Reflections on Cotton Candy at the Dawn of 2024
Reflections on Cotton Candy at the Dawn of 2024
VIM Executive Coaching has not lost leave of its senses (at least, not completely). We want to talk today about that most summery of all summer treats, as snow now coats the street in front of our office.
Cotton Candy or spun sugar is reputed to be of European origins in the 1600s. Its breakthrough moment seems to have been at the 1904 World’s Fair, where this absolutely non-nutritious, though admittedly fun junk-food was marketed as Fairy Floss. Want to hear something funny? It was invented by a dentist who made a relative fortune on the stuff.
Funny as a lot of hot air
In popular parlance, telling an associate or client a situation “is like cotton candy,” means that it is something without substance. For example, “Their financial report has about as much substance as a box of cotton candy.” For we well know that cotton candy, made of sugar and food dye, dissolves into virtually nothing. It may leave calories and a sugar-high, but little of value.
Unfortunately, many of society’s popular pastimes are also cotton candy like. Social media, text messaging and even (for the most part) cable news are largely the fluff of our daily routines. The messages and subsequent “outrage” or silliness are quickly dissolved to time. The hot air of a lot of cotton candy corporate posturing often leads executives and their employees down corridors of frustration, anger, missed opportunity and regret.
It is with a sense of sadness that we report the great, post pandemic wave of resignations where hundreds of thousands walked off jobs, has changed to something new. It has shifted to many candidates leaving jobs before they put in their first day of work. Future employees are “stalking” organizations in much the same way that employers were stalking future employee social media accounts and references.
There is a loss of trust, a loss of connection and consideration in many modern workplaces (virtual, in-person and hybrid). The why of it is tragically simple: cotton candy leadership.
Cotton Candy Leadership?
The chief reasons valued employees walked-off jobs in 2021 and 2022, were “accusations” that management at all levels was paying them lip service; a lack of respect, a lack of authenticity, a lack of compassion. It was not about salaries or benefits, but that executive leadership was moving their mouths however, nothing of substance was being said.
Now, as we approach 2024, executive leadership has a choice: business as usual or to be more mindful; to make meaningful connections within the organization or the industry or to be more like cotton candy and lose tons of talent.
Cotton candy leadership may have worked at one time, but it doesn’t work now. Interestingly, the concepts of mindfulness and mindfulness meditation pre-date cotton candy by centuries. Why was it lost? It wasn’t lost, but drowned out. For a while, executives believed, perhaps, that pounding away at the boardroom table and not listening to a single, errant suggestion (let alone, complaint) was the way to go. It wasn’t then – and isn’t now.
Far better to respond to what others have to say than to badly react and chase good employees away. Executive leaders should have serious reflections on the dangers of cotton candy management at the dawn of 2024.
It might be of use to remember that about a decade after the dentist who invented the sugary treat, an association between diet and tooth decay was well established. Whether the dentist understood his role in creating millions of cavities is unknown.
Nevertheless, we have by now learned a lack of authenticity and a loss of mindfulness definitely affect how employees connect to organizations.
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