TNBNT
Early on in my financial sales career, I was given the opportunity to sell for what was then, by far, the finest organization in that particular business. Headed by a young financial wizard the company became a household name, quickly rising in stature to the top, and a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The employees were extremely bright, competitive, quick-witted and though coated with layers of polished veneer and manners, were cold-blooded killers at heart when it came to closing business.
I joined as a salesman covering Northern New Jersey, and was told before taking the job that all sales personnel were hired for 90 days. At the end of that time period, company-wide sales results were totaled up and the poor performers were terminated. Those who survived the cut were given another 90 days, after which the evaluations were repeated. Consequently, no salesperson was ever promised employment for more than three months, regardless of how long they'd survived in total.
Now, if you have a competitive spirit, and are good at your profession, a place like that was ideal. Because, if you succeeded and continued making the quarterly cuts, you were compensated more than handsomely for your efforts. Successful sales folks in that ball game really made a lot of bucks.
In my case, due to management's problems with other personnel in my region, I quickly became manager of sales in the Northeast. As such I became responsible for offices in New York, New Jersey, Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Fort Lauderdale.
In a very short time, I was told that there were some issues in the Boston office that they'd not resolved prior to my promotion. And although it hadn't been my responsibility to tend to those issues, they'd decided to let the manager go. Consequently, I was asked to fly up, fire the person in question and insure that the rest of the personnel remained with us, and assure them a replacement for their boss would be arriving soon.
Naturally, I made the trip, did as requested and came home.
Now, one of the things that occurs in a job like mine was not only the effect of the constant competition, within both, the marketplace and company itself, but also the continual need to excel in every aspect of one's professional life. Because, in one way or another, everything you did was measured and evaluated every step of the way.
So, when I returned from New England, not only did my "boss," want to know how it went, but our president, a young, aggressive, tough and brilliant guy himself, wanted to hear about it too, because Boston was a pretty important office. Thus, they were quite eager to learn about how I'd handled such a delicate situation on short notice.
Well, facing these two guys who were living professional legends within our organization -and likely amongst our competitors and clients as well- I wanted to be sure that my actions measured up to their expectations of combined polish, veneer and particularly, smarts. So, I needed to show them that I handled the termination in a way that would meet their standards of professionalism, while living up to our image of tough, cold, effective accomplishment.
So I explained what I'd done.
It was all pretty simple I said, when you get right down to it. I walked into the office up there and introduced myself. Then I asked all the employees to stand in a row against the back wall of the main room. Next, I said, "Now, all current employees, please take one step forward." As they followed my instruction, I said, "Not so fast, Joe Blow." And, sure enough, Joe Blow got the message, packed up his stuff and left.
My tale was met with a combination of disbelief and hesitant laughter, as they were unsure if I'd told them what really happened or not. But, I never actually confirmed or denied what I'd done and in time, the subject was dropped. However, in short order that story became one of the legends that get grape-vined very quickly, and I've had many folks ask me over the years if I'd really done what I'd said.
Still to this day, I've never confirmed nor denied how I'd handled that particular chore in Boston. However, afterward I sensed folks tended to treat me with a bit more respect. So, I guess it all goes to show that, regardless of professional attributes, it helps to have some other kinds of talents, because while money may be a great motivator, fear has its merits, too.
That's it for today folks.
Adios
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