 |
| Got Your Number |
You're nobody in this crowd
You're nobody till everybody in this town
thinks you're poison,
Got your number, knows it must be avoided
You're nobody till everybody in this town
thinks you're a bastard
- Elvis Costello, "This Town"
Part of a continuing series of moments from my career, in which great breakthroughs came from great setbacks. The point, as always, is to work away from fear, and learn from every mistake. Besides, they make for better stories.
Stay in the game long enough, especially in shaky start-ups, and not every move will be on the rise. Sometimes, you have to go lateral to go up later, and that was the circumstance some number of gigs ago, when I found myself at a new position, with new responsibilities, in an area of marketing and advertising that I had not worked in before. Luckily, my predecessor had not impressed with work ethic (11 to 4 was the scuttlebutt) or politics (screaming fits are not exactly unique in creative, but your work had better be absolutely aces to make up for it, and, well, it wasn't). So I felt fairly confident that I would make up for a shortfall of experience with my motor, because, well, I have a motor.
On my first day at the new gig, I was introduced to someone who was, I was told, very enthused to have me on board, even though we did not work in the same department, and had not been on the list to interview me in the hiring process. (Feel free to set the Alert status to Yellow right about now.) After a half hour of very excited conversation in a hallway while I was between meetings, my new manager quickly called me in to their office, motioned to shut the door, and told me, point blank in under a minute with no preamble or pleasantries, that the co-worker in question was a snake and a menace and would waste my time every single day, if I gave them the opportunity. Also, that part of my performance evaluation would involve the efficient use of my time.
Welcome, in other words, to Silo Town, with a population of one more than yesterday.
Stepping away from the land mine to the best of my ability, I assured my manager that I got the message, and that I appreciated the candor. I let them vent for a bit more about the co-worker, and closed with an assurance that all of my time was going to be taken up with overhauling the position in the fashion we had discussed in the interview process.
In the subsequent weeks, I was polite but crisp with the co-worker, who eventually got the gist that I was aligned strongly to my manager, and hence, something of a lost cause to what they were trying to accomplish. Over the next few months, I learned enough about the company to understand the rift, and to learn that the chasm was not going to be something I could overcome. I kept to my department, and eventually, both my manager and the co-worker left the company, and I picked up a dramatically better manager.
Lessons learned?
1) No matter what your powers are as a change agent, there are limits. The position in question was one of the greatest successes in my career. I built a team that I still work with to this day, learned an incredible amount of tactics and tricks in an entirely new realm of marketing and advertising, and achieved terrific performance metrics. But silos are silos for reasons, and unless you have hire and fire power, you might have to work around the problem, rather than correct it.
2) Silos are absolute red flags for leadership. In the case of this start-up, what needed to happen was a clearing of the air by the CEO, and if that didn't create change, a personnel decision. Instead, the situation was allowed to fester and resolve on its own, which created a significant amount of distraction, especially for junior personnel that was inexperienced with this kind of issue. It wasn't just both principals who were lost in the cross-fire. The old-school belief that competing interests will drive each area to greater productivity is bunk, especially in start ups. What kills a start up is distraction, much more than a lack of initiative.
3) Silos are best learned about in the interview process. Candidly, I would have taken the gig anyway; I needed the paycheck. But if the situation had been different, and this was a lateral rather than a rising role, it would have given me pause. It's on you as a candidate to learn about these as best as you can, especially since it's not generally information that will be readily volunteered.
4) If you can avoid being too far in one camp or another, it's your best move. While I didn't associate too much with my manager's red-button co-worker, I did establish working relationships throughout the company, and avoided distraction with, well, tasks. This helped to broaden my network, leading to contracting roles later, and a much greater sense of job satisfaction and security.
5) Time wounds all heels. Silos tend to fall in time because new management understands just how destructive they can be, and will not tolerate their existence. My start-up moved on to better personnel in time, but not before other issues fundamentally altered the business. I'm glad that I stayed, though -- again, more contacts and contracting opportunities for later.
6) Every dispute isn't 50/50. My manager put me in a difficult position, but in the long run, the judgment was correct. As a company, we were better off when the co-worker moved on, and while I don't know of any particular ill will from the targeted co-worker, they also haven't exactly offered up assistance or an offer at other points between gigs. I don't know if I would go far as to use the word snake, but I also would not ask for a reference.
Oh, and just on the off chance that you find this story too crazy to draw major lessons from? It happened again at the start-up after this one, where my manager tell me not to talk to an entire department, because they were such a problem. In the long run, this was the correct assessment, and in the longer run, it should have been my cue to seek new employment immediately. My manager did, and has been happier ever since.
Because that's the biggest problem with Silo Town. No one's really happy to live there... and life's too short to work where no one's really happy.
* * * * *
To make me really happy, please like or share this column, connect with me on LinkedIn, email me at davidlmountain at gmail dot com, or hit the RFP boxes at top right. We offer copywriting, direction and strategy, along with design, illustration, photography, coding and hosting. The RFPs are always free. Hope to hear from you soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment