bigger conversation amongst investors about bringing in a stronger “executive leader” who knows how to handle company growth & change management beyond the start-up phase. Additionally, “executive leadership” is unprofessionally reactive (away from employees & reserving this unprofessionalism for fellow leaders). The issue lies in the executive leadership’s inability to self-regulate so they may react thoughtfully, professionally, & with reason in response to challenge, especially if the challenge is in the form of employee feedback. Employees should be weary of the recent form provided for feedback or concern discussions. Although this initiative is praised, it is not promoting healthy discussions. Improvement should focus on discussing matters amongst leadership with the purpose of creating solutions as opposed to pointing fingers & displacing blame back on the employees. The most uncomfortable & unprofessional aspect of executive leadership is rooted in how about proprietary/confidential info is shared without discretion (protecting the disclosure with “this stays in this room” to a room with employees who should not be privy to the information being shared). Grossly unprofessional actions include gossip about the board members and high- profile company investors. When I dare to look back at the time I unfortunately spent with the company, I realize now that I should have minded the red flags I attempted not to notice in the (extensively long & unstructured) interview process, when the “executive leadership” divulged personal stories about one of the high-profile investors, unprofessionally criticized a personal issue of a board member & shared a highly personal health story about a former C-Suite leader. Sadly, I need to add more to this section of the review, but I have never felt more compelled to do the right thing and share this excess of perspective than I do now- after hearing that culture and professionalism continues to grossly decline- for candidates thinking about joining this company, especially as a senior leader or head quarter/corporate employee. I need to address the problematic management of the ATL location. Although I have little experience working one-on-one with that team, I collaboratively worked with the team, specifically the GM. Atlanta’s management has been flying under the radar of the “executive leadership”. The management knows their skill set is no longer at the level the location requires from location leadership, so they will do whatever possible to keep the job. Sadly, this continues to lead to a declining culture for the ATL employees. Further driving apart the culture is the leadership’s villian-themed narrative applied to specific employees who share feedback/ideas with leadership. Employees have learned to holdback on ideas in fear of being labeled as a difficult employee by leadership. The stifling diverse and creative ideas is a huge miss & setback for this business. Finally (yes, there’s more), the culture here was and continues to be one defined by burn out, invalidation, fear of making mistakes, and unprofessional/uncomfortable leadership behavior. All of these factors have lead to disengaged employees and high turnover (common in the food & beverage industry, but the turnover in corporate roles here is not normal. Frighteningly, it is widely known that even some HR employees abruptly left as unhappy employees with little tenure). A closing note- after leaving this company for a more professional & strategically sound company, I am earning $60k more on my base salary (and 15% more bonus) than I was when I worked at New Realm corporate. I knew I was underpaid but was promised a pie in the sky with the offer to entice me to accept an offer lower than I was earning. The company vastly underpays due to high overhead & the poor leadership in strategic planning. I encourage you to avoid being the fool by taking their under market offer in exchange for the promise of culture & work/life balance. I have been healthier, happier, & in a much more professional environment since departing from this company. This is a startup that will drain all of these aspects from your life so long as their is no change in leadership. This portion of my career is a traumatic blemish on my resume that I attempt to erase from existence due to such a terrible experience.