Quiet Leadership

INTRODUCTION

When will the way we relate to each other catch up with developments in technology?

THEODORE ZELDIN (2003)

In 2004 I met with a large technology company in Singapore that was desperate to understand how to improve its people’s performance. A woman named Anna who headed up the learning and development team took me on a tour of the group’s purpose-built operations center. While wandering through their offices, Anna pointed out remnants of various performance improvement initiatives they’d rolled out over the last few years. They had been trying to improve the performance of their call center and reduce a crippling 40 percent turnover rate of employees.

Four years ago, consultants told them the problem was no one could define ...