Evolution - Nice yet firm

I was pitchforked by circumstances to lead a sales team without any exposure to team management. From a reasonably quiet life as an assistant / understudy to a successful person, I was pushed to handling the team directly as my superior was promoted without any notice. When the first month, I pushed for sales targets to be achieved in the typical style of my superior, the team pushed back & how !!! That month was a disaster.

 

 

The next month when I pushed again with the same reaction, I paused. Their push back was on availability of stocks as it was known that there would be certain shortages. Having ruminated on the same over a long weekend with no solution in sight, I started my defence mechanisms to the Head for non-achievement. I quietly decided to take all the order logs from the sales team home in the evening to make a comprehensive report that would cushion my non-performance. On the next day, when I tabulated all the orders and tallied it with the Sales Report from the team, I found that one of them was smart in overstating the nos. Furious, I called him in and dropped the bomb, asking him to quit on work integrity grounds. The team was shaken...little did they know that I was shaking as well. After the day had passed by with innumerable STD calls between me, my Head and the person in question, sanity was restored and the appropriate corrective action taken without the termination. 

 

 

The next month, I asked the sales team directly for the order logs one evening without wanting to repeat the exercise at all. The next morning, couple of the sales guys walked in to add additional orders to the logs to close their quota !!!

 

 

Why was this change ? The most important lesson in this for me was the kind of impact,  data and analysis has on managing a team. With subjectivity thrown out of the window and cold statistics replacing your emotions, the exercise becomes objective and impersonal. It made me understand that without loosing your relationships, you can correct situations. It taught me to be a nice buddy (I was younger than most in the location) and yet be firm for anyone to play around. 

 

 

The relationships that I struck with the team have lasted over many years and when we meet occasionally, we enjoy a good laugh at those times !!!  Our mutual respect has only grown. 

Turning point

All the process, systems and discipline that I had tried to put in place over the previous 6 months was destroyed within hours - my senior colleagues at the company decided to hold a sales team review in my absence, by design. It negated all the discussions we had prior to my coming on board. If there was an unholy act, it was this. Coupled with the fact that the maturity of the organisation in question was extremely low, it was a killer. All the hard work was wasted.   

The moment of truth happens without any advance intimation. I was extremely pleased that after all these years of trying, I finally managed a room booking at a pilgrimage place that was never available - not one but 2 nights !!! It was a short, planned trip of 4days. The 'unholy' act by my colleague happened on the 2nd day of my stay at the pilgrimage.

As I pontificated, I felt as if the divinity called me into her warm solace while this was being surreptitiously planned and executed. I now surely believe that it was the cosmos reaching out to guard, protect me from the environment I was in. If at all, there was proof needed that there is always someone watching over me, it was THAT DAY.

We often are brought up to 'have faith' in god...but to experience it in a manner so emphatic blew me away completely. If there was a turning-point in my life, that was it. I realised what the masters say about going with the flow, living in the present and trusting the powers with future while you keep your end of the bargain by continuously striving for whats 'right'. 

NO EXPERIENCE IS WITHOUT A LEARNING...NO LEARNING IS EVER WASTED...THERE IS ALWAYS A REASON TO SUCH EXPERIENCES.