Posted by flipchartfairytales
I’m sure David Greer of Royal Dutch Shell is paid a lot of money for what he does but I can’t help feeling just a bit sorry for him.
After his crass e-mail to his team was circulated on the internet, it was then published and picked over by the business press. It soon became clear that some of the cliches weren’t even his own. He had nicked them from a speech made by General Patton. The Financial Times ran a poll asking “Is this the worst motivational memo ever?”
A middle-manager in a provincial medium-sized company might have sent a similar memo and no-one would be any the wiser. Alas for David Greer, he is a senior executive in a high-profile international company with lots of enemies. He should have realised that a note like this would upset a lot of people and that some would try and get their own back. An email can be cut and pasted into a hostile blog and circulated around the world within minutes. David Greer should have been savvy enough to know that.
Also, he should not have tried to deal with issues of motivation and performance in an email. In his note he said that he despises cowards, yet it appears that he would rather send out a general rebuke than do something really brave, like challenging individual team members about their behaviour. To do so would involve having some difficult conversations and that scares the hell out of most managers.
I’m sure many of us of us have done similar things in the past. It is a comfort to know that even those people who get to the top of large corporations can still sometimes get it seriously wrong.
http://flipchartfairytales.wordpress.com/
7 June, 2007
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
