It’s Your Money, Not Theirs

So you received stock options (or a grant of company stock, which is more rare)?  Good for you!  Options can be managed into a significant source of wealth – if properly handled and if the company performs well.  If those two conditions aren’t met, they are nearly worthless pieces of paper that may only make you feel good for a short time.

This is the cover of Empowered, which will release on October 12, 2014.  You can Preorder it for the Kindle by clicking here.

This is the cover of Empowered, which will release on October 12, 2014.  You can Preorder it for the Kindle by clicking here.

In this post I’ll provide some tips on how to handle stock options (and subsequent stock ownership) that should help you manage your options to maximum benefit.

Don’t celebrate just yet

Most stock options require a “vesting” period before they can be exercised.  A typical schedule for vesting would be over a three year period where one third of the options vest each year.  Another common way to handle this is “cliff” vesting, where 100% of the options vest at the end of a waiting period, usually somewhere between one and five years.  Until the options vest they are worthless, so don’t start celebrating just yet.

Many people see options as a reward for performing well, but that’s not why most of them are granted.  They are normally used as “golden handcuffs,” designed to keep you working for the company even though you might otherwise consider other alternatives.  Feel good about this – it provides insight into how you fit in the company’s future plans.

Check the fine print of your options.  Some will say that any unexercised options at the time employment ceases are forfeited.  Others may attach non-competes or other semi-related restrictions.  Be aware of these limitations and plan how you will handle them in the event of quitting, being terminated, or retiring.

When should I exercise?

Options typically have a limited life.  The ones I received were valid for ten years, but others may have a different (shorter) life.  Once the options vest, you can exercise them any time up to the limit of the life span of the option.

So when should you exercise?  Generally later is better as it gives the stock price a chance to more fully appreciate.  Options give you the right (but not the requirement) to purchase shares of the company at a historical price.  Assuming the stock price goes up, the longer you wait the larger the gain you’ll realize.

And the longer you can hold off paying taxes.

Taxes?  I have to pay taxes?

There are two types of options – Incentive stock options (ISO’s) and non-qualified options (NSO’s.)  ISOs are nice because you don’t have to pay taxes on them until you dispose of the acquired securities, and then it is all capital gains versus ordinary income (it does still hit you on the AMT schedule, so don’t get too excited if you have ISOs.)  This means that most people can exercise whenever they think the timing is best without having to worry about the tax impact.   With NSOs your gain on exercise becomes ORDINARY INCOME for tax purposes.  Any subsequent gain (or loss) upon sale of the acquired shares is treated as capital gains.

Most companies seem to grant NSOs because corporate tax deductibility is difficult or impossible for ISOs.

When you decide to exercise, there are a few options of how to handle the transaction.  You can pay cash for the options at the “strike” price (from your savings, a bank loan, or another source) and collect your shares.  If you needed a loan, it is common to immediately sell enough shares to cover repayment of the loan (remember: this creates a taxable event even if you have ISOs).

If you’ve got NGOs you’ll also have to come up with some way of covering the tax withholding.  Many companies allow you to do a “cashless” exercise.  In this transaction the company acquires all the shares and sells enough to cover the exercise cost and your withholding.  You get a stock certificate for whatever is left.  Some firms will also allow you to trade in shares you already own to cover the strike price.  This method creates some complicated tax situations as the transaction will have both ordinary income and capital gains imbedded in it.

I’ve used all three methods to acquire shares from exercises.  My advice?  Double check the calculations if  you’re going cashless or trading stock – I caught several mistakes made by the CFO’s office over the years.  Also, my tax withholding was never enough to cover what I owed the government.  Many years I found myself with a big tax payment due in April, so make sure to budget accordingly.

And you want me to hold the stock?

What you do with the stock once you own it can be politically tricky.

At lower levels in the company there typically aren’t expectation that you’ll hold stock indefinitely, but as you move up the corporate ladder this often changes.  Some employers track your company stock holdings, using it as an indication of your “commitment” to the company.  Sell shares and someone will likely be calling you to ask for an explanation.

One of my employers set “ownership guidelines” for senior managers.  Senior managers were strongly discouraged from selling shares until they “met” the guideline (a percentage of annual salary, and for some jobs more than 100%).  Even when the guidelines were met, senior managers were sometimes punished (by foregoing new stock option grants) if they sold stock.  In the words of one of the company’s most senior executives:  “Company stock is for widows and orphans.”

Under such expectations, you sell shares at your own (political) risk.

Holding too much stock for too long can hurt you, too

Talk to investment advisors and they will tell you that holding the bulk of your retirement savings in a single stock is crazy.  While you may feel slightly more secure if the “single stock” is your employer’s – if you have confidence in the company’s future, that is.  Eventually, common sense says, you should diversify your holdings.

Which means you’ll have to sell shares, regardless of the political implications.

Or you could just continue wait.  But I wouldn’t recommend it.  You want to sell shares based on your timing, not the company’s.  That may work out great if you plan to retire from this company some day in the distant future.  Unfortunately, sometimes the company has other plans for you – like termination or forcing you out.

Oops, I shoulda handled dis better...

I waited too long to sell stock when working for one of my employers.  In the run-up to the 2008 market crash, I realized our company’s stock was “fully valued.”  In response, I exercised all of my options in May of that year.  At the time I was feeling insecure about my future with the company, and I wanted to make sure I didn’t lose my unexercised options.  This created a large gain, and I knew there would be a rather large tax liability the next spring.

I did not however, follow my instincts and sell any of the company stock at that time.  That was a mistake.

A few months later, the market crashed and the company’s stock dropped to less than 1/3 of its prior value.  If it hadn’t been for the company’s draconian stock ownership rules, I would have sold everything near the peak.

By the time the stock price bottomed, the company fired me.  It made my May options exercise seem almost prophetic – except for the fact that I should have also sold every share I owned at that time.

As it turned out my retirement resources declined by 2/3rds.  Then to add insult to injury, when I was forced to sell shares to cover my tax liability, I had to dump them in a terrible market.  That forced me to sell many more shares than should have been the necessary.

I was patient with the remaining (decimated) shares and waited for the market to rebound, getting about 60% of the high-water value.  The proceeds were then invested in a more diversified portfolio and grew with the recovery.

If I’d been free to handle the stock sale as I wanted (free from the corporate ownership guidelines) my ending retirement account wouldn’t have declined nearly as much.

Conclusion

Remember that even though the company has their own policies and aims where it comes to options and stock ownership, in the end it’s your money.  Recognize the reality of how your needs may politically impact your future, but also realize you are “rolling the dice” if you allow too many of your retirement assets to be concentrated in your employer’s stock. 33.5

Other Recent Posts:

To find other blog posts, type a keyword into this search box, or check my Blog Index…

My Linkedin profile is open for your connection.  Click here and request to connect.  www.linkedin.com/in/tspears/

If you are intrigued by the ideas presented in my blog posts, check out some of my other writing.

Novels:  LEVERAGE, INCENTIVIZE, DELIVERABLES, HEIR APPARENT, and PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES.

Non-Fiction:  NAVIGATING CORPORATE POLITICS

This is the cover of my latest novel, PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES, released in April, 2014.  This story marks the return of LEVERAGE characters Mark Carson and Cathy Chin, now going by the name of Matt and Sandy Lively and on the run from the FBI.  The pair are working for a remote British Columbia lodge specializing in Corporate adventure/retreats for senior executives.  When the Redhouse Consulting retreat goes horribly wrong, Matt finds himself pursuing kidnappers through the wilderness, while Sandy simultaneously tries to fend off an inquisitive police detective and an aggressive lodge owner.

My novels are based on extensions of 27 years of personal experience as a senior manager in public corporations.

Foretelling the Future

I’ve participated in quite a few terminations over the years, and it never ceased to amaze me how often the terminated employee seemed to be truly surprised they’re losing their job.  And while “seeing it coming” doesn’t always give you the opportunity to stop it from happening, a warning can provide the opportunity to plan countermoves.  Even if the situation is hopeless there is always resume preparation, an external job search, or a complete career change.

Being surprised should never happen.  If you’re surprised, you probably weren’t paying close enough attention to the signals and properly reading the tea leaves.

The only reason I can imagine a person being legitimately surprised in a termination is if they are falsely accused of some misdeed.  In my experience, that just doesn’t occur.

The primary “illegitimate” reason employees are surprised is that they aren’t “tuned in” to their work environment and what is currently going on in bother the political and performance categories of the business.

Warning:  A Blatant Plug.  You can pre-order the Kindle version of my latest Novel EMPOWERED now for delivery on October 12, 2014 (my birthday!)

Why are you letting me go?

Employees are typically terminated for any one of a number of reasons, and while this list isn’t exhaustive, it captures the vast majority of cases I’ve observed.

  1. The business is in decline and they are released to save money.
  2. Their performance isn’t up to snuff (according to management).
  3. They break a policy or rule in an egregious fashion.
  4. They repeatedly violate less important rules or policies.
  5. Continued employment creates a liability for the company.
  6. They are generating an unacceptable amount of conflict with others.

As you probably realize, items 3-6 above are all risky actions in which the employee voluntarily engages.  If you embezzle from the company (item 3), systematically arrive at work late (item 4), get involved in an outside lawsuit that puts the company at risk (item 5), or waste enormous amounts of time fighting with your boss or peers (item 6), you shouldn’t be surprised when you end up taking that long walk down the hall to HR.

The best way to avoid termination for these causes (most of which I consider to be unusual) is to simply avoid getting involved in them.  When you choose to ignore this advice, you can expect that the ax might fall at any moment – often as soon as the situation is discovered.

It wasn’t my fault

Losing a job because of economic cutbacks is what seems to surprise people most often.  But why should it?

There are two things you can do that can reduce your chances of being surprised under such circumstances – Make yourself difficult to replace, and pay attention to how the company is performing.

Becoming irreplaceable is difficult.  Companies understand that irreplaceable employees have leverage and they work to prevent this from happening.  Even with this caveat however, I’ve witnessed many instances where it has become difficult to replace a particular employee and that difficulty protected the individual during a downturn.  Here are some things that make you more difficult to replace:

  • Having unique skills (Example:  The only licensed engineer at the firm.)
  • Performing complicated jobs that no one else knows (Example:  The only employee that knows complex export documentation requirements.)
  • A willingness to do a job no one else wants to do (Example:  Traveling to an undesirable location.)
  • Unique and valuable (normally external) relationships (Example:  Deep contacts in supplier industry for the firm’s critical raw material.)
  • Being assigned mission critical tasks (Example:  A senior financial person.)
  • Knowing where the bodies are buried (Example:  A senior HR person.)

These characteristics will all increase the difficulty in replacing you in your job.  If you are motivated by job security, and you have the opportunity to add any of these characteristics to your role, they will only help to protect you in the case of a layoff.

If you see the company making specific moves to reduce their dependence on you, then you should be suspicious that a change is coming and it won’t work in your favor.

Economic-related terminations (no-fault lay-offs) normally only happen when the company’s fortunes are in decline.  If you pay attention to how the company is doing, you should be able to see them coming.

I’m surprised at how many employees seem to take little or no interest in the company’s financial performance.  It isn’t difficult or complicated – if profits are increasing and sales are growing, things are fine.  If either of these conditions are not true, you can anticipate reorganizations and restructurings may be just around the corner.

While knowing that it’s coming may not save your job, it does afford you time to develop alternatives – increasing your savings, conducting a covert job search, working outside contacts, etc.

I didn’t realize things were so bad

Because most managers/supervisors are a bit cowardly when it comes to performance reviews, indicators of “poor performance” are sometimes a little subtle.

Here are some of the telltale signs that your job might be in danger…

  1. Your supervisor delays giving you your performance review (probably because it will be difficult)
  2. Your review has at least one highly critical rating in it, particularly if this is the first time the criticism has appeared.  Forget about all the praise in the review – focus on the negatives.
  3. Your supervisor is avoiding or “shunning” you.  This is a sign they may be screwing up their courage to take you out.
  4. Your treatment in meetings and discussions becomes increasingly harsh.  This is may be an unconscious way of urging you to quit on your own.  It might even be an intentional strategy.
  5. Peers avoid you.  Sometimes peers can see a termination coming sooner than the target and they avoid any potential guilt-by-association.
  6. Responsibilities are withdrawn from you and given to others.
  7. New people appear in the organization that can understudy you or replace you with little disruption.  This usually only occurs when you are in a critical role.

In my experience, when these signs start showing up, there is little you can do to stop the eventual termination – the decision has essentially already been made, even if it is still informal.  A huge change in performance could possibly still save you.  Moving to another job within the company could prevent your firing.

But both those circumstances are quite unusual.

I attended a recruiting seminar once where the presenter referenced research showing the average delay between realizing an employee needs to be terminated and the actual job action is nine months.  While he didn’t quote the source, the interval sounds about right to me.  During that intervening nine months, the manager is validating their belief and planning for the aftermath of the termination.  That’s why late reforms rarely revers such decisions – by the time they are undertaken things are already written in stone.

Once again, knowing it is coming might not save you, but it at least puts you in the driver’s seat of your own future.  You can confront, make changes, plan career alternatives, or even go after the supervisor that seems to have it in for you.

Conclusion

If you pay attention to a few signals and avoid provocative behaviors, you should have plenty of warning that your job is in jeopardy.  In some cases, this may allow you the opportunity to save the job, while in others it might only afford you the opportunity to plan around the inevitable end.

In either case, knowledge is power in your hands – power to act and determine your own destiny.  33.4

Other Recent Posts:

My Linkedin profile is open for your connection.  Click here and request to connect.  www.linkedin.com/in/tspears/

If you are intrigued by the ideas presented in my blog posts, check out some of my other writing.

Novels:  LEVERAGE, INCENTIVIZE, DELIVERABLES, HEIR APPARENT, and PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES.

Non-Fiction:  NAVIGATING CORPORATE POLITICS

To the left is the cover for HEIR APPARENT.  Someone is killing corporate leaders in Kansas City.  But who?  The police and FBI pursue a "serial killer" theory, leaving Joel Smith and Evangelina Sikes to examine other motives.  As the pair zero in on the perpetrator, they put their own lives at risk.  There are multiple suspects and enough clues for the reader to identify the killer in this classic whodunnit set in a corporate crucible.

 My novels are based on extensions of 27 years of personal experience as a senior manager in public corporations.

Fighting Back

Picture the following scenario:  You are in a meeting.  Your boss and her boss are both present.  During your presentation one of your peers begins to attack your basic thesis, aggressively calling into question everything you’ve spent months working on.

How should you respond?

  1. Do you passively accept the criticisms, permitting the peer to score his points without opposition?
  2. Do you calmly try to explain to the peer (and the rest of the audience) that he is “mistaken?”
  3. Do you aggressively defend your work, pointing out how foolish the comments of your peer really are, and even lob a few criticisms back his direction?
  4. Do you lose your cool and start shouting down your opponent while still (loosely) relying on logical arguments?
  5. Or do you dispense with logic and just start cursing and throwing things?

Warning:  Blatant Plug.  You can pre-order the Kindle version of my latest Novel EMPOWERED now for delivery on October 12, 2014 (my birthday!)

It’s a fight, not a debate

Normally, I’d recommend a calm, cool, and collected approach, but when someone is clearly going after you in a public setting, the gloves need to come off.

In my experience, option 4 is your best bet, with option 3 a close second.  Options 1,2, and 5 should be avoided.  In fact, if you can only manage to muster an Option 1 or 2 response, I suggest you immediately halt your presentation and sit down, demanding that “someone” get the hyper-critical commentary under control before you’ll continue.

Why would I (a normally passive and logic-driven person) advocate such an aggressive approach?

Because it’s a fight, not a debate.

In a fight, you need to rely on street smarts rather than logic, on trench warfare rather than scoring intellectual victories.

Everyone in the audience will quickly recognize the attack for what it is – an attack.  In my experience, the presenter is often the last to realize what is happening, focused as she may be on trying to get her point across.  By the time you’re aware someone is gunning for you, everyone in the audience will likely be waiting to see how you’ll respond.

And most people will respect a fighter more than a victim.

In one such instance, a subordinate of mine was attacked by a peer in one of our staff meetings – the subject:  When we should hold a large distributor meeting.  The attacker had “laid in the weeds, waiting” while his opponent made plans, raising objections only at the last minute.

The target was initially on the defensive, trying to justify why the meeting should be held as originally scheduled.  It wasn’t until he returned the attack – accusing his tormentor of intentionally trying to undermine him with his sleezy tactic – that I ended up interceding.  In the end, the attacker did far more damage to himself by launching this offensive, while my respect for his victim actually increased.

It really doesn’t matter who’s lobbing the grenades

A peer-based attack is the most common, but I’ve seen plenty of instances where the attacker was a subordinate (usually of someone else in the room, not the person presenting), or a superior (often from another chain of command, but sometimes the presenter’s own boss).  No matter who is attacking, an aggressive push back is warranted.  There are several reasons for this:

  1. People respect a person that is willing to defend themselves (think of all those schoolyard bully films and the appeal when the victim fights back).
  2. Future attacks are discouraged when you respond aggressively.
  3. Most organizations value your passionate commitment to your values, beliefs, and opinions.  You’ll be demonstrating that with a retaliatory strike.

There are a couple of notable exceptions to this rule, and even then I still recommend toning down your response only slightly.

  1. If your attacker is the most senior person in the room, you might want to back off a bit.  There’s no need to make this person an enemy when there is no one present of equal or greater organizational power as an offset.
  2. If your attacker is a low level flunky that is acting more out of stupidity than craft.  No one likes a bully, and under these circumstances you’d be in danger of looking like one even though you didn’t launch the attack.

I once witnessed the CEO of one of my employers assert during a meeting that “we’ve never done a good acquisition.”  The VP of Corporate Development, who was sitting in the audience, felt he was being directly attacked (I don’t think that was the intention of the critique, but I can see why he felt this way).  He responded by angrily asking “What about X?” and “How about Y?”  Eventually this lead to the making of list of successful and unsuccessful deals done over a span of many years.

As it turned out, the VP was right – there were a number of very successful acquisitions.  In addition to proving his point, the stock of the VP went up in the eyes of everyone in the room – it took a lot of guts to stand up to the CEO.

In that instance, the VP did “tone it down a bit” in recognition of the fact that he was going up against the top dog.  But not too much.  Backing off more would have seemed like a concession, one he wasn’t (and shouldn’t have been) willing to make.

It comes from the gut, not the head

I personally have always found responding to be tough when it comes to fights.  I don’t like confrontations, and rely almost exclusively on logic and persuasion to get what I need/want.  Generating and focusing the emotional energy needed for a battle, without becoming flustered, is something I find difficult.

Case in point:  In a senior management retreat, I was on the stage for more than an hour taking a grilling from one of my peers before I finally began to lose my cool.

It was too little, too late.  In retrospect, I would have been infinitely better off aggressively pushing back from the beginning, rather than allowing the extended torture session to continue.

One additional thing I learned in that instance – it is much easier to criticize someone else’s work than to advocate your own solutions.  My approach should have been to demand the critic advance his own recommended solutions and then shot them down myself.  Under such circumstances, I would have at least had a chance to bring everyone back to the ideas I was trying to advance.

Like most people, the details of that particular failure roll around in my mind as I think of all the ways I could have handled it differently.  Almost all of those afterthoughts begin with a much more aggressive response to my opponents.

Conclusion

When confronted with a battle, there is no glory in a passive approach.  Cast yourself as bravely fighting back against an unfair bully, and you won’t go too far wrong.  33.3

Other Recent Posts:

My Linkedin profile is open for your connection.  Click here and request to connect.  www.linkedin.com/in/tspears/

If you are intrigued by the ideas presented in my blog posts, check out some of my other writing.

Novels:  LEVERAGE, INCENTIVIZE, DELIVERABLES, HEIR APPARENT, and PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES.

Non-Fiction:  NAVIGATING CORPORATE POLITICS

To the right is the cover for DELIVERABLES.  This novel features a senior manager approached by government officials to spy on his employer, concerned about how a "deal" the company is negotiating might put critical technical secrets into the hands of enemies of the United States.  Of course, things are not exactly as it seems....

 My novels are based on extensions of my 27 years of personal experience as a senior manager in public corporations.  Most were inspired by real events.

Control Your Contempt, Sir! – Part 2

How should you handle the contempt you feel for your boss?  Attempt to hide it?  Or let it all “hang out?”  The method you choose to manage your responses can have a substantial impact on your career.

In my first post on this subject, I explored the origins of our contemptuous feelings for those in authority.  I also made the case for why your (harsh) judgment of your boss might be out of perspective.

Whether justified or not, you will be much better off keeping your derision, disdain, and disrespect completely out of sight.  Fail to do so and your “idiot boss” is likely to retaliate – in ways that are not visible or can’t be easily countered.

A little compassion?

As I mentioned in my last post, managing people is a lot more challenging than it appears on the surface.  While there are a lot of things you can learn from books and teachers, much of the craft of management is experientially in nature – you learn by doing, rather than by comprehending theory and applying it.  For example, there is little you can gain from a book that, in the heat of the moment, will help you separate and calm two feuding subordinates.  Skillfully dealing with such situations comes from having previous practice in similar situations.

I’ve always found the emotional side of management to be particularly challenging to learn.  Early in my managerial experiences, I passively listened for several minutes as one of my key subordinates engaged in a racially-motivated rant.  Eventually, I did manage to stop him – although hardly elegantly, by yelling at him to get the %*&! out of my office.  Inside, I was a roil of anger, offense, fear, surprise, and uncertainty.  The truth was I had no idea how to handle the situation, and with my emotions in charge almost any reaction was possible.

As it turned out, my reaction worked out okay – I expressed (a bit ineloquently) my strong disagreement with the employee’s prejudice and his way of expressing it in the workplace.  I shudder to think what message I would have sent if I’d sympathized with the ranting employee.

The point is management can be an emotionally charged exercise, and peaking emotions tend to defy instruction.  Only prior experience seems to adequately train us for dealing with such situations.

Rather than reacting with contempt when your boss fails to meet your expectations, recognizing that while you might not see the emotions in play below the surface, he might be a mess.  Try to cut your newly-minted supervisor a little slack when she makes a mistake.  Show a little compassion.  Odds are good you will (or already have) make some pretty big blunders when you’re learning the craft of management.

Or a little acting

After all the “slack cutting” and “error forgiving,” you might still find yourself awash in scorn for  you boss.  And you might rightfully feel that way – there are definitely “idiot” bosses that should have never ascended to the positions they now occupy.  Some of these “Peter Principle” examples will never grasp the finer points of managing people, and exist in a world where they are perpetually overwhelmed and outmatched by the role they’ve taken on.  After a time, a subordinate’s compassion can wear thin.

So then what?

You fake it.  Try to ignore those things that irritate or produce eye rolls.  If you have to tell someone about them, your voice dripping with sarcasm, make it someone outside of work (your pet Labrador might be a good choice).

Under no circumstances should you openly demonstrate your contempt in front of your peers, or even worse, the manager himself.  Doing so is just throwing down the gauntlet, daring the boss to take you on.

Guess who’s in the best position to win that contest?  Even if the boss seems “incompetent” or “dumb,” he has access to weapons you don’t.

It may take a while, but over time the boss will likely get her way.

In an extreme example, my boss once expressed his contempt for his supervisor (the company CEO) to everyone around.  I was well aware of his feelings, and he even went so far as to discuss them with one of the board members.  My contemptuous boss apparently felt his brilliance (and the fact that he occupied a key position) would protect him from retaliation.  And it did… for a little while.

Eventually, the CEO found a pretense to fire him, “eliminating” his position.

He challenged the bull and predictably got the horns.

The smart play

I’ve always had a tough time respecting my bosses.  Perhaps it’s due to my (misplaced?) confidence that I could do their jobs better.  Or maybe by putting my boss down, I felt I was somehow boosting myself up.  For whatever reason, I can only think of a couple of bosses I had over the years that I really respected.

So how did I handle my contempt without derailing my career?

I hid it.

Initially, I’d try to write off “stupid” behaviors to inexperience, differences in perception, or differences in “style.”

If and when this rationalizing ran dry, I’d try to focus on my boss’s positive aspects.  Almost all supervisors have something that they do well – good strategists, good politicians, clever, hard-working, friendly, etc.  If you look hard enough, you can usually find positives.

Then I’d mentally excuse the stupid stuff – “Yes, he’s being overly conservative on this project, but that’s because being overly conservative has served him so well over his career” or “He expects to be treated the same way he treats his boss.”

This technique was almost indefinitely sustainable – at least until I ran into an ethics brick wall.  That kind of collision happened only once or twice during my career.

If I discovered a boss deliberately lying to someone (particularly to me!), or cheating, or falsifying information, then all bets were off.  At that point, I could only rely on “acting” to keep myself from verbalizing the contempt – which I would still do anytime I thought I could indulge without consequence (spouse, friends outside of work, and even a few highly trusted allies inside of work).

By that time I was already on a collision course with the boss, and it was just a matter of time before something was going to change – either one of us got a new job, or he fired me.  If you find yourself playing this kind of “chicken” game, I highly advise you to keep yourself in the driver’s seat and determine when and where you’re going.  In the long haul it will be better for your emotional well-being.

You might be better at tolerating such situations than I was.  Or maybe you’ll be worse.  If you can suck it up and take it, then doing so is probably to your benefit.  Relationships in businesses often change, and sometimes all you need to do is hold on long enough for that to happen.

Conclusion

Feeling contemptuous of your boss is not uncommon, but openly expressing those feelings will do you no favors.  Reach for a little understanding and compassion for the boss to keep such feelings in the background, and failing this try dwelling on some of the boss’s positive points.

Once the boss crosses your personal tolerance limit, things are ultimately headed for the ditch.  Utilize prudence and your best acting skills to keep yourself in control of the situation while you bide your time – hopefully the situation will change on its own before you find yourself out of a job or working somewhere else.

Other Recent Posts:

My Linkedin profile is open for your connection.  Click here and request to connect.  www.linkedin.com/in/tspears/

If you are intrigued by the ideas presented in my blog posts, check out some of my other writing.

Novels:  LEVERAGE, INCENTIVIZE, DELIVERABLES, HEIR APPARENT, and PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES.

