Winning: The Answers: Confronting 74 of the Toughest Questions in Business Today
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The bottom line is: acquiring managers believe that if you’re not for the deal, you’re against it. And even if you think you are keeping your objections hidden, the new owners can probably feel your negativity. And if that’s the case, the decision to stay or leave may not actually be yours much longer.
Look, change is hard. But in business, it’s inevitable. Your best bet is to bid a fond farewell to the past—it’s over. Find a way to like your new boss, adopt the values and practices of your new organization, and embrace the future, whatever it holds.
If you can’t do that—that is, if you really cannot accept that the new company is now your company—then you had better leave. Resisters never get what they want. The old days won’t come again, and in pining for them, you actually number your own.
FROM HERO TO ZERO
* * *
Up until the age of sixteen, I won at everything: sport, academics, and I even got the girl. Not unnaturally, this success bred a feeling of confidence in my own abilities, and that remains with me to this day, at the age of thirty-two. But something clicked starting when I was seventeen, and it has since developed into a damaging trend—people in a position of power or authority consistently work against me. Save the occasional mentor who says I remind them of their “younger selves,” I seem destined to stall on the corporate ladder or be removed. Is the college hero destined for zero?
—LONDON, ENGLAND
* * *
We’re actually optimistic for you—because it is a rare jerk (for lack of a more politically correct term) who recognizes that he is a jerk. Usually, people in your position blame others for their stalled careers; you seem to understand your own complicity in events. And most hopeful of all, you appear to be looking for a solution.
If we had to guess, your main sin is a very common one with young people who get on a winning streak—you didn’t grow, you swelled. People who swell develop all sorts of unappealing behaviors. They’re arrogant, especially toward their peers and subordinates. They hoard credit and belittle the efforts of others, don’t share ideas except to show them off, and don’t listen very well, if at all. Bosses can spot these team-killing behaviors a mile away, and so it is no wonder that those with “power and authority” around you, as you put it, have consistently worked against you. You may be very smart and deliver stellar results on the job, but your swollen personality is the kind that undermines the morale in any organization and ultimately can really damage performance.
But good for you for seeing that you are headed for a fall. That’s the first step toward getting your career restarted. Unfortunately, you may not be able to do so at your current company. You’ve probably burned too many bridges already. So, here is what we suggest. Starting today, take an inventory of your negative behaviors. Explaining that you are hoping to change your dysfunctional ways, ask your bosses, peers, and subordinates to give you brutally candid feedback, anonymously or in writing if that makes it easier for them. Be prepared for a terrible awakening, as people pour out your shortcomings with lots of stored-up resentment.
After you’ve processed what you’ve learned, you can attempt a recovery at your current company. Who knows—people may be so delighted with your new humility and desire to improve that they will be willing to give you a second chance. It is more likely, however, that you will need to move on, as some organizational wounds never heal. And it might also be better too for you to get a fresh start at a place where an awful reputation doesn’t precede you at every turn.
Your new job search, of course, will probably be hobbled by lousy references. You will be noted for your high IQ, perhaps, but also for your arrogance. There is only one way to handle that problem—with total candor. Tell prospective employers that you swelled instead of grew because of your early successes, but you’ve learned the hard lesson of that mistake and are eager to make amends in a new position. Assure them that you are committed to being a team player, and that you will frequently seek feedback in order to stay on the straight and narrow.
Your past failings will hurt you. There’s no sugarcoating that. But eventually, a good employer will be impressed with your early record of success, your obvious talent, plus your newfound candor and maturity. Good luck starting over. We’ll bet on you.
AM I AN ENTREPRENEUR?
* * *
I am currently a consultant with a small organizational development firm, but I dream about starting my own business. How do I know if I have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? I always experience such conflicting emotions when it comes to this issue.
—JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
* * *
Your conflicting emotions concern you; they concern us too—a lot. Being an entrepreneur without ambivalence is a tough road. It’s got to be twice as tough with it!
Still, the idea intrigues you enough to ask what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Your question alone proves you understand a fundamental truth about business: entrepreneurs really are a breed apart from company types. Incidentally, there’s no value judgment in that statement. Both kinds of lives can be totally fulfilling. But they’re different.
So, here are four questions. If you answer yes to them all, forget your mixed emotions and get out there on your own. You’ve got the makings of an entrepreneur.
1. Do you have a great new idea that makes your product or service compelling to customers in a way no competitor can match? Sometimes people are attracted to the “lifestyle” of entrepreneurs—control, autonomy, the possibility of huge wealth, and all that—but they don’t really have the blockbuster idea to make it actually occur. Real entrepreneurs not only have a unique value proposition for the marketplace, they are madly in love with it. They passionately believe they have discovered the greatest thing since gravity, and now all they have to do is sell it to the whole wide waiting world.
