By Brenda Neckvatal In my career as a human resources professional, business integrator and leader, I’ve helped companies work to reverse the consequences of myriad bad decisions with regard to employees. It is my experience that most such mistakes were the result of poor planning, an underestimation of an employees’ response(s), a lack of understanding of their needs and poor communication of expectations. In most cases, the CEO’s focus was too much on driving the business towards the horizon and preparing for future challenges or the next life cycle, and not enough on the current employee environment. When leaders are too dialed in on the future, they detach from the here and now—risk making mistakes by underestimating what impact growth has on their greatest asset: the workforce. Of course, leadership is a great enough challenge as it is: you own every problem in a company even if you aren’t the …