Non-Fiction:  NAVIGATING CORPORATE POLITICS

To the right is the cover for INCENTIVIZE.  This novel is about a U.S. based mining company, and criminal activity that the protagonist (a woman by the name of Julia McCoy) uncovers at the firm's Ethiopian subsidiary.  Her discover sets in motion a series of events that include, kidnapping, murder, and terrorism in the Horn of Africa.

My novels are based on extensions of my 27 years of personal experience as a senior manager in public corporations.  Most were inspired by real events.

Control Your Contempt, Sir! – Part 1

A friend presented an interesting dilemma last week, one involving the contempt she felt for her boss.  The ensuing discussion boiled down to the following question:  How to deal with a boss that she doesn’t respect.

 An interesting challenge – Fake it?  Or accept the consequences?  I’ve faced this same situation plenty of times myself – in jobs where I held my immediate boss in contempt.  In some situations I managed to handle this situation effectively, while in others it became a real problem.

 I’ll be exploring this issue and the possible reactions to it over my next two blog posts, starting with the origins of feelings of contempt for those in authority, proceeding to an exploration of the job of a boss and why your judgment might be overly harsh, and ending with some strategies to deal with the boss you simply can’t seem to respect.

 It starts early

 My first experiences of failing to respect superiors began early in high school.  I remember one math teacher who seemed to have challenges with the English language, pronouncing the word asymptote as “asthma toads” (there were many other examples).  His malapropisms and mispronunciations produced plenty of contemptuous snickering behind his back.

Why do we do this?  I think it has something to do with building ourselves up by tearing other down -- and the higher up they are, the better.

 By the time I was a senior, several of my classmates and I decided our physics teacher (who was in her first year of teaching) was an idiot.  One day the teacher wore a dress that vaguely resembled the waitress gear at Bob Evans.  That led to soft humming of the Bob Evans theme song from the back row.  Eventually, one of my compatriots asked her if there was any truth to the rumor that she was moonlighting.

 That was went too far.

 The teacher wasn’t as big of an idiot as we thought, and immediately made the connection.  “Are you talking about my dress, Joe?” she asked.  “I’ll have you know that I made this dress, myself.”

 Joe sat in the chair, wilting.  He later tried to apologize to no avail.  Joe made an enemy that day and I learned a lesson:  There’s a big difference between feeling contempt and actually expressing it – expression of contempt can have steep consequences.

 The job of the boss

 Over the years I’ve discovered that every job looks the easiest to the person that doesn’t have to perform it.  That was certainly true for my high school physics teacher, and nowhere is it more true than for a manager.

 To most people the boss’s job looks pretty simple – motivate the team, assign work, regulate employee performance, and meet the needs of those higher up the food chain.  A boss doesn’t usually have a regular, individual-contributor-type assignment, and employees often wonder what the heck the boss is doing all day long.

 Reality is a bit different than those perceptions.

 Most bosses have a large and difficult-to-handle set of work requirements and expectations.  First, bosses are almost always assigned more than they can really accomplish, the idea being to get them to prioritize and deal with only the most important issues.  Secondly, managing people is a consuming exercise – people are demanding, critical, hypersensitive, and obsessed with fairness.  Thirdly, the boss is expected to originate and improve the people, processes, and projects in their area.  It might look like they “aren’t doing much,” but bosses are usually under constant pressure from above to make things better.

The reason I point out all of this?  Understanding and compassion are the first step toward banishing your contempt.

 In my own first supervisory job, I was responsible for a factory production department with thirty-three employees.  While I suppose that I was smarter than most of them, all of those employees had much more experience working the line, not to mention much more experience with the labor contract (we had a union) and all the associated work rules.

 I discovered earning the respect of those employees was quite a challenge.  Their expectations for my knowledge (not to mention my ability to simply get around to everything that happened during a normal shift) were unrealistic.  Every decision was second-guessed.  I experienced “fairness failures” every time I made a call in a disagreement between employees – and there were many of these.

 Slowly, over time, I earned the respect of a portion of my employees, although some always held me in contempt.  I still remember one of the other supervisors (that handled the same department on a different shift) telling me one of my employees referred to me as “stupid” and then added:  “Where did he go to school?” expressing his contempt for my Harvard MBA.

 In his mind, I was the same kind of “idiot” that my high school physics teacher had once seemed like to me.

 Hmmmm.

 What’s next

 In my next post, I’ll further develop the concept of contempt in the workplace and how to deal with it.

 For now, remember that you should try to avoid a contemptuous reaction to someone before you’ve “walked a mile in their shoes.”  Sure, there are bad bosses out there, and some of these are worthy of your disrespect.  Before you go there however, you should do your best to cut the boss some slack – maybe their job is harder than you realize.

 Other Recent Posts:

My Linkedin profile is open for your connection.  Click here and request to connect.  www.linkedin.com/in/tspears/

 If you are intrigued by the ideas presented in my blog posts, check out some of my other writing.

Novels:  LEVERAGE, INCENTIVIZE, DELIVERABLES, HEIR APPARENT, and PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES.

Non-Fiction:  NAVIGATING CORPORATE POLITICS

To the right is the cover of LEVERAGE.  This novel explores the theft of sensitive DOD designs from a Minneapolis Tech Company, and the dangers associated with digging too deeply into the surrounding mystery.  Its sequel, PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES, was released in May of 2014.  A third book in the series, OUTSOURCED, is in the works.

My books are based on extensions of my 27 years of personal experience as a senior manager in public corporations.  Most were inspired by real events.

They Aren’t Really Your Friends

Most career-driven managers spend a tremendous amount of their lives at work.  When working, most also form relationships with superiors, peers, and subordinates, often calling them “friendships.”

 In reality, most of these people aren't really your friends.  I've come to call the connections “relationships of convenience,” and you should be on your guard for potential undermining, credit stealing, political maneuvering, and outright betrayal.

 You've got to talk to somebody…

 Most people begin work relationships tentatively – casual conversations at the water cooler or over lunch – and ease their way into a “friendship.”  The relationships normally deepen through mutual disclosure – you offer an observation, opinion, or position that might expose you (in the beginning, only to a small degree) and the other person offers something similar in response.

 Over time as the relationship grows it might lead to a real friendship.  More likely, however, it becomes some strange form of mutual reliance/alliance with a dose of “mutually assured destruction” or MAD (those of you old enough will remember this from the cold war).  In other words, it morphs into a political device rather than a true friendship.  The problem I always had was figuring out how to tell the difference.

 To separate real from faux, it helps to understand normal friendships.  True friendships involve a commitment and loyalty to the other person regardless of political convenience (or inconvenience).  The problem is, you might not be able to tell this doesn’t exist until a supposed “friend” betrays you.

 I once became enraged by the behavior of my boss, and dropped by the office of one of my “friend” peers to bend his ear on the subject.  I thought of this particular manager and I shared a bond, and that it was safe to get the anger off my chest – heck, I thought he might even have useful advice or observations.

 Instead, within a few minutes of our conversation he paid a visit to my boss and disgorged the contents of our discussion.

 What I failed to realize was we really weren't friends.  While we agreed on a lot of things, and we had cooperated on several projects, there hadn't been enough mutual disclosure to protect me (no MAD) much less for there to be anything beyond a superficial relationship.  Finding myself in this uncomfortable position was my own fault – had I thought carefully about him, I would have realized our relationship consisted of only a temporary alliance.

 Find your real friends by subtracting your utility

 In reality, most work relationships aren’t pure politically-driven alliances based on mutual usefulness, and they aren’t pure friendships, either.  The two aspects become entwined in a difficult-to-separate jumble.  The only way I’ve found to really get to the bottom of these composite relationships is when the “business” side of it disappears.  Under those circumstances (someone quits, transfers, retires, or gets fired) real friendships have (some) staying power.  “Relationships of convenience” tend to sputter and die in a relatively short time as the utility in the departing party rapidly goes to zero.

 Think back to all those people that have departed from your employer – people you may have called “friend” when they were working in the company.  How many of these do you maintain contact with?  How may did you forget about soon afterward they left because they were no longer a factor in your daily life?  Or were no longer useful?

 I worked more than a decade for one of my employers and was then abruptly fired.  In the wake of my departure, one of the most painful realizations I dealt with was how few people that I once called “friend” seemed to want to continue our “friendship.”  Note to self – those that didn’t, weren’t really friends.

 Unfortunately, most of those supposed “friends” seemed to quickly forget that I existed.  I’m sure they moved on to new “relationships of convenience” in the ever-changing mosaic of the company’s political battlefield.

 The identities of the ones that did maintain contact, and there were only a few, sometimes surprised me.  A few were clearly opportunistic, feeling there was still some benefit they could milk from the relationship on my way out.  Most of the rest I’d been chummy with, but they weren’t necessarily the individuals I felt closest to while working at the company.

 Only the stress of my departure on the relationship was enough to determine who my real friends were.

 Of wolves, sheep, and clothing…

 Which brings me to my final point – most business “friendships” appear to have an element of deception in them.  The deception could be simply pretending to find the interests of the other person compelling, or it could be more nefarious – politically manipulating and maneuvering, or even worse.

 Being a polite audience for someone else’s soliloquies is harmless enough, but it’s a fine line between that and gathering information useful for less than honorable purposes (gossip fodder, alliance building, credit theft, etc.).

 And often times it is nearly impossible to spot the difference.

 In a long-ago deal, the party on the opposite side of the table from me brought along his “best friend” to the negotiations.  This was a subordinate he had worked with for many years, a man the owner of the business was going to “cut in” for a portion of the deal’s proceeds.  They seemed to be quite close, their families participating in outings together, and there being a apparently high level of mutual disclosure.

 But that was just on the surface.  Beneath the subordinate’s façade was festering resentment, an affair with another employee, and secret negotiations with one of our competitors.  When the deal was completed, the subordinate betrayed his “friend,” loaning himself a substantial amount of the company’s cash and then going into business in partnership with our mutual competitor.  He then set about trying to hire away almost all the key employees of the firm.

 It was the biggest betrayal I’ve ever personally witnessed in my business career.

 The most disturbing aspect – to the business owner as well as the rest of the outside world, the friendship between the two men seemed very deep and went well beyond work.  It was, however, all an act.

 Conclusion

 You might find true friendships at work, but most of your relationships there won’t qualify.  Be cautious in building work friendships, and don’t be surprised if many of them don’t survive the end of your utility to one another.  Expect betrayal, but hope you won’t personally have to face it.  And above all else, make sure you build and maintain friendships outside of the company – if and when you ever leave you’ll probably need them.  33.2

 Other Recent Posts:

My Linkedin profile is open for your connection.  Click here and request to connect.  www.linkedin.com/in/tspears/

 If you are intrigued by the ideas presented in my blog posts, check out some of my other writing.

Novels:  LEVERAGE, INCENTIVIZE, DELIVERABLES, HEIR APPARENT, and PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES.

Non-Fiction:  NAVIGATING CORPORATE POLITICS

Shown here is the cover of NAVIGATING CORPORATE POLITICS my non-fiction primer on the nature of politics in large corporations, and the management of your career in such an environment.  This is my best selling book.  Chocked full of practical advice, I've had many managers and executives say they wished they'd read it early in their career.

My books are based on extensions of my 27 years of personal experience as a senior manager in public corporations.  Most were inspired by real events.

Dangerous (Inside) Competition

Competitors are a frequent subject of business musings.  In this post I’m going to talk about the insidious competitors we find inside of your organization, rather than those that threaten the company externally.  These internal competitors are a greater threat to your career and reputation than anything that is likely to come from the outside.

 Wolves in sheep’s clothing

 Every ambitious ladder-climber is a potential competitor.  While such people are valuable to the company because they tend to work hard in their push for recognition and advancement, they can be tough on their peers, subordinates, and even their immediate superiors.  Strong ambition and a drive to “get ahead” are the first thing you should look for when trying to identify who your dangerous competitors might be.

 A manager I worked with quite a few years ago was famous for his ambition.  For this particular guy, career was all about increasing his wealth and power.  His ambition was a clear signal that he was a person dangerous to cross.  On the positive side, he provided energy, drive, and ideas that changed the direction of the company (sadly, not always for the better).  On a negative note, he left numerous wrecked or damaged careers in his wake.

 The manager invariably studied all of his peers – even those above him on the corporate ladder – and classified them into one of two categories:  Toadies or Threats.  He systematically went about trying to get rid of the threats.

 It wasn’t until he took aim at the CEO of the company that he was stopped.

 Craft

 Ambition alone isn’t enough to make someone truly dangerous, but political acumen certainly is.

Click the Image to Learn more

Click the Image to Learn more

 Competitors will most likely attack you via political means by:  claiming your successes, whispering behind your back, attaching you to failures, positioning you into “no win” projects, scapegoating – the list goes on and on.  I’ve blogged extensively on these subjects, so if you want more information on them use the search box at the bottom this post to tap into the world of Corporate Politics, or just read my book:  Navigating Corporate Politics.

 The adept politician will be much better at using these dangerous techniques in a way that might cause you problems.  You can guess those that are skilled in this arena by identifying who is wielding informal power in the organization.  It is also helpful to watch the political games others are playing (or not playing, as the case may be).  A powerful manager that engages in rough and tumble politics will be much more dangerous than a manager that is simply ambitious.