2. Do you have the stamina to hear “no” over and over again and keep smiling? Entrepreneurs spend a lot of their time asking (and sometimes even begging) venture capitalists, banks, and other investors for money. Often they get a stick in the eye. Now, no one likes getting rejected, but entrepreneurs have the resilience not to be daunted by it. The best of the lot even get energized by the experience; hearing no only makes them get out there and sell their idea even harder.
3. Do you hate uncertainty? If so, stop reading here. Entrepreneurs spend more time in blind alleys than stray cats, if not chasing dollars, chasing new technology or service concepts, not to mention everything else they need to build a business. If not in blind alleys, they’re aboard a leaky boat on choppy seas—or put more plainly, they are often running out of money while betting on the unknown. If you’re an entrepreneur, that actually sounds like, well, fun.
4. Do you have the personality to attract bright people to chase your dream with you? Early on as an entrepreneur, of course, you may work alone. But with any kind of success, you are going to need to hire great people whom you can’t pay very much. To do that, you need the special talent of making people love your dream as much as you do. You need the ability to convert employees into true believers.
We certainly don’t want to discourage anyone from starting his or her own business. The free markets depend on entrepreneurs; they’re the lifeblood of healthy economies everywhere. Just know, however, that going out on your own is a radical departure from any company job you’ve ever had.
Stay put if that worries you—and get going if it excites you to no end.
A CASE OF EMBEDDED REPUTATION?
* * *
I’m really confused. I received my annual bonus today, and it is 10 percent lower than last year. Here’s the problem. I was hired a year ago as a secretary at my company. But, attending school part time, I received a degree in public relations, and six months ago was promoted to a higher grade as a staff member in the Communications Department. I have met my targets, received letters of commendation, and have a heavier workload than before. Still—less bonus! What should I do?
&n
bsp; —JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
* * *
Your letter leaves out two critical pieces of information when it comes to making sense of bonuses: how did the overall company do this year, and how did your department perform? If the answer to either of those questions is “worse than last year,” then the reason for your 10 percent decrease could be right under your nose.
Another possibility could be a good old-fashioned bureaucratic screwup. Your old boss and your new boss might not have exchanged notes about your pay, or the HR department may have missed a beat when you changed positions. It happens.
But there is a third possibility, and definitely one to think hard about if your company and department did well over the past year: You may have hit your targets, but your performance is a relative thing. It can be (and probably is) measured relative to what was expected of you and to the performance of other members of the team. It is possible you’ve done well enough to receive positive feedback, but not as well as hoped, or not as well as a number of your coworkers.
There is, of course, only one way to find out what’s going on, and that is to have a candid conversation with your boss. Make an appointment, and calmly ask her to explain your bonus. Your main goal with this talk is to learn. So listen more than talk, and by all means, do it soon. Don’t ever let confusion fester. In time, it will only grow into anger.
One last point here, and it is a broader one for anyone who has gotten a degree while working at a company. In our experience, once you’ve bettered yourself with education at night or part-time, you’re much better off moving on to another organization. People tend to have what we call an “embedded reputation” at their companies. A degree just never seems to change that, even if your work improves. If you want real bang for your education’s buck, take your new credential elsewhere, where it stands a much better chance of making you look as good as you intended it to.
WHY CAN’T I GET HIRED?
* * *
I currently run a small management consulting firm in “survivalist mode”—in other words, it’s failing due to lack of financial resources. A few months ago, I decided to quit the business and started sending out my résumé for executive positions. The response has been discouraging, to put it mildly. Do you think the problem is with my résumé, or that maybe I am not presenting myself convincingly in interviews? In short, how should I market myself to get out of my bind?
—JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
* * *
Let’s face reality. Consultants usually have a very easy time landing new jobs. They’re typically well educated, have some degree of sophisticated critical thinking skills, and can boast of both broad industry experience and familiarity with cutting-edge management tools. The fact that you aren’t being snatched up by some company out there suggests something might not only be wrong with your résumé or your presentation during interviews—something might be wrong with your expectations.
Have you considered that you could be shooting too high? After all, your main credential—or your most recent one, at least—is the firm that you run, and it’s in trouble. Obviously, failure is not a good sign to any potential employer. Companies are looking for winners.
So, what can you do to get out of your “bind,” as you so aptly call it? Our first piece of advice would be to actively look for, and be eager to interview for, lower-level jobs than you have been considering to this point. The hard reality of the situation is that you may not be able to reenter the workforce in an executive position. You may need to get your foot in the door simply as a team member or individual contributor with no managerial responsibilities whatsoever. That may not feel great for your ego or your pocketbook, but if you’re good, your career should leap forward quickly as you demonstrate what you’ve got.
