Rich Holland

This half baked poor excuse for a sack of fake skin has soooooo many leaders surrounding. Yet he can’t keep the lights on. He has probably 7-10 direct reports and they still fail miserably everyday and blame the staff. What a putz !

He places the wrong people in strategic positions because he likes them, not because they can perform the tasks. Meanwhile, the smart ones or the ones that truly do the job leave. Is something wrong with this picture? Expect an exodus of critical staff in the next month. I am so glad I left and encouraged others to do the same before the company collapses.

Not a leader

When he first join, I had faith that he would make a positive impact. He has created a cult where his principles are repeated by the staff but they don’t really understand what they mean. You must follow the principles, you must use the buzz words, and you must say yes to everything even if you do not agree. If you express disagreement, he will instruct his head of oCEO to take you down. Your days are then numbered. He will talk about his $10,000 pens and how many pens he has, while the workers are underpaid. I planned to retire by counting on my ESOP as I have been with the company for many years; ever since he joined, the ESOP lost value. Many of us can’t afford to retire just on the ESOP.

Since the current C-suite took over management, there has been a troubling decline in client retention, financial performance, and employee retention. Valuable clients have been lost yet the response from leadership does not appear to reflect the seriousness of these issues. Leadership is disconnected from realities of the organization. There is no accountability at their level. Very heavy at the leadership level and not enough workers to process the tasks. This is not sustainable. Rich and his team have to go.

Rich has created an environment where his voice rings the loudest and that’s how he likes it. He refuses to listen to feedback and has these leadership principles that drive his idea of productivity at the expense of the mental health of his employees. He has created an echo chamber of executives who follow him blindly and refuse to question his decisions. Terrible leader and a terrible person.

Rich's leadership is arrogant, resistant to criticism, and excessively focused on his own philosophy and personal brand. His views are treated as the only acceptable approach, creating an environment where disagreement is viewed as disloyalty and employees tell leadership what it wants to hear rather than what it needs to hear. Rich demonstrates poor situational awareness. Displaying pens costing thousands of dollars and encouraging new employees to collect them reflects a disconnect from employees' financial realities and sends a tone-deaf message to the workforce. The executive team is reluctant to challenge Rich, creating a "yes" culture, internal politics, and declining trust. They privately disagree but publicly comply and cannot provide the independent leadership the company needs. This environment damages morale, limits the use of executive talent, and threatens client retention and commercial performance. Evidence proves Rich's strategy is a failure, the company will fail.

Upon first meeting Rich one thinks he is a good leader and that his training will help transform the business but in reality it’s his attempt to brainwash employees. You quickly realize that your own thoughts and opinions are not welcomed by Rich and you will quickly be exited from the business if you question him. Rich’s ego and lack of self awareness doesn’t allow him to see just how many clients hate him and leave NSD because of him. Building new systems, putting new paint on the walls and changing logos can’t help the sinking ship that Rich’s leadership has caused. Makes one wonder just how much money NSD has to lose before the board removes Rich and his leadership team completely.

The reason why NSD failed

Bad leaders often hide in plain sight for the same reason serial killers can: they learn how to look normal. They can be charismatic. Polished. Successful. They know what leadership is supposed to sound like. But watch what happens around them. Good people become quiet. Strong performers leave. Accountability flows downward while credit flows upward. Fear gets mistaken for discipline, loyalty for agreement, and silence for alignment.The warning signs were usually there all along—we just rewarded the disguise. Leadership isn’t defined by how someone behaves when everyone is watching. It’s revealed by what happens to people when no one else is in the room.

Rich Holland’s leadership feels more like personal branding than running a company. Magazine covers are promoted on LinkedIn, his “principles” are treated as unquestionable doctrine, and the culture increasingly feels like “Rich’s way or the highway.” He surrounds himself with people who agree with him, while experienced employees who challenge decisions are ignored or leave. That is not an elite team—it is an echo chamber. There is always time for office aesthetics, executive messaging, and polishing Rich’s public image, even while ordinary employees face cuts and insecurity. Concerns about favoritism only deepen the lack of trust. Rich talks constantly about principles, but principles mean little when they appear to apply only when convenient. His leadership replaces candor with compliance and substance with self-promotion. He is not building an elite culture—he is building an audience around himself while employees and the company pay the price.

They say leadership starts at the top & in this case it’s destroying the company. When you have a CEO who is set in his ways & unwilling to adapt,you have a recipe for disaster.Instead of mooving the company forward,he is being lapped by the competition. Teams don’t use the triangle offense it doesn’t work. His C-Suite is a joke, yet he continues to keep them. They gossip, discuss other people’s sensitive & protected information (which could easily become a lawsuit), & make terrible leadership decisions because they are clueless. Just keep changing the way we do things every 1 to 3 months, because that creates continuity & great morale. Where’s the elite team? It’s time for the CEO & his entire C-Suite to be replaced with a team that can restore what used to be a promising company. A team that truly cares about every single member of the organization, not just about how much money they can make for themselves & their friends. No wonder all the good people left;they saw what was coming

Arrogance and unwillingness to learn are not the characteristics of a good leader. Unfortunately for Rich, they are synonymous with him.

Brought in a slew of execs that aren't elite. He openly talks about having to train the board of directors. He thinks he's an incredible leader but is failing terribly. I miss the old NSD.

He turned a once-motivated team into a burned out revolving door. Morale collapsed under constant pressure, unrealistic expectations, and zero regard for employee wellbeing, leaving people exhausted and actively looking for the exit. The culture became so toxic that employees stopped recommending the company and started warning others to stay away.

He destroyed the company culture.

I need to get out of here

He said is door is always open and he wants to be transparent but even know he said these things he is not. When you have a concern or a issue about the company he may take interest in it but never really follows through and more times will just brush it aside. Will bring in his own personal people or promote people to positions that they really have no experience in or did not have in there former employment. Holds more meetings and education classes then he should be doing and should be focused on the company's growth and profitable business which seems he does not take Into consideration with these classes and meetings. Has completely changed the culture from what the company was to what it is today and the people that have either been let go or left that have been there for 10,15,20+ years that made the company what it became. Is completely gone or Very close to being gone. The Company that overseas NSD has to decide what direction they really want to take this company to.

The Board of Directors need to seriously rethink there strategy on the leadership of the company And to act accordingly to make changes to see that this company and the current culture is changed for the better and is headed in the right direction before it's too late.