When Leadership Culture Goes Wrong
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Fermion is a Wollongong-based HR consultancy that specialises in helping companies across Australia save money through innovative recruitment and retention programs. Let us help your organisation thrive.
A Costly Leadership Mis-step
The CEO of Parramatta Council is negotiating an early exit from her $515,000-a-year role following a string of controversies.
At recent all-staff events, Connolly asked employees about their marital status, teenage crushes, and even made innuendo-laden jokes. Employees described the tone as “gross, nudge nudge, wink wink.”
This wasn’t an isolated incident. The council has spent millions removing staff, lost legal cases against its own councillors, and staged a $340,000 staff conference featuring massages, motivational speakers, and public remarks about “happy endings.”
The outcome? Damaged trust, eroded culture, and a workforce questioning whether respect and professionalism matter at all.
The Recruitment Lesson
Recruiting leaders isn’t just about technical ability—it’s about judgment, values, and emotional intelligence. A capable leader who undermines culture through poor behaviour is far more damaging than one with a few technical gaps.
This case underscores the importance of psychological safety in the workplace. Employees should feel respected, not trivialised. Leadership style sets the tone: when the tone is off, the entire organisation pays the price.
How Psychometric Testing Helps
At Fermion, we believe this type of recruitment failure is preventable. Psychometric testing offers an objective way to assess not just what a candidate can do, but how they will lead.
- IQ – problem-solving & learning ability
- EQ – teamwork & leadership potential
- Personality – cultural fit & long-term success
Psychometric testing won’t eliminate all risks, but it will dramatically reduce the chance of a costly recruitment failure, especially when combined with structured interviews.
The Takeaway
Recruitment failures at the top are expensive. Parramatta Council is now facing another leadership transition, millions in costs, and lasting reputational damage.
👉 The lesson for every organisation? Don’t just hire for capability. Hire for character, values, and the ability to nurture a healthy culture.
Want to improve your hiring process? Contact Fermion for expert psychometric testing solutions.
About the Author:
Fermion specialises in psychometric testing for recruitment. Please contact Fermion to discuss how a test of IQ, EQ and a personality profile, or any other psychometric test, can help with you your recruitment decisions.
Christopher Apps is a Workplace Psychologist and the owner of Fermion. He stays updated on the latest psychology research and shares evidence-based insights. The focus of Fermion is "Psychometric Testing for Recruitment" and “Recruitment to Retention: How to Select Good Staff & Keep Them”. If you would like to learn how to select good staff and keep them, please feel free to contact us at Fermion.
“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.”
Eleanor Roosevelt.