Along with shooting a bit lower, a second piece of advice is to market yourself with total candor. On both your résumé and in interviews, do not try to sugarcoat the fact that your consulting firm is not making it. Don’t blame “lack of financial resources,” as if the firm’s failure was out of your hands. You were the boss; you weren’t able to raise enough seed capital, or get enough clients, or serve them economically enough, to make money. Own the firm’s collapse. Say what you think you did wrong and what you will do differently in the future to be a winner. Describe what you learned from the experience, how it made you a better businessperson—more insightful, more decisive, and so on. Your résumé tells a lot about you, but your honesty and authenticity—and your desire to start over, only better—will impress potential employers more than anything else you can say.
Finally, stay positive. The process of landing a job out of a bad situation usually takes longer than you’d like and is more daunting too. But frustration or anger—or any negative emotion—will only make the search worse for you. You’ll feel enervated, and your demeanor, no matter how hard you try to hide it, will make you less attractive to companies. So, do whatever it takes to draw on your reserves of self-confidence. Lean on friends and family in private, and then get out there and play to win—upbeat, candid to your toes, and willing to reboot your career with a job where you can demonstrate all the untapped potential you’ve got.
THEY’RE TELLING YOU SOMETHING
* * *
I have an ethical dilemma. I am an in-house consultant at a manufacturing company, where I use conceptual tools to help improve processes. I have noticed, however, that company executives do not find my work useful or important for results. Should I leave the company, thereby being disloyal to my manager, or stay, knowing that my work might never be properly recognized?
—SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL
* * *
You don’t have an ethical problem. You have a classic career problem, and its solution is straightforward: you need to get out.
Look, you’re at a company where the work you do is not valued. We’re afraid that it doesn’t really make any difference if you are right or wrong. Your work could have the potential to unlock untold profits. But if your bosses fundamentally don’t think it matters, you will be shouting into the wind forever. Do yourself a favor. Find another place where management will value the conceptual stuff you do. And chances are, the manager you leave behind won’t feel you’ve been disloyal. He knows what’s going on—and he’ll be happy to replace you with someone more in tune with management’s mind-set.
We called your problem “classic,” incidentally, because it’s so very common. It typically starts as yours did, with an employee’s creeping sense that the terrific work he or she is doing doesn’t particularly interest the powers that be. The situation quickly spirals down as the employee becomes angry and frustrated and the bosses grow annoyed. As the disconnect widens, the employee’s performance usually worsens, and feelings of resentment—on both sides—expand to the breaking point.
Then, boom, the employee is usually canned or quits in a rage. Luckily, it is not too late to avoid that in your case. Make your exit amicable and orderly, which will be good for both the company and your reputation going forward. But do what you need to do soon—move on.
WELCOME TO THE GOVERNMENT, KID
* * *
I am twenty-two years old, straight out of the University of Georgia, where I studied finance and filled my summers with great business internships. I am now on the staff of a U.S. senator, and while the work is fascinating, I am having a hard time adjusting to the public sector mind-set. Any advice?
—WASHINGTON, D.C.
* * *
Welcome to the world of politics, where every business value you’ve been taught over the past couple of years is pretty much null and void. We mean values like clear goal-setting, rewards for achievement, productivity, and speed. Surely your finance professors sang their praises, and your summer bosses did the same. But politics has different values, and your adjustment problem suggests you’ve begun to discover them.
Don’t worry.
Your new job is part of a system that is absolutely essential t
o the healthy functioning of society. No doubt you felt proud to accept a position in government, and you were right to.
But something’s bothering you, and if we had to guess, it’s the…well, the politics of politics. The bureaucracy. The compromising. The deals, favors, and earmarks. The lack of differentiation and candor. The “I’ll scratch your back, you scratch mine” mentality of the whole scene. It’s all so uncompetitive, right?
Right—and not changing. Government is filled with the inefficiencies of politics and always will be.
Now, that’s OK for some people; they make their careers in government. But given your rapid discomfort, you don’t sound like part of that crowd. Your future is in the private sector.
No rush, though. The good news is that a few years in politics can be very good for a business career. Knowing how things get done in government can be very useful in all sorts of situations you may face, especially as you get to more senior levels in a company.
The same, however, can’t really be said of the reverse. That is, it’s rare that experience in business helps people succeed in government. Yes, capitals everywhere have a smattering of former CEOs in high-ranking roles, but very few of them have achieved great things, to put it mildly.