 A manager that worked for me once laid a political trap for one of his competitors by waiting until the last minute to object to a project his target had invested a tremendous amount of time developing.  Unfortunately for the politicking manager, he lacked the craft to properly pull off the strategy.  In addition to causing trouble for his target, he ended up injuring himself in the process.

 There is no way of knowing how many times I might have been successfully maneuvered by adept politicians trying to take out competitors – if they truly had the skill to pull it off, I would have remained blissfully unaware.

 Morality

 Your most dangerous competitors will, in addition to being ambitious and politically skilled, have no moral line they are unwilling to cross.  The combination – a trifecta – is present in the most dangerous class of competitors.

 Alas, identifying those people willing to “cross any line” can be tricky.  Carefully listen to what potential competitors say, and watch how they treat others.  If you see evidence of “blame-gaming,” “responsibility shifting,” or worse yet “scapegoating,” you should never let your guard down around them.

 I was ambushed by an ambitious, amoral politician once during a management retreat.  I was the guinea pig for a series of presentations that focused on the strategy of various business units we were all managing.  Within a few minutes of the start of the start of my presentation, the competitor was viciously criticizing the strategy (which had already been reviewed by the CEO, his staff, and vetted with the board of directors, so I don’t think there was a problem with it) – a very easy thing to do, by the way.  I hadn’t anticipated the attack and so wasn’t prepared to defend myself.

 The entire episode ended badly for me – I looked like I didn’t know what I was talking about, and that I was “defensive” (which was actually true).  My competitor appeared to be the smartest guy in the room.  Ultimately, he ended up advancing and I was fired.  I’m sure this specific incident contributed to my downfall.

 Conclusion

 Internal competitors are present in every corporation.  Identifying those that are the most dangerous to you can be tricky, but by carefully monitoring behaviors you should be able to determine who presents the biggest threats.  Look for ambitious managers that demonstrate political skills and seem to have no/few moral constraints.  Then watch for potential attacks and arm yourself appropriately with allies, arguments, and your own political counteroffensives.  Do so and you can defeat your competitors and keep your career on track.  33.1

 Other Recent Posts:

My Linkedin profile is open for your connection.  Click here and request to connect.  www.linkedin.com/in/tspears/

 If you are intrigued by the ideas presented in my blog posts, check out some of my other writing.

Novels:  LEVERAGE, INCENTIVIZE, DELIVERABLES, HEIR APPARENT, and PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES.

Non-Fiction:  NAVIGATING CORPORATE POLITICS

This is the cover of my latest novel, PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES, released in April, 2014.  This story marks the return of LEVERAGE characters Mark Carson and Cathy Chin, now going by the name of Matt and Sandy Lively and on the run from the FBI.  The pair are working for a remote British Columbia lodge specializing in Corporate adventure/retreats for senior executives.  When the Redhouse Consulting retreat goes horribly wrong, Matt finds himself pursuing kidnappers through the wilderness, while Sandy simultaneously tries to fend off an inquisitive police detective and an aggressive lodge owner.

My novels are based on extensions of 27 years of personal experience as a senior manager in public corporations

Serving Your Government

Imagine both you and your customer are in the midst of a dispute.  It could be contractual in nature, for instance the customer may not think you satisfied the terms and conditions for a transaction.  Alternatively, imagine a warranty dispute where your company disagrees with how your customer expects a problem to be corrected.  Or disputes if there is a problem, at all.

“Compromise” is usually the name of this game.  Or “lawsuit” when compromise fails.  You would normally expect at least one opportunity to sit down across the table from the other party, hash out who is responsible for what, and have the hope of eventually reaching some kind of accommodation.

Unless your customer is the government.

Holding no cards

While doing work for the government can be lucrative, it also comes with heightened risks.  When something goes wrong, it is my experience that the private company is in a very disadvantageous position.  Government has plenty to threaten you with beyond a lawsuit:  debarment, banning, special laws just for government, and all sorts of administrative hassles (Is all of your regulatory compliance perfect?  Are your licenses pristine?  How would you like a surprise visit from OSHA?  Or the EPA?  Or the IRS?).

During various points in my career, I’ve seen most of these tactics employed by government bulldoze private companies and get what they want.

Broken Steel

A number of years ago, my company provided steel structures to a highway authority in a distant state.  Despite the fact this governmental authority specified the design of the product, when an unusual wind event caused some of them to break, the organization came back to us for free repairs.  Although we proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the problem was design related – not manufacturing driven – we still ended up providing a “boatload” of money to the highway authority to replace the structures.

That example was actually one of the easier ones to get resolved – the government was willing to compromise.  That hasn’t always been the case.

Capitulation

The best approach to handling these types of disputes, in my experience, is to give in early to whatever demands the government may levy against you – no matter how unreasonable it may seem in the beginning.  In the vast majority of cases the government will get what they want anyway, and you’ll save yourself a lot of time, expense, and – most importantly – ill will.

Debarment Proceedings

In what was perhaps the singularly most frustrating experience of my career, a company my employer acquired (and which I was then managing) was threatened by a state attorney.  The state will remain nameless, as I still have no desire to inadvertently pick a fight with them.

The acquired company had a minor product line – highway sign breakaway bases – which it immediately stopped making when we purchased them.  The reason for this was a letter received soon after the deal from a competitor claiming patent infringement.  We wanted no part of that or the downstream problems.  The line was simply too inconsequential for us to continue selling with such a dispute hanging over our heads.  The former owner settled with the competitor, and for a year we went on our merry way figuring everything was okay.

A year later, a state attorney sent us a letter telling us he was beginning debarment proceedings against the acquired company for selling “counterfeit” breakaway bases.  The manufacturing quality or effectiveness of the design was never at issue.  The question revolved around whether the company was authorized to make the product, and my assessment was that it wasn’t clear.  I wasn’t worried, though.  I had an ace up my sleeve.  We’d purchased assets rather than the ongoing business (and its liabilities) when the deal was done, which should have gotten us off the hook.  I attempted to direct the state attorney to the former owner.  We, in fact, had never sold a single one of these things, so I was sure we were in the clear.

Wrong!

This state had an untested law that (apparently) allowed state government to hold us responsible for the problem.  Still, I balked.  Maybe we should be the test case to determine if the law was constitutional?  It sounded like an expensive idea, but so did the proposed settlement by the state.  Then the state attorney ratcheted up the stakes by threatening to debar our entire company!

That got us into settlement talks, but unfortunately we had absolutely no leverage.  The state eventually forced us to hire someone to inspect every breakaway base in the entire state, and replace all those supplied by the company’s former owner.  The price tag – around $2M.

Then, to add insult to injury, the state attorney ordered the state’s quality inspector to nitpick every detail of our regular products.  It caused massive cost overruns as we scrambled to “repair” things that weren’t defective in the first place.  It also caused us to be late on deliveries, which resulted in general contractors missing performance bonuses.  O course, they assessed the costs of those missed bonuses to us.  Final cost?  At least another million.

Ultimately, the business was damaged so badly by this entire episode, that we were forced to close it.

In retrospect, we would have been much better off just dropping to our knees and begging for mercy – undoubtedly my early reluctance to accept responsibility and do whatever the state wanted led to the vindictiveness that wrecked the business.

Conclusion

When facing a dispute with the government, figure you’re going to lose.  Usually, it is better to accommodate rather than fight.  If you do elect to fight, just be prepare to experience the maximum conceivable loss from the process – in my experience, you may very well be faced with exactly that before the situation resolves.  32.6

Other Recent Posts:

My Linkedin profile is open for your connection.  Click here and request to connect.  www.linkedin.com/in/tspears/

If you are intrigued by the ideas presented in my blog posts, check out some of my other writing.

Novels:  LEVERAGE, INCENTIVIZE, DELIVERABLES, HEIR APPARENT, and PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES.

Non-Fiction:  NAVIGATING CORPORATE POLITICS

To the right is the cover for HEIR APPARENT.  Someone is killing corporate leaders in Kansas City.  But who?  The police and FBI pursue a "serial killer" theory, leaving Joel Smith and Evangelina Sikes to examine other motives.  As the pair zero in on the perpetrator, they put their own lives at risk.  There are multiple suspects and enough clues for the reader to identify the killer in this classic whodunnit set in a corporate crucible.

 My novels are based on extensions of 27 years of personal experience as a senior manager in public corporations.

Stomaching a Settlement

When you’re attacked, when your character is questioned, when you feel like you’ve been violated, you yearn for one thing – justice.  Vindication.

And maybe a little payback.

As a corporate manager, this is a luxury you can’t afford – at least when it comes to assaults on your good name that occur within the business context.

It is an unpleasant truth that settlements are, most of the time, your best and lowest cost way of resolving disputes.  Even if you don’t want to settle because the attack is directed at your work, your people, or you personally.  You’re still first and foremost an agent of shareholders, and not a free agent that can carve their own path to vengence.

Suck it up

As I’ve previously stated in prior posts, if you spend enough time in management within a large corporation, you’re going to become familiar with lawsuits.  It appears to be a sign of the times.  And while all lawsuits aren’t baseless, moneygrubbing attempts to pry cash out of corporations, most look that way from the perspective of corporate management.

If you are involved in half a dozen or more suits, chances are pretty good that your personal action or inaction will be the basis of one of these.

Yep, it will seem petty, vindictive, and completely unfair.  You will wonder how it looks to your boss, peers, subordinates, friends, family and anyone else that becomes aware of the situation.  You’re almost certainly going to want to strike back.  File a countersuit.  Take the complaint to trial.  Or maybe just smack the plaintiff in the face.

But you can’t indulge these whims.  Remember, you’re an agent of the company, and it is your duty to do what is in the shareholder’s best interest, not your own.

Which means you’ll probably have to settle the case.

In a wrongful termination lawsuit, I was personally accused of intimidating a former employee and then trying to silence him because of an embarrassing investigation he was conducting (embarrassing to the company, not to me personally).  I was outraged as nothing could have been further from the truth.  I wanted to force the former employee into to court so I could tell my side of the story.

The problem was, he did have information that would have embarrassed the company – information he was threatening to publically expose during trial.  Instead of fighting the lawsuit, I knew the right solution was to suck it up and settle.

Only I couldn’t do it.  At least not personally.  I ended up asking another corporate executive to step in and arrange the settlement on my behalf, thus avoiding the temptation to let my emotions overwhelm my better judgment.  In the end, the suit settled and the issue went away.  Painlessly.  Almost.

Even though it was over, however, I wasn’t happy.  Even today I sometimes wish I’d had the chance to tell my side of the story….

Decisions, not justice

When the attack is directed at yo, and you’re sure you are in the right, the normal reaction is to say “see you in court.”

As I’ve blogged in the past, however, the courts while purporting to be tools of justice, in reality only render decisions.  Sometimes those decisions are just, but often they aren’t.

Complex issues try the patience of jurors, and many default to siding with whomever they “like” the best rather than exerting the effort to really understand the situation.  That will rarely, if ever, end up being in favor of a large corporation.  Most business suits seem to turn on issues that are technical and/or just plain dull.  If you’re on the company’s side, you’ve got an uphill battle to convince a jury you’re in the right.

Even bench trials (where the case is decided by a judge rather than a jury) aren’t a slam-dunk.  Judges studied law, not engineering or accounting.  Most have never run an organization, and are likely to have a limited understanding of the difficulties and challenges you face as a manager.  And with a bench trial, there is no group to help claw back an odd or extreme opinion the judge might hold.

I was sued by a former business partner for “failing to complete a contract to purchase his shares.”.  The reason – we discovered accounting shenanigans that occurred during his tenure as general manager.  These revelations substantially reduced the value of the shares.  And there was never a “meeting of the minds” on the contractual terms, and definitely never a signed copy of anything.

That case went to a bench trial because the plaintiff wouldn’t compromise in settlement talks.  I lost the case, I believe at least partially because of the approach we used to pursue the case – we countersued, claiming the plaintiff had damaged the business with his behaviors, and the pursuit of that claim took up a huge amount of the court’s time.  In the end, I felt the judgment went against us largely because we annoyed the judge.

Your reputation will protect you

Yes, you may feel violated, but maybe you shouldn’t.  If your reputation is solid among your peers and superiors, it won’t suffer much due to accusations from the outside.

Everyone on the management team knows these kinds of legal complaints happen all the time.  Odds are good that they will sympathize and back you up.  You only need to worry if there is a pre-existing pattern that the particular claim reinforces.

One employee, terminated for violating U.S. trade laws, threated to expose others on the management team that were, as he put it, “in the know.”  He wasn’t specific about who he was accusing, and as a result, several managers that regularly interacted with him felt he was accusing them (me included).

While a settlement with the manager was eventually brokered (long story, and not particularly relevant to my point), the names of the supposed co-conspirator(s) never came out – even though that was a part of the settlement negotiation.  That left things up in the air as to whom – any anyone – the “guilty” party might have been.

My reputation for honest, above-boards behavior within the company protected me from any fallout.  Because my practice in other areas had always been to stay far away from anything that might be considered illegal, no one believed I was the target of the fired managers threats.

I couldn’t say the same for all those that were accused.

Conclusion

Lawsuits come and lawsuits go, and sometimes it’s going to get personal.  Even though you feel violated by a particular plaintiff, you need to put aside your personal feelings and act on behalf of your employer and their shareholders.  Doing so will likely result in the quickest, least painful resolution of the suit, although it will likely lack the vindication you will want.  If you let your personal feelings and needs overrule those of the business, however, you may be putting your career on the line.  32.5

Other Recent Posts:

My Linkedin profile is open for your connection.  Click here and request to connect.  www.linkedin.com/in/tspears/

 If you are intrigued by the ideas presented in my blog posts, check out some of my other writing.

