Pros
One thing I can say is that working at Redheads Engineering taught me valuable lessons on how not to run a business. Seeing firsthand how detrimental weak leadership can be had a huge impact on my own growth as a leader. It was eye opening to watch the company struggle to retain staff. It gave me clear insight into how to identify one sided management styles. Employees spoke to me about their ongoing frustrations, and hearing their concerns really opened my eyes to the deeper issues in the business. It reinforced the idea that when greed and poor leadership take center stage, it steers the company away from its true objectives. In a strange way, this environment helped build my own leadership skills immensely.
Cons
Redheads Engineering is run more like a dictatorship than a collaborative business. The term "the redheads way" leaves many shaking their heads. The current management style makes no sense, and it’s no surprise that good employees either leave just before or after the two year mark due to the bad leadership. Management meetings show little to no progress, and issues just aren’t resolved—there’s a lot of finger pointing and blame shifting, which feels like the blind leading the blind. Favouritism and manipulation are clearly at play, especially when it comes to mobilising different departments, which don’t function as a cohesive team at all. The executive team is seriously disillusioned with the management style and capabilities of some of the managers. If this were my company, certain people would have been fired a long time ago, but senior management seems to have blinkers on. It’s frustrating to watch a company with potential be run into the ground by bad decisions and weak leadership.