May 8, 2015
I lost a million dollars 7 years ago because I got mad
Part of changing this organization in 120 days is getting honest about our history so –
Here’s the story:
I was working for this terrific client. They were doing $120 million a year in sales. When we met 5 years earlier, they were doing $60 million. We were named Agency of Record. They loved us. We loved them. They used the Imagine Plan in year 2 and together, we took that old and tired company to a whole other level. I loved working on that account. It was visible. The people were cool and best of all, we had a seat at the table. We were part of the management team – part of the guiding coalition and we were knocking it out of the park. They did good things in the community, paid their employees well and for that matter, paid us well.
And then it happened.
They stole my employee.
He wasn’t just anyone either. There are some people you can steal from me and I won’t care. I cared.
He and I had worked in tandem with each other for five years. We were a great team. He was hard-working, smart, and eager. I was the brains behind it. He was the braun. I never had a bad day working with him. Not a single one. He even sent me flowers once – every month – for a year – because I traded vacation time with him. Super classy guy. Really smart. Loved him.
But then he chose something other then me and I was mad.
And we didn’t have a signed contract with our most fabulous client. I’m not kidding. They were spending $250,000 a year with Creative Company and we didn’t have a signed agreement.
Why?
Because I took a vacation.
No joke. Taking a vacation is risky for business owners. I would tell you why but the truth is, if you’re a business owner, you already know. Or maybe it’s just me but I had a CPA, a VP and a SAE that were all working that week and not one of them made sure the contract was signed. Still, my company – my problem.
But – 5 years earlier (or 13 years ago if you’re doing the math), I did get another contract signed – the non-compete agreement with the employee.
He came to the hospital to sign it – with me – in a hospital gown and everything. I was 8 months pregnant with a tumor the size of a grapefruit. Signed contracts – that’s what we do.
But he didn’t.
And here’s the thing – you really can’t make people stay with you who don’t want to be with you anymore. Slavery ended a long time ago. You need to let them go do whatever it is they need to do. But I didn’t like that idea. I wanted things to stay the same. I wanted to do another campaign. I wanted to go to the recording studio. I wanted to make another TV ad. I wanted to continue the game.
But he picked up his marbles and went home with the cool kids with the money and left me standing all alone.
People don’t treat you very well when they’ve decided they don’t want to be in it with you anymore. It’s a fact.
In this case, they actually brought me into a conference room – 3 of them – one who was a former pro football player and no kidding, they hit a button and shut the shades in the room so no one could see in. It was intimidating. Scary as hell. And meant to be. They had millions of dollars and resources and I had enough gas to get home with. It really wasn’t a fair fight.
Here was the young turk that I had trained and the client who I had helped succeed using tactics to intimidate me. I sat there thinking, “What on God’s green earth did I do to deserve this?” In other words, I was feeling sorry for myself and I licked my wounds for a long time – probably years – probably up until yesterday even.
We came to a compromise of sorts but I lost $250,000 in annual revenue that day and had we continued to work together for another five, well, you can do the math – somewhere between $1.2 and $1.5 million assuming the budget would have grown.
Breaking up is hard to do but in business, there’s a fair amount of breaking up that happens. At the beginning, every one is all smiles and there are handshakes and checks. It’s awesome. Best feeling in the world. Kind of like a first kiss. And at the end, they never want to see you again and they don’t want to pay the bill. They unfriend you on Facebook. It’s painful.
You can get mad or you can get even, right?
Someone wanted me to meet with their competition afterwards. She said, “I told him you would probably want to $^%$ with them.” I didn’t. I was more interested in winning then getting back. Winning equals fun. Getting back equals an energy drain.
Looking back now, I see I had another choice in that conference room. I could have have said, “Look, we’ve done some amazing work together and I want to continue to do amazing things together. This guy has been a great employee and you’re going to love him. The dynamic is going to change but lets figure out something that’s win-win.” Instead I got mad and I told them to take their million dollars and wallow in it. I was taking myself and my car that I bought from them somewhere else – to who knows where but somewhere nice where people appreciated me – and never coming back again. Fare thee well mates. You’re never going to see me again.