Novels:  LEVERAGE, INCENTIVIZE, DELIVERABLES, HEIR APPARENT, and PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES.

Non-Fiction:  NAVIGATING CORPORATE POLITICS

To the right is the cover for DELIVERABLES.  This novel features a senior manager approached by government officials to spy on his employer, concerned about how a "deal" the company is negotiating might put critical technical secrets into the hands of enemies of the United States.  Of course, things are not exactly as it seems....

My novels are based on extensions of 27 years of personal experiences as a senior manager in public corporations.

Fifty-Fifty Odds

If you work as a senior manager long enough, you’re sure to end up involved in a lawsuit.

I’ve seen several over the course of my career.  These suits have ranged from product liability, to breach of contract, to wrongful termination, to patent infringement, to EEOC violations.

Do businesses make mistakes?  Absolutely.  Every time there was a lawsuit involving my business, I would review the evidence and try to determine if we were in the wrong.  If so, our plan was to settle the complaint as quickly and as fairly as possible.

But reaching that conclusion – that the company was guilty of something – didn’t happen very often.  What was more common was to see the other side’s case as little more than an attempt to gouge money out of a deep-pocketed corporation.

It’s a perspective thing

Not all of those cases were greedy attempts at forcing the company into a settlement over nothing, but a few clearly were.  In most of those, a modest settlement offer or an indication that we were ready to take the case to trial (or both), was enough to get them off the radar screen.

In other cases, there were substantial differences of opinion about what a contract said, what rules and regulations required, or over what was an acceptable way to conduct our business.  Sometimes these looked like “gouge attempts” in the early going.  These cases were much more likely to go all the way to trial.

I remember one case in particular, this one brought by a developer over product that had failed during an extreme weather event.  Our warranty made it clear – in our opinion – that given the weather conditions and the way the product had been installed, there was no coverage.  The developer saw things differently.

As the case developed, we made some progress educating the plaintive about the product’s design parameters and the limitations of the warranty.  I improved my perspective on how our product’s failure might look to a jury (not good was the answer.)  We would win the war of evidence, he would win the war of sympathy.  I hoped the developer would drop the suit, but it didn’t happen.

This was one of the first times I recall asking my attorney what our odds would be of winning at trial.  After sounding very positive about our chances in the early going, “Fifty-fifty” was his response.  It was an answer I’d hear a lot over the course of my career.

We settled the case a few days later in the low six figures – a tenth of what the plaintive had initially demanded and less than it would have cost to take the case to trial.  But it was still painful enough to get me thinking about the best way to handle these types of cases going forward.

The odds are never in your favor

The funny thing about the “fifty-fifty” answer was that it wasn’t the first time in that case I’d asked the question.  Early in the process, my attorney had placed our odds of winning much higher.  As documents were exchanged, depositions taken, and the opposition’s case became clearer, his confidence began to wane.  On the eve of the trial, he decided our chances were no better than the flip of a coin.

This is a pattern I’ve seen repeated numerous times.

In the early going, your attorney shares your perspective.  They sympathize with your moral outrage.  They see only your documentation, and hear only your arguments.  Although you might expect a seasoned lawyer to expect “another shoe to drop,” in my experience that normally doesn’t happened.  Instead, my attorneys have always rated my chances of winning (if not an outright dismissal) at this stage very highly.

Some might say it is in their interest to drag things out, but based on personal experience I don’t think that is what’s happening.  Instead, the attorney is sucked into the defendant’s view of the situation.  Okay, maybe they express a bit more confidence than they feel, fearing that if they’re honest they’ll be replaced.

As the trial date draws near, for whatever reason, they all seem to hedge.

Perhaps this is due to more/better research into the law surrounding the specifics of the situation.  Maybe it comes from a better understanding of the other side’s case.  It could even be the result of knowing the court where the case will be heard.  It might simply be caused by an evaluation of how sympathetic you will appear to the jury (always low for big companies).  For whatever reason, the odds always seem to fall as the main event is about to begin.

An example

In a breach of contract case, one where the revelation of potential fraudulent behaviors by the plaintiff during the course of negotiations resulted in no deal ever being struck (that was my perspective, our opponent believed there was a contract in place), we started out with complete certainty that the case would be won.

In fact, the entire process (stemming from a termination) that resulted in the lawsuit had been stepped through with substantial legal advice being received at each stage.  I felt we’d done everything “by the book.”  As the trial approached, however, I heard the familiar “fifty-fifty” estimate.

At that point I decided it might be better to settle.

Unfortunately, the plaintive wasn’t interested in any kind of compromise, only in total capitulation to every demand.  That was equivalent to losing the case (there were several potential outcomes between the win-lose extremes in this particular dispute).  I refused to consider a settlement of this type, and instead pressed on to trial figuring that one of the intermediate outcomes was most likely.

As it turned out, we lost the case.  The plaintiff received his total capitulation, and I ended up with a big legal bill, to boot.

What to do?  What to do?

When faced by with a business lawsuit, here are a few rules of thumb you can employ to work your way through the process.

  1. Don’t bother asking your attorney your odds of winning – you’re likely to know the opposing party’s case better than the lawyer does.  Instead, get clarifications on the points of law, and make your own evaluation.
  2. If your attorney offers you odds in the early stages, you can rest assured those odds will fall as a trial approaches.
  3. If you aren’t almost certain of winning the case in the early going, push for an early settlement.  It might not feel just, but it could save lots of time and money.
  4. If you’re emotionally involved (for instance, if the complaint is directed at you), get someone else to make the call on whether to litigate or settle.
  5. If you work for a big company, you will always lose when it comes to jury sympathy.  You’d better have an overwhelmingly strong case if you plan to take the case all the way to jury trial.  Feeling sorry for the plaintive neutralizes a lot of factual evidence.
  6. Complexity works to your disadvantage.  If your arguments are highly technical, and it will be difficult for a jury of average people to grasp them, the jury members are much more likely to go with their heart (in favor of the plaintiff) than their head (in your favor.)

Conclusion

When you’re faced with a lawsuit, try to separate yourself from the emotions involved, and understand the case from the plaintiff’s point of view.  Develop your own opinion of the chances of prevailing in a jury trial.  Unless you are overwhelmingly certain of victory, consider settling – it saves time, money, and energy.

And remember, from the courts you will definitely get a judgment, but you won’t necessarily get justice.  32.3

Other Recent Posts:

My Linkedin profile is open for your connection.  Click here and request to connect.  www.linkedin.com/in/tspears/

 If you are intrigued by the ideas presented in my blog posts, check out some of my other writing.

Novels:  LEVERAGE, INCENTIVIZE, DELIVERABLES, HEIR APPARENT, and PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES.

Non-Fiction:  NAVIGATING CORPORATE POLITICS

To the right is the cover for INCENTIVIZE.  This novel is about a U.S. based mining company, and criminal activity that the protagonist (a woman by the name of Julia McCoy) uncovers at the firm's Ethiopian subsidiary.  Her discover sets in motion a series of events that include, kidnapping, murder, and terrorism in the Horn of Africa.

My novels are based on extensions of my 27 years of personal experience as a senior manager in public corporations.  Most were inspired by real events.

Negotiating on Behalf of your Successor

I’ve listened to quite a few business people complain about contracts.  “They’re too complex.”  “They’re full of lawyer-speak.”  “They’re ridiculously lengthy.”

It seems many managers would prefer to complete their deals with a handshake, which might be fine if the life of the “deal” was short – as in a few hours, or even a day.

When a deal’s terms and impacts extend out into months or years (or longer), however all of that complexity and lawyer-speak is necessary.  It protects you, your employer, and your successor.

All that gobbledygook

Negotiating long term contracts is all about anticipating what might go wrong – possibly a long way down the road – and planning for it.

Sure, it’s a tedious pain in the backside, but believe it or not all that lawyer-ese does provide protections when something goes wrong.  In my experience, when your contracts extend over years, things go wrong a lot.

The parties negotiating the contract normally know exactly what they’re agreeing to, but what happens when one of them changes jobs?  Sometimes what is written in the contract is the only tool available to subsequent managers to understand what was intended when the deal was originally struck.

So toughen up, read the provisions carefully, ask questions when you don’t understand.  Don’t delegate this responsibility.  Don’t take a short cut.  And please don’t assume your lawyers have everything “covered” – they follow your direction, not the other way around.

Do unto others…

Is all this work for your benefit?  Probably not.  By the time problems come to light, someone else is likely to be responsible for the agreement and dealing with the ongoing relationship.  But that still doesn’t mean you can skimp.

There are few things that can mess up your job for your successor than having to devote a tremendous amount of time to fixing something that never should have been broken.  After you’ve walked into a few of these yourself, you’ll appreciate the predecessor that “did it right.”

Probably, you’ll never be taken to task over a sloppy job in long term contract negotiation, but your reputation could still be damaged by it.  Most likely a dispute caused by a poorly written contract provision won’t eat up your time, but if things get nasty enough you might still be dragged into court over it.  Yes, your reward may actually come in heaven.

But just do it anyway.  It isn’t that difficult.

A few examples

A licensing contract I inherited seemed like it had all the elements in place to my employer when the deal was unwound.  Except for one.  The contract had an arbitration clause, where arbitration was to take place in the UK under the tenets of Sharia law.  That single provision completely destroyed our ability to enforce the elements of the contract that protected our intellectual property.  In the end, the licensee ended up stealing our technology and copying our product.  Without other alternatives, we were forced to meet them in a bloody marketplace battle.  While we successfully contained this new competitor, we didn’t eliminate them from the market, and it didn’t happen without plenty of pain.  A little more negotiation up front could have made a huge difference in the outcome.

Hold-backs, escrows, and liability limits are a big deal, and I can state from experience that no matter how much you think you’ve got it covered, it won’t be big enough or long enough.  In one particular acquisition, the million dollar liability limit seemed like it should cover any problems and then some.  That was before a state government went after us for something that occurred when the seller owned the business.  The price tag for that problem ended up being over three million dollars, and our share ended up being two million.  Because the hold-back period had ended by the time these damages came to light, the seller didn’t have the cash to pay his share.  I ended up taking the property where the business was located as partial compensation – less than two years before we were forced to close the business.  Ouch.

I made my own mistake on a long term licensing agreement by allowing the seller of the technology to retain a sales territory in his home country.  At the time, I thought of it simply as an inexpensive part of the compensation for access to his invention.  Unfortunately, the inventor quickly proved to be an ineffective salesman.  Later, when we wanted to change distribution strategies in the country by appointing a master distributor, he became a huge impediment.  It took many long hours of negotiation – and a very large cash settlement – to get a portion of the territory released.  My fundamental error?  Not recognizing how the concessions I was making would hamper me in the long term.

The worst contract I ever came across was a distributor agreement in which the company guaranteed to compensate (at the full sales value, no less) the distributor for any sales made by other distributors in his territory – an eventuality that was definitely outside of our control.  While the distributor in question never made a claim based on the wording of this provision, he used it repeatedly as leverage to get other things he wanted – greater discounts, more corporate support, expanded territory, etc.  I was never able to figure a way out of this box, and suspect the contract remains enforce even today.

Conclusion

Those large, complicated contracts you loath are like that for a reason.  Take the time to listen to your attorney, ask for advice from others, and read everything in great and gory detail.  While doing so may not directly benefit you down the road, if you do things the right way a future successor may be offering you silent thanks for your diligence.  32.3

Other Recent Posts:

My Linkedin profile is open for your connection.  Click here and request to connect.  www.linkedin.com/in/tspears/

 If you are intrigued by the ideas presented in my blog posts, check out some of my other writing.

Novels:  LEVERAGE, INCENTIVIZE, DELIVERABLES, HEIR APPARENT, and PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES.

Non-Fiction:  NAVIGATING CORPORATE POLITICS

To the right is the cover of LEVERAGE.  This novel explores the theft of sensitive DOD designs from a Minneapolis Tech Company, and the dangers associated with digging too deeply into the surrounding mystery.  Its sequel, PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES, was released in May of 2014.  A third book in the series, OUTSOURCED, is in the works.

My books are based on extensions of my 27 years of personal experience as a senior manager in public corporations.  Most were inspired by real events.


Responsibility and Results

“When everyone is responsible, then no one is responsible.”

The interesting thing about old sayings is they almost always have a grain of truth in them.  I’ve found this bit of wisdom to be particularly true when it comes to managers.

Managers have a habit of dodging accountability when anything goes bad.  They blame externalities, point the finger at colleagues, and even offer up their subordinates as scapegoats.

What’s a boss to do?

Making results count.

This problem has its roots in the way we view ourselves (compared to the way we see other people.)  With others, it is easy to brush aside technicalities, excuses, and red herrings, and pin responsibility for bad results wherever they belong.  In fact, some managers are obsessed with doing so – I like to call that finding out “who shot John.”

With ourselves, it’s different.  We see the world from a unique perspective – from the inside of our lives.  We intimately exactly the challenges, difficulties, and barriers we’ve been faced with in trying to accomplish a goal – things we tend to brush aside as tertiary when we examine the struggles of others.  Those things loom large when our own failure is eminent.  Combined this with an ego that tends to excuse bad (lazy, stupid, etc) behaviors and emphasizes our positives, and you have a well-oiled machine uniquely capable of dodging responsibility and making excuses.

The marketing manager blames the engineering manager, who blames the sales manager, who blames the operations department.  The ridiculous carousel of blame-gaming plays out every day.

Who’s right?  It does really matter.  When this kind of situation emerges, it’s a clear signal that there is something wrong with staff, structure, or both.

A bad structure

Traditional organization design, one with departmental silos, tends to exacerbate the problem of dodging responsibility for bad results.  The theory behind silo designs is that by specializing people into particular areas within an organization, the depth of their knowledge allows them to have a better command of the subject and thus produce better results.

Our entire business educational system is arranged around this idea.  People major in “marketing” or “accounting.”  We tend to train specialists, rather than generalists.

The problem comes in the many hand-offs and interactions with other so-called experts.  This interplay between silos can become so inefficient that the friction caused there more than overcomes the advantages of specialization.

A more effective design is to push end-to-end responsibility down to the lowest possible level.  To do this, the individual must become solely responsible (or at least as close as possible) for the results of a small piece of the business – perhaps a specific product, a service, or a particular capability that the company brings to the market.  The key to making this work is to have a separable revenue stream for the item, and the ability to put together some kind of “profit and loss” statement to track it.

At one of my employers, we had an aging product line that still had potential but was largely ignored by the silo-based organization.  The product line’s decline was “nobody’s” fault, at least according to those touching it in the functional organization.  To fix the problem, I appointed a heavy-weight product manager to “own” the product line.  I then carved resources out of the existing organization and assigned them to the manager.  From that point forward, he lived and died by the product line.  Needless to say, the line turned around rapidly.

While this might solve some responsibility-dodging problems, it isn’t a panacea.  You’ll likely still have to deal with the phenomena of blaming those that came before (known at one of my employers as “blaming the dead guy”)

Bad habits

Changing the structure won’t work if you appoint the wrong people to the key roles.  If your silo-type organization is completely rife with blame-gaming, you probably don’t have the right people.

People tend to pick up habits and behaviors they see working successfully, and discard them on the same basis.  You can change many of the bad habits you find in your organization by delivering a consistent message that it is undesirable, and then following up with consequences.

Sometimes even this isn’t enough.

When you have a group of employees that seem to be locked in a constant finger-pointing battle, sometimes the only solution is to replace a few of them.  Pick the biggest offender (regardless of expertise, experience, or political connection) and get rid of them.  Make it clear why you’ve taken the action, and you’ll likely see a major change in the survivors.

Or you might not.  If necessary, repeat the above procedure until things change.

I once had an extremely divisive manager on my staff, one who seemed to specialize in pushing blame for all failing onto his peers.  The behavior was so ingrained that even working with a coach couldn’t resolve it.  In the wake of this manager’s bad habits, other departmental managers started to engage in the same thing.

Eventually, I decided I needed to fire the divisive manager.

Unfortunately, my boss wouldn’t allow it.  It seemed that the manager had somehow convinced the CEO that our success hinged on his capabilities.  While that was far from the truth, there was no talking the CEO out of this opinion.

I ended up living with the situation for several years, finding it increasingly difficult to reign in a staff that seemed to hate each other.

When I eventually left the job, the divisive manager actually increased his power for a time, taking over some of the responsibilities he used to complain about.  Eventually, it all became too much for him and he retired early after only a few years of being held responsible for the business’s results.

Conclusion

It takes the right people and the right structure to develop a culture of accountability.  As a manager, the structural problem is often easier to correct, while the people side can be a lingering enigma.  Drive responsibility for results as far down in the organization as possible, into the hands of those that demonstrate the willingness to accept them.  And finally, eliminate the “blaming disease,” either by demanding it stop, or getting rid of those that can’t seem to comply.  32.2

Other Recent Posts:

My Linkedin profile is open for your connection.  Click here and request to connect.  www.linkedin.com/in/tspears/

If you are intrigued by the ideas presented in my blog posts, check out some of my other writing.

Novels:  LEVERAGE, INCENTIVIZE, DELIVERABLES, HEIR APPARENT, and PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES.

Non-Fiction:  NAVIGATING CORPORATE POLITICS

Shown here is the cover of NAVIGATING CORPORATE POLITICS my non-fiction primer on the nature of politics in large corporations, and the management of your career in such an environment.  This is my best selling book.  Chocked full of practical advice, I've had many managers and executives say they wished they'd read it early in their career.

My books are based on extensions of my 27 years of personal experience as a senior manager in public corporations.  Most were inspired by real events.

Your Boss Lied to a Customer?

It’s a conundrum.  It’s a question of morality.  It’s a question that may determine the direction of your career.

I’m not talking about a little white lie, here.  Not one of the “I was away from my desk” variety.  This is a big one.  Let’s say your boss told the customer that a critical product was already shipped, knowing it was still sitting in your facilities.  Or that she knowingly authorized the shipment of off-spec product to a customer, and is now inventing explanations rather than speaking the truth.

What should you do when your boss lies?  Jump in and join him in the deception?  Speak up and say “this is wrong?”  Or stand on the sidelines (assuming you can) and watch the scenario unfold, hoping to avoid any and all blame and involvement?

Most of us chose the third option in our daily lives, but is it the right thing to do?

It’s your integrity on the line

It would be nice to think that you had no moral imperative in such a situation, but the bottom line is that your mere awareness creates one.  Call it a “sin of omission, if you want.”  Pretending you don’t know about it might protect you, but in your heart you will still know you could have done something to put it right.  And while you don’t have to act instantaneously, you can’t delay for long – if you do, the lie is likely to multiply and the risk will become even higher that you’ll be sucked in.

There is really no question about the “right” thing to do.  The problem is to accepting the risk and doing it.

Most of us will try to avoid, and if forced to make a decision we will join in like lemmings on the way to the cliff.  Rationalizations abound.  It’s in the shareholder’s interest to perpetuate the lie.  I take orders from my boss.  I’m not in charge.

But when it really comes down to it, the thing that drives us is FEAR.  Fear of the consequences of speaking up.

Driven by Fear

Quite likely, your fear is perfectly rational.  A boss who lies, is a boss who will take other unfair or immoral actions.  Like seeking retribution for a perceived wrong.  Or trying to turn the tables on you with an even bigger lie.  If your boss has a track record of ruthless political behavior, the consequences of crossing her are likely to be severe.

That notches up your fear and further insures your silence and/or compliance.

You’re being manipulated.  By a politician with skills and a merciless sense of self-preservation.

It’s in the movies

The boss I’ve been describing is little more than a classic schoolyard bully.  Everyone despises him.  Everyone looks forward to his demise.  Yet, everyone is afraid of him.  No one wants to stand up to the bully, fearing that they are simply nominating themselves to be the next hapless victim.

But everyone in the crowd of silent spectators cheers when someone finally does take on the bully.  And if that someone somehow brings the bully down, the crowd cheers even more.

But film isn’t reality, and this isn’t a bloody nose we’re talking about.  It’s your career.  Your family.  Your future.  The stakes are indeed high.

What you choose to do is driven by your own conscience.  Just know that part of being an adult is overcoming such fear.  Stepping up to do the right thing.  Fighting the good fight, even though you know you’re likely to lose.

The off-spec product

In a recent conversation, a friend relayed this true story of a situation that was unfolding in his office.

The story begins with his employer running into a severe problem getting a particular component for one of their products – a common enough occurrence.

Rather than going to customers and letting them know about the problem and perhaps offering them some options, the boss – in her infinite wisdom – decided to substitute an inferior item for a portion of customers’ orders.  Her reasoning?  Options cost money, but substitutes didn’t.  I suppose behind that reasoning was the belief that if only 15% of the orders consisted of the inferior item, the customers would never notice.

No one stood up and said “this is wrong.”  This particular boss had a track record of severely persecuting those that criticized her.  Everyone was sure she’d fire anybody that dared to oppose her.  So everyone in her department went along.  Those that could get away with it stood on the sidelines, happily uninvolved but certainly aware.  Those that were forced into it threw their support behind the lie.

What should they have done?

The lie would have worked if her assumptions had been correct.  Unfortunately for the company several of their customers noticed something was wrong.

Once the lie had been delivered, however, there was no walking it back.  The boss did what all liars do when confronted with the consequences of their fabrications – she lied again.

“We’re looking into it,” was the answer delivered to customers.  The concept was to simply wait out the complaints under the belief that the customers would eventually forget about them.  It might have worked, except one customer did some rudimentary testing, and while that didn’t lead all the way to the truth, it confirmed something was definitely amiss.  The liar was now in a pickle, because there was no way to just buy enough time to get past the issue.

Now what should those on the sidelines do now?  The stakes were getting higher and higher as the situation went from bad to worse.

“There was a problem in the factory.  By accident, we mixed two grades of product and shipped it to you.”  It was the next lie offered, one that was needed to back up the earlier ones.  I’m sure the boss hoped this would be the end of it.  She’d pay a claim from the customer, and life would return to normal.

But it wasn’t.  The customer demanded to tour the area of the factory where the problem had occurred, to see how such an “accident” could have arisen and what the company was doing to make sure it never happened again.  Do you think they smell a rat?

The liar and her entire staff now have a problem.  The factory doesn’t report to them and, not surprisingly, they object to taking the fall for all these lies.  Nobody is sure what will happen next.

The situation has escalated to a high level of risk.  There is an important customer relationship in the balance.  The deception, should it come out, is likely to make the rounds through the customer’s entire industry, damaging the firm’s reputation and impacting other relationships.  There are a lot of careers on the line.

The scenario continues to unfold even today.  If I was a betting man, I’d wager one of two things will happen.  Either the lying boss will somehow bully the factory into taking the blame for the “mistake,” or she will use a scapegoat in her own department to take the fall for her fabrications.

Conclusion

Doing the right thing can be hard.  It doesn’t come without risks, and sometimes you’ll pay the price for speaking out.  The politically expedient thing to do is to avoid these types of situations, trying your best to stay on the sidelines and out of the fray, keeping silent to avoid drawing a bully’s attention.  Rarely will things spiral out of control.  Rarely will there be a price that everyone must pay.

But when it comes, it can be a disaster of epic proportions.

Your actions answer to your conscience alone.  You decide what you can live with.  You decide what is right and wrong.  Just remember that silence and avoidance is precisely how a small injustice can turn into catastrophe.

Other Recent Posts:

If you are intrigued by the ideas presented in my blog posts, check out some of my other writing.

Novels:  LEVERAGE, INCENTIVIZE, DELIVERABLES, HEIR APPARENT, and PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES.

Non-Fiction:  NAVIGATING CORPORATE POLITICS

This is the cover of my latest novel, PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES, released in April, 2014.  This story marks the return of LEVERAGE characters Mark Carson and Cathy Chin, now going by the name of Matt and Sandy Lively and on the run from the FBI.  The pair are working for a remote British Columbia lodge specializing in Corporate adventure/retreats for senior executives.  When the Redhouse Consulting retreat goes horribly wrong, Matt finds himself pursuing kidnappers through the wilderness, while Sandy simultaneously tries to fend off an inquisitive police detective and an aggressive lodge owner.

My novels are based on extensions of 27 years of personal experience as a senior manager in public corporations.

Turning a Sow’s Ear into a Silk Purse

When I was young I loved to watch the old TV series “Mission Impossible.”  Every episode had a knotty problem that the team had to solve.  Every episode was resolved with some kind of clever surprise or unexpected twist that permitted the heroes to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds.

Alas, real life is never so dramatic.  Or plausible.

While personal heroics may allow you to accomplish a lot in your career, it won’t rescue from situations where it is virtually impossible to succeed.  There are times when the cards are so stacked against your success that Hercules himself would fail to win.

The Impossible Project

I’ve seen numerous goals and projects during my career where success was an impossibility.  One of the most common type comes in the form of annual sales budgets.  Most sales budgets are set for an entire year, and often extremely optimistic assumptions underlying them.  Since a business is a complicated enterprise with thousands of “moving parts,” assuming a disaster won’t develop somewhere over the course of a year’s time is ridiculously optimistic.  If you have a budget developed based on unbridled optimism, you’re heading for trouble.

Granted, some unexpected “bluebird” may come your way, offsetting whatever disaster actually occurs.  More likely, however, something will go wrong and there won’t be an offset.  Maybe the economy will move in the wrong direction.  A competitor may become unexpectedly aggressive.  A key employee may depart.  The list is almost limitless.

Good management anticipates and has contingency plans to deal with these unexpected events.  But they can rarely be counteracted without experiencing some kind of damage.  That damage often pushes a “stretch target” into unachievable territory.

I was recently talking with a friend about his sales target.  In his case, the company (in its infinite wisdom) apparently decided that they shouldn’t actually give the numeric sales goal to the people responsible for achieving it.  He discovered midway through the second quarter that, despite being 10% over the prior year, he was still at only 82% of his “goal.”  In addition to the fact that for this company a growth goal of greater than 25% was totally absurd, the shortfall from the first quarter made achieving his total year goal a complete impossibility.

There was no way he could turn this particular “Sow’s Ear” into a “Silk Purse.”

I’ve seen the same scenario play out on capital projects, plant expansions, acquisitions, cost reductions, and other programs.  It seems the “goal” is set with either incomplete information or in the absence of any realism whatsoever.  Someone then gets saddled with trying to deliver on the goal – a true mission impossible.

What do you do with your Sow’s Ear?

It would be nice if you could simply avoid accepting impossible projects, but often this, too, is impossible.  In general, however, you should be on the lookout for such projects anytime the targets or goals extend far out into the future.

If you find yourself being positioned to take one, you should thoroughly study the project’s underlying assumptions, looking for anything that is overly optimistic or includes a large number of seemingly reasonable assumptions that are consistently on the positive end of the “likely” range.  Be prepared to object ASAP to those assumptions as time is your enemy – an observation about unreasonable assumptions will be worth far more to you if it is delivered before all hell breaks loose.

If the impossible project has already become yours, you should still raise concerns early and often.  While this might not save you from all forms of damage, many managers will at least take it into account in the project’s final reckoning.

Another option is to give the project to someone else.  Unless you’re a manager with a subordinate you can make the “scapegoat” for an impending failure (see previous blog posts on the subject of scapegoats starting with Scapegoats) it probably be pretty tough to ditch.  I have successfully transferred such projects to other departments when convincing arguments could be made that it rightfully belonged elsewhere.  I have also killed such projects, although doing so usually doesn’t happen damage-free.

 Lead with your best game.

 Whatever you do, don’t open yourself up to criticism by applying less than ;your full creativity and effort to the project.  A kiss of death is when the project outcome is labeled an “execution failure.”  If that happens, it won’t matter how impossible the goal was, you’ll still take the full brunt of the consequences.  If failure is imminent, you want people to realize the problem was with the strategy or assumptions rather than with your effort.

 That may provide little comfort when you’re faced with an impossible project, particularly when you  know you’ll apply extraordinary efforts and will still likely fail.  Believe me, however, it’s better than the alternative.

 Conclusion

Being handed a sow’s ear and a demand that it be turned into a silk purse can be frustrating and exhausting, but it doesn’t have to be a career killer.  Make your concerns about the project/goal known early and loudly.  Try to get out from under it, if possible.  If you’re stuck with it for the long haul, fight the good fight and recognize that while your efforts might not save the day, they will at least provide you with some (small?) degree of protection.  32.1

 Other Recent Posts:

If you are intrigued by the ideas presented in my blog posts, check out some of my other writing.

 Novels:  LEVERAGE, INCENTIVIZE, DELIVERABLES, HEIR APPARENT, and PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES.

 Non-Fiction:  NAVIGATING CORPORATE POLITICS

 To the right is the cover for HEIR APPARENT.  Someone is killing corporate leaders in Kansas City.  But who?  The police and FBI pursue a "serial killer" theory, leaving Joel Smith and Evangelina Sikes to examine other motives.  As the pair zero in on the perpetrator, they put their own lives at risk.  There are multiple suspects and enough clues for the reader to identify the killer in this classic whodunnit set in a corporate crucible.

 My novels are based on extensions of 27 years of personal experience as a senior manager in public corporations.

Turning Defeat into Victory

Personal defeats can be devastating, and the bigger the loss the more likely you’ll end up rocked back on your heels.

 When it comes to your career, there aren’t many defeats bigger than being fired.  Typical reactions to abrupt termination include:

  1. Climbing back in the saddle by vigorously searching for a new job as quickly as possible.  I’ve noticed many people that react in this way seem to be out to prove that their boss/company was wrong to let them go.
  2. Collapsing in a cloud of despair, putting off any decision making until you work through your feelings of betrayal, guilt, inadequacy, etc. 

The problem with both of these reactions is they focus on the firing as a personal defeat.  And while in some ways this might be true, there are other, more productive ways to process the event.

 You learn more from adversity than prosperity

 Trouble is a great teacher.  I’ve learned and grown more during tough times than when things were easy.  Trouble forces us out of our comfort zone.  Trouble gets us to consider alternatives we’ve previously ignored.  Trouble encourages us to adapt and change.

 And there is no career event with more potential lessons to teach than the loss of a job.

 If you’ll let it.

 It’s tough.  You’ll have to (at least temporarily) put emotion aside and look at the event dispassionately.  What actions or events precipitated your termination?  Did you see it coming?  If not, why?  What could you have done differently that would have changed the outcome?  What signals were present that you missed/ignored that could have tipped you off that a change in strategy was necessary?  Was your firing a result of tactical or strategic errors on your part – ones that you can learn from and correct in the future?

 Or was there something more… fundamental going on?

 Are there things about your core personality that are undermining you?

 In the stress and trouble leading up to my termination, I came to recognize a number of deeply-rooted behaviors that caused me problems.  For example, I absolutely hate receiving direction from superiors, and that goes double for criticism.  When the proverbial S$#& hit the fan, the last person I wanted to talk to was my boss.  Unfortunately, even with conscious effort, I eventually realized wasn’t going to be able to completely correct this issue.

 Time to come up for air

 Many career-oriented people (particularly, it seems, men) tend to set a long-term target early in their work life and then go on autopilot.  While this tactic is useful if getting to finish line is the only thing that matters, goals left unexamined for years on end are not a particularly good idea.

 For most of us, a funny things happen over time.  For one thing, we learn more about job we’ve pointed ourselves at.  Often it isn’t really what we imagined it would be.  And most of us learn a lot more about ourselves, too.  It makes sense that we would come up for air, look around, and decide if we really want to continue striving toward our old goals.

 But many of us don’t.

 A case in point is my own career.  I was bound and determined to become the CEO of a public manufacturing company.  It was my goal from a tender age, and in my mind I was perfectly suited for the role.

Over the years there were plenty of indications that it wasn’t the right job for me.  I already admitted I chafed under any kind of authority – and the CEO job I coveted wasn’t going to free me from answering to somebody.  I also hated conflict, and avoided it at all costs – hardly consistent with a job where you needed to take on tough problems every day.  And the work content wasn’t what I had envisioned in my youth.  Rather than directing the ship, the CEO role consists more of delegating responsibility to the right people and explaining things to Wall Street – neither of those skills was my sweet spot.

 It wasn’t until I was fired however, that I gave serious thought to doing something else.

 That damned horse, again

 After my termination, I jumped right back on the horse again.  It was what I knew how to do, and I was determined to convince everyone (mostly myself) that the firing was “their” mistake.  In short order, however, I was unhappy in my new job.  That’s when I really started thinking about what I should be doing with the rest of my life.

 A short time later, I made a major change in direction that left me much happier and much less stressed.  While it has taken a bit of adjusting to permanently let go of my old career goal, I’m now much better off for having done so.

 Conclusion

 The loss of a job doesn’t have to spell disaster.  While there are financial consequences, to be sure, you should look at the situation as the perfect opportunity to re-examine your current trajectory.  If it’s been a while, chances are good at least a little “fine tuning” is in order.  31.3

 Other Recent Posts:

If you are intrigued by the ideas presented in my blog posts, check out some of my other writing.

Novels:  LEVERAGE, INCENTIVIZE, DELIVERABLES, HEIR APPARENT, and PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES.

Non-Fiction:  NAVIGATING CORPORATE POLITICS

To the right is the cover for DELIVERABLES.  This novel features a senior manager approached by government officials to spy on his employer, concerned about how a "deal" the company is negotiating might put critical technical secrets into the hands of enemies of the United States.  Of course, things are not exactly as it seems....

My novels are based on extensions of 27 years of personal experiences as a senior manager in public corporations.

Security Verses Integrity

Once upon a time, I had a boss that suggested I put a scapegoat in place…

An odd opening to a fairy tale.  An even odder opening to a meeting.

When this occurred, I was on the short list for a very substantial promotion, the kind that makes your career.  I was approaching what I thought was my professional apex.  If I could just make the right moves I was sure I’d eventually be ascending to the CEO’s job.

Unfortunately, things weren’t going all that well behind the scenes.  I’d killed a corporate growth initiative that had been on life support for several years – a necessary but unpopular move.  Two corporate initiatives I’d been given responsibility for were stalling (one because my boss was inadvertently undermining it).  A major capital spending project I’d launched was falling far behind schedule and there were doubts it would ever achieve its targets.  And a couple of recent acquisitions – one I’d made and one I’d inherited when I’d walked into my present job – were failing to meet plan.

Even as I was peaking, I was in danger of crashing and burning.

My boss was offering me a way out, a way to potentially save myself and keep my career on track.

Diving down, going up

The offer was wrapped in plenty of rationalization.  In my current position, I had plenty of things to worry about, and plenty of problems to take care of.  The proposal was to stick an executive between me and the worst of the two lackluster acquisitions – an exec my boss didn’t care for – and let him either fix or fail in the role.

I wasn’t confused about the implications.  This was, after all, the same boss that once told me when there was an ugly, messy problem I had a tendency to “dive down” into the details.  He, on the other hand, “went up” meaning he distanced himself from the issue.  At that time he was recommending I abandon my approach and follow his example.

What’s right?

The problem I had with his advice was that I found the “scapegoat” tactic morally repugnant.

I’d had a hand in creating the messes I was facing, and in my mind it should still be my responsibility to clean them up.  While I knew I had been maneuvered into “taking ownership” for problems and solving them throughout my career, I felt I DID own these issues.  It seemed wrong to shove another executive in front of a speeding train in a vain attempt to save myself.

At the same time, it wasn’t smart to refuse.  While my boss stopped short of ordering me to put the exec in the job, I knew refusing could easily derail my career.  Nobody likes a manager that can’t follow advice.

I was in a quandary.

Going down for the third time

It took me a while to sort through the situation.  After several days of contemplation, I decided to follow my boss’s recommendation.

I’m not proud of it.  While in the past I had largely avoided getting this politically aggressive and manipulating people to such an extent, I was now feeling desperate.  In an attempt to keep my career from “going down for the third time,” I assigned the executive to fix the failing acquisition.

Later, I greatly regretted this decision.

The fallout

The situation went from bad to worse.  The acquisition continued to decline, going from modestly profitable to losing money.  While this was happening new problems emerged within the same business unit – the firing of a plant manager uncovered a viper’s nest of problems at one of our biggest factories.  It was taking months to sort through them and get the situation corrected.

At the same time, the executive I’d put in charge of fixing the acquisition was dragging his feet on an important decision – finding a new general manager for the business unit.  While he did this out of conviction that we had the right person who just needed more time, the political situation was rapidly deteriorating.  I was told by my boss in no uncertain terms that either the acquisition’s GM left, the VP he was reporting to was fired, or it was going to fall on my shoulders.

I didn’t do anything about this, and the resulting fallout hit me like a ton of bricks.  Over the course of about two years I gradually went from heir apparent to excess baggage.

If you can’t save yourself….

The final nail in the coffin was a sharp downturn in the market, one that appeared to be deep and long.  This was a problem by itself, and also exacerbated the other areas of weakness.

Soon, my corporate initiatives were stripped from me.  My boss instructed me to bring in a manager to cover about half of my responsibilities – ostensibly to allow me more time to “focus” on the “problems.”  I knew he was also making me “non-essential.”

I was on my way out and there was no stopping it.

At that point, I tried to salvage the careers of everyone I could.  Mostly, I transferred people into different jobs as far as possible out of the line of fire.  In some cases it worked, but when it came to the executive charged with the bad acquisition, he was terminated shortly after I was.

I still feel some slight vindication from saving a few.

The rearview mirror

A former mentor once told me you can’t drive a business by looking in the rearview mirror, but it sure is tempting to try to do so.  Everything always looks simpler and clearer when you have the benefit of knowing how it turned out.

In this case I should have followed my heart rather than my head.  I wish I’d never utilized the scapegoat strategy because all I managed to do was to drag someone else down with me.

Maybe it didn’t work because I couldn’t take it to the logical conclusion – firing the exec when the situation didn’t quickly improve.  But I didn’t think he’d been given a fair chance to succeed.

Bottom line:  I just couldn’t do it.

Conclusion

Security versus integrity can be a false choice.  I thought I was buying security by compromising my sense of what was right, but in the end it did nothing to hold off the inevitable – and even that was only for a short time.  In retrospect, I believe you should follow your own sense of what is right and reject easy outs and trick tactics.  Your long term comfort with your decisions is more important than any battle you may currently be fighting.  31.2

Other Recent Posts:

If you are intrigued by the ideas presented in my blog posts, check out some of my other writing.

Novels:  LEVERAGE, INCENTIVIZE, DELIVERABLES, HEIR APPARENT, and PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES.

Non-Fiction:  NAVIGATING CORPORATE POLITICS

To the right is the cover of LEVERAGE.  This novel explores the theft of sensitive DOD designs from a Minneapolis Tech Company, and the dangers associated with digging too deeply into the surrounding mystery.  Its sequel, PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES, was released in May of 2014.  A third book in the series, OUTSOURCED, is in the works.

My books are based on extensions of my 27 years of personal experience as a senior manager in public corporations.  Most were inspired by real events.

Your Reputation is All You Have…

…so protect it.  Protect it from poor performance, illegal or immoral acts, foolish decisions, broken promises, and anything else that is likely to limit your opportunities, your mobility, or your future.

It starts before you do.

