I'M BACK

Yes, much like Michael Jordan after his hiatus with major league baseball, I am back, though his was via a fax...  Sorry it's been a while, but things have been crazy as I am sure they have been for you.  So...how do I get back in the groove and start producing this blog on a regular basis.  I will start with this, I am going to try and post something every two weeks.  I find if I give myself a target, a quota so to speak, I will do this.  

So what's on my mind today? I was going to speak about "giving back" but something occurred recently that I just have to voice my opinion.  It has to do with one of my favorite topics...leadership.   Or in this case, lack of leadership.  I heard yesterday, that one of the big 3 Orthopedic companies made a commission change to the salesforce.  Now this is not earth shattering news, companies make compensation changes all the time.  When I was VP, Sales I made the first compensation change to the company's sales force in 10 years.   It's a very difficult decision.  It is not something you do with a cavalier attitude.  At least I didn't approach it that way.  But that doesn't seem to be the case in this recent situation.  

When I made the commission change, I stood up in front of the salesforce and told them why we were doing the change, how we were going to implement the change and how as the salesrep , you could still continue to make more in the coming year than you had in the previous year.  It was a plan based upon growth.  This recent change was not announced in a similar fashion.  It was done over a conference call, with everyone muted ( some participants say it was pre-recorded).  There was no dialogue, no question and answer session...no standing in front of the team...just a message that you are having a commisssion cut...that the growth commissions are no longer what they were...no message of how you can improve your earnings from one year to the next.  I would struggle to call this activity leadership.

When I made the commission change, I was told by my future Group President, that doing this at the National Sales Meeting was just about the dumbest thing he had ever heard of....maybe so....(we did only grow the business by 20 % during my tenure after the change)..but at least it wasn't a "Chicken S _ _ _ " management move like this one.

My old Group President (and the Chairman of the company)  prided themsleves  and their  teams on being leaders....I believe they were  successful in creating a leadership culture...I'll take being a leader over being a "CS" manager anyday.

Its good to be back....