And then they closed their doors.
Well, no – that didn’t happen. It didn’t happen at all. They continued on and continued to change and grow and are doing fine. At my core, I thought it was about me but it never is – it’s always about them – about putting others first and about knowing we’re in an ocean where things need to shift or the whole thing will turn into a smelly swamp. Change is necessary for things to thrive. The ocean is alive. It should be respected, valued and appreciated not because it’s always the same but because it changes.
So what does this have to do with organizational change? Everything. Because until your CEO knows why they do what they do and figure out how to do the right thing, the whole team is sunk. We play follow the leader and if your leader is bitter about something that happened in the past playing the victim that behavior is going to be part of that organization. It’s like a freaking magnet and other victims will join in so you can have one big victim party and it smells bad and no one wants to be part of it except other people who are victims. Even if it’s not on the surface, it’s there in the garbage stinking up the whole place.
It’s time to take out the trash. And we are. With enthusiasm, I might add. Not like your teenage son who really doesn’t want to take out the trash but more like your grandmother who can’t stand a smelly kitchen. We’re all in.
Oh – and then this happened.
So yesterday, someone quit.
She was going to leave soon anyway. It was a temporary position but it still stung a little because I didn’t know for sure.
Good work and all of that but part of being a good boss is that you need to do the exit interview. The exit interview is really about them – not about you. And they tell you how screwed up your organization is. It’s true – that’s what they always do and that’s the purpose of the exit interview. Your goal is to have them tell you so they don’t feel the need to tell everyone else. It’s the smartest thing you can do but if you built the company from your hands and made sure every check cleared for 26 years, it’s not the easiest thing to do.
On a person’s first day, they always look great. They smile at you and say nice things. They tell you how hard they’ll work for you. On their last day, they tell you that your organization is like a 3 ring circus and they don’t want to be in the circus. They bring up things that happened 3 months ago while you were in a coma and explain how it wasn’t their fault. They do. And you take it all in.
A side bar note here – I’ve had some incredible exit interviews – some that were super helpful that changed our organization for the better. There are absolutely positively good things that come out of this interview so you should do them.
But back to the story –
I went to the drive up window at my bank after grabbing a cheeseburger and a chocolate shake from a very plump guy at Culver’s who looked like he understood. I looked at the lady behind the drive up window and I thought, I bet you have a mostly pleasant job. It reminded me of that scene in American Beauty where the executive with the cheating wife and the career that sucks the life right out of him applies for a job at Mr. Smiley’s, a fast food burger joint. He pulls through the drive thru smoking a joint and asks for an application. I know that feeling. Anyone who has ever managed anything or had the life sucked out of you starting at the temples and moving throughout your whole body knows that feeling. And Kevin Spacey spoke for all of us in American Beauty. I gave the movie to my parents. They thought it was depressing. I thought it was my life – sometimes. Anyway.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjNY4o_i5RY&w=420&h=315]So back to organizational change. One of the things that no one ever tells you when you’re changing the direction of your organization is this – once you get clear about your vision, some people are going to jump ship. It’s too hard. They liked the status quo. They don’t want to do it differently. So they leave. You break up.
But others, people who share your vision, who want to be part of creating something better, who are about what is possible instead of what has been – they’ll stand up taller, dive in deeper, talk about the hard issues, encourage you, lean in and as Lauren on my team said recently, “boss up”.
When we get clear about who we are and what we’re here to do, those who aren’t on board go to the background but those who are, show up like never before and more people join you – the kind of people you really want working with you.
And once you decide, yes you, the CEO or President or Owner or whatever title you go by decides to start taking responsibility for everything, people who don’t want to take responsibility catch the next train out of town because there are no more victim parties happening and they get bored.
Business is the most exciting and interesting thing I could have spent my life on. I love it but one of the unexpected benefits is that you get to see yourself real every single day. You must build the house. In our case, we’re tearing it down to the rafters, keeping the frame and rebuilding with integrity, character and competency so that this house is not only built on a firm foundation but is built with material that will last.
So how much did it cost to learn this lesson? A million dollars.
Was it worth it? Every red cent. You better believe it.