Rule #37 When Is It Time to Leave?
Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of
counselors there is safety.
—Proverbs 11:14
I wish I could tell you definitively when it is time to leave the job you
have or the company you are at. That is not my intention with this section,
however, as much as we all wish someone could prophetically tell us
the right time to move on and which opportunity to take. My point is that
the nature of sales requires an unusual focus, dogmatic resilience, and an
irrational belief in our own success in the face of daunting challenges. This
tragically predisposes us to myopathy: tunnel vision that blinds us to the
realities of our situation and opportunities that we so often misjudge and
miss out on.
I thank God for my wife. She makes my life half as hard and twice as good.
She loves me and knows me better than anyone else on the planet. She also
has a healthy respect for and complete inventory of my skills and talents.
But more importantly, she is disconnected enough from my work to
observe and see the things I miss. She sees my stress levels, my joy, my
enthusiasm, my calendar, my excitement, and my fears. She overhears my
conversations, takes notice of my paychecks, and has a woman’s intuition
about my co-workers that usually detects problems long before I do.
Find a way to routinely and objectively measure your work, your role, your
company, your economic sector, etc. Find someone who can be your
“canary in the coal mine,” alerting you to signs of trouble. The trouble may
simply involve your relationship to the job, or it may involve the dynamics
of the bigger picture in your industry.
What I have enjoyed the most over the course of my career is when
trusted friends or family have encouraged me to explore more challenging
opportunities based on the potential they see in me—potential I
didn’t appreciate myself. Proactively seek counsel with people in a position
to understand your business. Keep them updated on your situation
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periodically so they can intelligently speak into your life when you are
making really important career decisions.
Take moment right now and list your most trusted career advisors:
1) _______________________________________________________
2) _______________________________________________________
3) _______________________________________________________
If that didn’t go so well, get to work building your list. Fill in the list above
with people you respect who you will speak to this month. Begin to build
a relationship with them so that you will have good counsel in your hour
of need.
When it is time to leave, put as much thought into it as you put into getting
the job. It’s a small world. Go out with grace and minimize the impact
to the organization. In doing right by the company, you help yourself. Several
years working with a group of people and building a reputation can be
easily destroyed in the final days or weeks. That bad taste you leave behind
can follow you and catch up to you. When you leave is when it is most critical
to be self-aware: How do people think of you, and what was your true
worth to these people and this organization? The common mistake is to
overestimate our value.
That said, here are a few suggestions based on experience watching people
leave with dignity on good terms and watching people whose departure
was a train wreck or who took the occasion to burn all their bridges and
make a mess on the way out. In the good instances, someone well-thoughtof
was humble in their approach. In the bad instances, someone thought
too highly of themselves, was lacking self-awareness, and had been misreading
the situation for some time. (This is important to note for those
who stay behind. Things are never as they appear, and there is always more
to the story. Management cannot disclose all the misdeeds, mistakes, poor
judgments, HR violations, or poor performances that lead to people not
getting leadership opportunities or special assignments.)
Suggestions:
1. Never make ultimatums to management. If you have
another opportunity you want to pursue, disclose that and ask
for an honest evaluation. If that new opportunity is in your
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industry, find someone up the ladder with enough insight and
perspective to comment. You will be shocked by how wellinformed
many executives are about the inner workings, leadership
issues, product issues, and other important considerations
at the other companies that you would appreciate knowing
about as you consider making a switch. Yes, their perspective
will be biased, but you can account for that. Using another offer
as leverage, however, is risky. Be careful how you position your
situation. Do your best to see the situation from their perspective.