Development of your reputation begins before your first day on the job.  That’s why interviewers ask about your childhood jobs, your school history, and your grades.  It’s why people want letters of recommendation from your college professor or a former employer.  Even being vouched for by a family friend can be important in those early days.

This is because everyone inherently assumes that the kind of person you have been is a clear indication of the type of person you’re going to be….

In other words (unlike in financial investment firms) people do expect past performance to be an indication of future results.

What is reputation?

Part of it is your track record.  Did you finish that project on time and under budget?  Did you win a huge new account?  Reputation collects the big performance successes and failures from your career.

But it’s more than just that.  If you’re known for having an explosive temper, that becomes part of your reputation, too.  If you look the other way when someone violates the rules (or laws) it also goes in the hopper.

Reputation is a little like a walking performance review you’re wrapped in – like a blanket (I picture a “snuggie”).  But this blanket can’t be taken off.  Even if it isn’t accurate, or if it is completely out of date.  Once your reputation gets mud on it, there’s no easy way to wash it away.  The mud might fade some with time – assuming another, similar stain doesn’t hit the same spot – but will always be there.

Keep it clean

The best way to protect your reputation is to avoid high risk situations.  Make sure all your assignments are successful.  Be mild-mannered and congenial.  Keep as far away from illegal, immoral, rule-breaking activity as possible.

Except, we know doing these things all the time just isn’t possible.

So minimize the risks, because often enough you’ll be flung into risky situations outside of your control.

In one instance, I was made aware of illegal behavior happening in a foreign subsidiary that was reporting to me.  I had a tough decision to make – either sit on the information and hope that it never came to light (fairly likely in this case, although ignoring it would have made me an accessory) or expose the situation.  I elected to take the issue to our ethics officer, who then conducted a thorough investigation.  Ultimately, people were fired, money was lost, and we self-reported the crime to the government.  While this was a painful process, took a lot of my time, and resulted in a nasty financial and managerial disruption, I felt it was the high road and the right road.  As a side benefit, it enhanced my reputation as an honest person that followed the rules.  I shudder to think what would have happened to my reputation if I’d gone down the other path.

Think carefully about what the implications of your choices to your reputation.  Blow up at a subordinate?  Or put anger and retribution aside and focus on solving the issue that caused the problem?  Either path impacts your reputation?  While screaming at an employee’s stupidity might enhance your reputation as a “tough” boss, it is more likely to brand you as a “jerk.”  Specifics of the situation – and your own past history – will dictate the best course is in many choices.  The point is – think about the long term impacts to your reputation when you make these decisions, after all it’s the only reputation you’ve got.

Rehabilitation

When your once lily-white reputation snuggie (remember my earlier metaphor?) gets enough dirt and stains on it, you will probably wish to clean it up.

I’ve only seen two things that accomplish this:  1) Work on never, ever repeating the behavior that damaged it in the first place – which you must do consistently for a very long time.  Even then, some people won’t cut you any slack.  2) Move to a new job in a different company and hope the dirt doesn’t trail along behind you.  This works better if the new job is far away and no one from your former employer works there.

Other things I’ve seen tried that failed:  Proclaiming you’ve changed, going to “charm school” (attending a course or getting a coach to correct a specific issue), trying to convince people you were really innocent (or misunderstood), and changing jobs within the same company.

People have long memories when it comes to problems and failures.

Conclusion

Your reputation is your most valuable assets, but it’s hard to keep pristine.  Do your best to keep it unsullied, and do everything you can to make sure any mistakes are one-time occurrences.  If a serious problem does damage your reputation, it is a long, tough road to recovery – particularly if you plan to stick it out with your current employer.  31.1

Other Recent Posts:

If you are intrigued by the ideas presented in my blog posts, check out some of my other writing.

Novels:  LEVERAGE, INCENTIVIZE, DELIVERABLES, HEIR APPARENT, and PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES.

Non-Fiction:  NAVIGATING CORPORATE POLITICS

Shown here is the cover of NAVIGATING CORPORATE POLITICS my non-fiction primer on the nature of politics in large corporations, and the management of your career in such an environment.  This is my best selling book.  Chocked full of practical advice, I've had many managers and executives say they wished they'd read it early in their career.

My books are based on extensions of my 27 years of personal experience as a senior manager in public corporations.  Most were inspired by real events.

 

Scapegoats

Finding and positioning scapegoats is the art of putting someone between yourself and a potential problem.  Many find it to be a morally reprehensible behavior, but few can argue its effectiveness.

Click on the image for details of the book.

Click on the image for details of the book.

While I have avoided using the technique, it has been successfully used on me more than once.  I’ve seen it performed enough times to describe it from the perspective of the politician orchestrating the “scapegoating,” as well from the perspective of (hapless) victim in danger of being hit by an as of yet unseen speeding freight train.

How to position a scapegoat

If you are a manager with subordinates, lining up a scapegoat can be as simple as delegating the task to someone who works for you.  You can often make this work even over the victim’s protests (assuming they are not politically connected and, hence, dangerous of their own right), although a willing scapegoat – and particularly one who is enthusiastic, at least for a time – is much more desirable.

That being said, putting a subordinate scapegoat in place certainly lacks finesse, and it certainly doesn’t guarantee you’ll escape consequences of a failure.  If you go this route, odds are you’ll still feel plenty of heat if the project you’re worried about becomes a disaster.

By far the most important element in setting up scapegoats is to act early.  You need to position your scapegoat you first detect there may be a problem with the project/task/job.  Preferably before anyone else up the chain of command sees the same thing.  Fail to act early and your effort to deflect blame will likely do little beyond adding another body to drown along side you when your personal Titanic sinks.

One thing that will enhance successful “scapegoating” is the transferring of ownership of the project in question to someone outside of your department/business unit/ or work group.  A good argument to make this happen is the identification of “special skills” possessed by the target, or simply “too much work” on your part, although you’d better be able to back that one up.

If you’re feeling particularly confident, you can even stand on the shore and throw rocks at the boat you so recently ditched, allowing you to say “I told you so” if and when the project ultimately craters.

Convincing your intended victim to shoulder the burden can vary from simple to nearly impossible, largely dependent on how savvy they are to the scapegoat tactic.  My observation:  Most victims are easily sold on the “big challenge/big opportunity” argument, but a few will become suspicious when they are approached in this fashion.  The bottom line is a big ego with lots of self-confidence are the hallmarks of a ready victim.

How to avoid being positioned

Just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean someone isn’t out to get you.

Being skeptical of anyone trying hard to sell you on taking a project is a good basic defense against being scapegoated.  If someone is pushing a project, think long and hard about signing up for it.  If you ultimately do accept it, make sure you check out the condition of things (including all the risks) immediately and document it all.  When the disaster hits – and it might not, after all, but there is little harm in being careful – those early records just might be your life raft.

The approach can come from above, or even laterally.  I’ve never actually seen a subordinate scapegoat someone above them in the organization, but I suppose theoretically it could happen.  You should be most careful when dealing with direct supervisors one to three levels above you – they’re in a position to maneuver you most easily.

But don’t discount peers or those higher on the corporate ladder in other divisions, departments, or groups – if they can get you step in front of the bullet they see but you don’t, there is little chance of the blame falling back on them.

The other thing you can do to protect yourself is to become more politically active.  Strong connections to people in power will drastically reduce your attractiveness as a target.  This doesn’t mean you have to engage in anything you find annoying or offensive, but having friends in high places looking out for you can definitely provide some cover when a “scapegoater” is on the prowl for a victim.

Ethical implications

There’s no question in my mind that positioning scapegoats qualifies as a dirty trick.  Cowardly, even.  Unfortunately, while deplorable, it can work quite well.

You certainly have the right to choose if you will employ the technique.  I never had the stomach for it, but that was my call.  I’ve known a number of other senior managers that embrace it, and it has definitely helped their careers.

Or at least prevented them from derailing when things went south.

What you don’t have a choice about is being targeted as a victim.

Conclusion

Be vigilant and a little suspicious.  If you let your enthusiasm, ego, or self-confidence get in the way, you’ll be an easy mark for the politician maneuvering you into position for possible scapegoating.  30.6

Other Recent Posts:

If you are intrigued by the ideas presented in my blog posts, check out some of my other writing.

Novels:  LEVERAGE, INCENTIVIZE, DELIVERABLES, HEIR APPARENT, and PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES.

Non-Fiction:  NAVIGATING CORPORATE POLITICS

This is the cover of my latest novel, PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES, released on April 21, 2014.  This story marks the return of LEVERAGE characters Mark Carson and Cathy Chin, now going by the name of Matt and Sandy Lively and on the run from the FBI.  The pair are working for a remote British Columbia lodge specializing in Corporate adventure/retreats for senior executives.  When the Redhouse Consulting retreat goes horribly wrong, Matt finds himself pursuing kidnappers through the wilderness, while Sandy simultaneously tries to fend off an inquisitive police detective and an aggressive lodge owner.

My novels are based on extensions of 27 years of personal experience as a senior manager in public corporations.

Making Yourself Dispensable

Why did your employer really hire you?

Sure, there are those daily tasks you perform, the ones that add value to the business.  No matter what your job, those things likely take up a significant portion of your work day.  After a while, however, their intellectual challenge normally becomes pretty limited.

If you think about it, the company could likely get an intern to perform most of those tasks.  Or a robot.  Or perhaps even a monkey.

So why do they keep you around?  Probably not for your engaging personality.

Most likely your boss is hoping you can help him or her solve problems, thus helping to move the business forward.  If you aren’t doing this, in a sense you’re asking to be replaced.

2% of the Job

Most employees seem to be experts in pointing out problems.  Shortcomings in management performance, internal policy inconsistencies, waste of resources – these types of things have been pointed out to me (and undoubtedly all managers) so many times I couldn’t count them all.

My typical response (sometimes spoken, always thought):  “Thanks for providing 2% of what’s needed to resolve this, how about helping out with the other 98%?”

It’s no secret, most managers are overwhelmed by all the “opportunities” that face them.  Every day they make decisions about which ones they should address, and by default which ones they must ignore.  It’s business triage.  I know to their subordinates, managers sometimes look like idiots, because there are so many obvious problems that are simply not handled.

Want to help?  Want to distinguish yourself?  Then step up and provide solutions rather than simply identifying problems.

Completed Work

I’ve blogged on this subject before – managers are looking for options, not problems.  I learned this lesson by being taught how to provide “completed work.”  Completed work consists of problem identification, analysis, development of options, and a recommended solution – all rolled together.

Those individually contributing employees that presented completed work to me were at the top of my list when promotions were doled out.  Managers were expected to provide completed work as the default – kicking problems upstairs was the perfect way to convince me that they didn’t belong where they were, let alone being qualified for further promotion.

In a review meeting, a manager working for me mentioned that a particular customer was very low margin.  My response – typical for when a problem was dropped on the table – was to ask:  “What do you think we should do about it?”  I had no idea what the situation was with the customer – which was the manager’s area of responsibility, anyway.  To my surprise and pleasure, he volunteered to find out and come back with a proposal.

A couple of weeks later – and without further prompting, I must add – he presented his analysis of the situation.  It seemed that while some of the sales to the customer in question were barely above breakeven profit levels, there were a few high-volume products that were quite profitable.  He had already tested the waters with the customer and determined that if we quit accepting the low margin work we were putting the entire account at jeopardy.  He recommended a strategy to inch prices up on the lower margin work over the course of the next couple of years.

I was quite pleased with the analysis, and that he had stepped up to take responsibility to perform it.  Completed work.  I wouldn’t have gotten around to worrying about that particular situation for a long time.  Or worse yet, in a rush to “do something” I might have made a rash decision, figuring I understood what was going on.

Whining

Pointing out problems without proposing solutions may seem “helpful”, but to an overworked manager it sounds a lot like complaining.  Nobody likes it when children do it, and it is even less attractive when adults whine.  Repeated “problem pointing” will nominate you as a dispensable asset – if you’re gone, at least your manager won’t have to listen to you any longer.

Conclusion

If you want to distinguish yourself from the crowd, then don’t just identify problems.  Solve them.  Delivering completed work to your superiors is exactly what they’re hoping to find in their next candidate for promotion.  Identifying problems without proposing solutions (i.e. whining) will not be appreciated by anyone further up the chain of command, and might deselect you for promotions and other opportunities.  30.5

 

Other Recent Posts:

If you are intrigued by the ideas presented in my blog posts, check out some of my other writing.

Novels:  LEVERAGE, INCENTIVIZE, DELIVERABLES, HEIR APPARENT, and PURSUING OTHER OPPORTUNITIES.

Non-Fiction:  NAVIGATING CORPORATE POLITICS

HeirApparent_internet cover (853x1280) Nook.jpg
Heir Apparent
$16.99
Quantity:
Add to Cart

To the right is the cover for HEIR APPARENT, and by clicking on the "Add to Cart" button, you can get an autographed copy.  In this tale, someone is killing corporate leaders in Kansas City.  But who?  The police and FBI pursue a "serial killer" theory, leaving Joel Smith and Evangelina Sikes to examine other motives.  As the pair zero in on the perpetrator, they put their own lives at risk.  There are multiple suspects and enough clues for the reader to identify the killer in this classic whodunnit set in a corporate crucible.

My novels are based on extensions of 27 years of personal experience as a senior manager in public corporations.