How true, how true William. It’s easy to point fingers and accuse people, but let’s not forget they are people just the same, growing and learning like the rest of us. Thank you for flipping the coin and showing us the opposing side of the argument! 

Notes From The Field: From “I Can’t Believe My Stupid Sales Manager” to “I Can’t Believe My Stupid Salesperson” In Just A Few Easy Steps

So I have been reading all the “who was your best/worst boss” manifestoes – enjoying them all, but silently wondering two things:

      a.  why can’t I answer this question myself?

      b.  Am I listed on the “best” or “worst” list for those I manage/have managed?

With regard to “b”, I have to honestly say I don’t care.  I always try to operate with integrity, the best intentions, yadda, yadda, yadda – so hopefully that translates accordingly to those I manage/work with/for.  I wouldn’t be surprised, however, that that aforementioned integrity ruffled a few feathers.  At the end of the day, I’m doing the best I can.

Which brings me to “a”.

Who was the best?  Who was the worst?  Who was the manager’s manager, the standard to which all before are held, and all after aspire?  Couldn’t tell you.  Largely because I just look at them as people, with their own frailties, inhibitions, insecurities….and their own strengths, skills and redeeming features. 

There was a certain point in his life (we are thankfully beyond it now – it was unbearable) when my father was always accusing me of not recognizing him as a man, only as “my father” and thus not subject to the same daily ins and outs as a regular guy.  As hard as it was for me to imagine my dad doing and thinking the things that “regular guys” did (can you imagine?  My dad thinking about what I’m thinking all the time?  Yikes.  I’m sorry, Dad, but parents just aren’t people.   Ever imagine your parents having sex?  Makes you vomit.  Just like when I kiss my wife, my children are (not so silently) retching in the corner.  Just like my Dad isn’t human to me, I’m sure I’m some similar pod of plasma to my kids.), I began to see his point as I got older.

Not that I, for a second, look to managers as father figures; however, this notion (people are people, regardless of station in life) rang true and stayed with me.  Add to that years spent on both sides of the coin (as manage-er and manage-ee) and this truism gets more and more crystalline. 

How many times have I said, as a salesperson, “why can’t our manager just do/say/get/complete X, Y, and Z?  It’s so easy, it’s so logical and would increase our business so dramatically? What the hell is wrong with the guy?”

I know now, years later, that there are often myriad reasons that the logical, the easy, the obvious can’t be done.  I know now that the manager’s job is to juggle the various (and often opposed) agendas that are simultaneously asked of him or her.  I know now that what can seem counterproductive, stupid, silly, de-motivating, or any of the things with which “bad” managers are associated, are quite often very productive in the long term, advancing the careers, incomes and futures of everyone involved.  I know now that, quite often, the needs of the many sometimes outweigh the needs of the few.  Fair?  Not always. 

Let’s look at it from the other side of the coin.  How many times, as a manager, have I said “why can’t the salespeople sell more shoes?  What’s wrong with them?” (hint: I say that A LOT these days).

I do try to say it to myself, however – because I know now that it’s not simply about making sales calls.  It’s about retail climate; it’s about product; it’s about timing; it’s about luck.  It’s about a lot more than lines on a spreadsheet.  There’s a lot of moving parts, agendas (hidden and not) – and, not to mention, a world of competitors vying for the same OTB as you. 

In both cases, it’s just like starting a car.  It’s easy, right?  Just turn the key.  But under the hood, there’s a lot going on to make that happen.

Are there indeed people who deserve to be strung up by their toenails and flogged with whips because they are abusive, stupid, obnoxious, useless melonheads?  Sure.  A lot of them.  But I personally believe that the majority of people aren’t like that – and if they are forced to be that way, there are bigger forces at play.  I’m merely suggesting that even your worst boss might be your best boss for hidden reasons, or for more untraditional ones.  

That said, let me tell you about this total douchebag I used to work for….
 

Best regards,

William Weiss
Director of Sales
Hush Puppies USA
william.weiss@wwwinc.com
203 746 3620
203 746 3815 fax