I knew a sales rep who was a top performer for four years. He
repeatedly asked for and was granted leadership development
opportunities. The exercises, however, repeatedly uncovered
serious character flaws that needed to be addressed. Je didn’t see
it that way and didn’t respond to coaching. Over time, the
development opportunities were given as a means of maintaining
engagement, as a retention effort, because of his excellent
sales performance, which led to his frustration. Finally, a management
opportunity arose which he pursued. Only days after
the opening was announced, however, he announced to management
that he had another lucrative offer and needed to know
whether he was going to get the promotion. It was explained
that the job would have to be posted for ten business days and
that he would be considered as soon as the interview process
began. A few days later, he quit. Then around lunchtime, he
retracted his resignation. Then he quit again at the end of that
same day. The day before his two weeks were up, he called the
sales director who was overseeing the manager recruiting effort
and asked why no effort was made to retain him when he
resigned. Later, to a peer who called to get the scoop on why the
salesperson was leaving, he incredulously exclaimed, “They
made me interview for it!”
There is more to the story, but I think you get the point. This
person was a great salesman but flawed as a manager. He could
not see it. Finally, when management was looking for their next
leader—someone committed and in lockstep—he brought
another opportunity to the table as leverage, only succeeding to
make himself look uncommitted and half way out the door. It
was the icing on the cake.
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2. Take your gripes with you. Another person made allegations
against others in the company, which led to a serious investigation.
All suspects were cleared of all accusations, but it was a
very unpleasant situation, a major distraction, and a waste of
resources. This person was later found to have made many
indiscretions—both internally and externally, with co-workers
and customers—and may even have absconded with company
property and information. In this case, the person claimed
knowledge of impropriety and wrongdoing by the company and
tried to accuse others of wrongdoing as leverage to misdirect
investigations into his actions. This person’s behavior didn’t
change at the next company.
You may have legitimate complaints. HR managers have a rule
of thumb that people take a job for the opportunity and leave it
because of their manager. That is why most companies conduct
exit interviews. Be professional about how you choose to express
you concerns. You can’t help yourself much at this point. Is your
complaint going to help anyone else?
If you were offended, it was good that you left. You can’t control
people.
If you were cheated, get what you can legally. But be realistic
about what can be recouped and what it will cost you to get it.
Bitterness is not going to help you stay objective in this situation,
so get good counsel.
In most cases, you are partially at fault in this sense: Consider
what you knew and when you knew it about the people you
worked for, then ask yourself how much you are responsible for
not leaving sooner.
3. Don’t communicate your departure company-wide via
email or messaging. This is self-centered aggrandizement. It
hurts company morale, and it is at cross-purposes with your
decision to leave, which makes you look stupid. People who
want to know and need to know will be alerted or contact you.
You may have an obligation to contact a few people personally
so they find out from you. In the age of social media, people
have come to overestimate and superimpose their
significance in the lives of others. Depart discreetly. And hope
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to be surprised by any recognition or show of appreciation as
you leave.
4. Leave it better than you found it. Don’t be greedy. Most
salespeople have come to anticipate that the previous salesperson
“stocked the shelves.” I know so many stories of salespeople
who cut corners, overpromised and underdelivered, lied outright,
or simply oversold product to maximize their last paycheck
as they headed out the door. New reps come in and find
a mess that takes them months to dig out of.
Many companies have offers that include a guaranteed income
for a period of three to six months before commissionable sales
bonuses kick in. The theory behind the guarantee is to support
the representative financially while they learn the business.
Unfortunately, in many cases this guarantee is to support the
salesperson while their customers use up all the overstocked
inventory put there by the previous rep. Worse yet, decisions
made with a short-term view can have lasting effects on a territory
or an individual customer who is offended or cheated.
The greatest compliment I have received from another salesperson
came from someone working a territory I had had seven
years prior. His best customers now were my best customers
then. Decisions I had made seven years earlier were still impacting
and benefiting him. (My successor before him had inherited
a good situation and was promoted to manager in the company.)
Will the people who follow you do well and possibly become leaders?
Is this true whether you stay with the company or leave to go
on to another company? Believe me, you reap what you sow.
If you want to become an elite salesperson, you will suffer from a drive, a
passion, and a necessary irrational belief in your ability to succeed that will
inhibit your ability to see trouble or the next opportunity coming.
Elite execution demands that you guard against delusion and blindness,
building relationships to help guide you.
Elite execution demands that you manage your manager if you want to
become a great sales leader.
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