You hire Joe into a new role. It is a new position sponsored by the management to enter a hitherto new business segment. Joe is excited to take up the challenge. He believes he has the abilities to be successful in the role. Thanks to his sterling performance record over the last 5 years, the Vice President of the business has hand-picked him out of his current role to bootstrap this business. He has spent time in the market and possesses strong customer relationships. In transferring into this team, Joe believes his experience profile will be significantly expanded. He is aware that the newly carved out role has no business pipeline currently and that could negatively impact his first year earning potential; yet, it is worth the risk considering the management's vision to own the segment. Over time, he will make up for it when his efforts begin to deliver returns. Joe is excited about the business and is enjoying every minute of it.
And then, change strikes. The management team is reshuffled and a new set of executives take charge. The new management fails to see Joe's business in the same potential as was viewed earlier. The importance and focus provided to his business diminishes overnight since it is too small for them to give it their immediate attention. There are many more pressing challenges that need to be addressed.
Joe gets sulking. In business presentations, he is asked to deliver returns on the investment. His performance reviews are harsher as compared to his peers. They are going great guns, thanks partially to some of his efforts before he decided to switch roles. His salary increments don't seem to suggest the star that he was in the years gone past. Joe begins to get into a negative spiral. His energy and body language in the field begin to slouch and thoughts of survival take center stage. It begins to impact his sense of self-worth and the general feeling of well-being. Gone is the swagger, there is now a defensive posture in his body language. Disillusionment sets in. Joe ambles around for a few months in search of acceptance. With no such signals coming in, he resolves not to be unhappy and begins to look around for a change, internally and externally. Ultimately, at the next available opportunity, he quits the organization that until recently had seen a star in him.
What went wrong? Was Joe's performance not worthy of his potential in the new role? We don't know. Was the outgoing management's strategy incorrect in creating this role? If the incoming management team was not under tremendous hurry to 'set matters right', would they have been able to recognize Joe's potential and retain him? Going forward, would they hire a new person into this relatively insignificant position or will they abolish the post?
In trying to get an answer to these, we confront a bigger question - If this happens in your company, is your system attuned to read the early warning signals? Think about it.
For the last several years, Subbu Ananth has been associated with sales of tech solutions into large enterprises. He writes on sales management and organizational development. Comments are welcome at subbu4586@yahoo.co.in
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