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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