A CEO client of mine was fired. No performance issue. His results were outstanding.
A regional VP sat down with him, said it was to talk about the future, and then told him he was out.
The reason: “to make room for new blood and reduce headcount.”
He found out later he wasn’t alone. Same VP. Same reason. Different executives.
Every single one of them was over fifty.
Age was the offense.
Here’s what that VP didn’t understand. Wisdom is not for sale. It cannot be trained into someone in a workshop.
It comes from years of doing the job. Getting it wrong. Getting it right. Staying calm when the company can’t make payroll and it’s 9am on day one.
Fire that, and you haven’t cut costs.
You’ve cut the only thing standing between your company and its next disaster.
The bottleneck was never age.
It was a leadership team that mistook a gray hairline for a liability…
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