A634.3.4.RB - The Harder They Fall

A634.3.4.RB - The Harder They Fall

Using concepts from the Kramer (2003) article as a baseline, share your insights on dilemmas that happen in society, work, and in your life.

In the article, The Harder They Fall, author Kramer talks about how some hard working, deserving people change when they make it to that proverbial corner office or executive level. People who are highly motivated and work hard to get through the ranks somehow forget how to function when they are faced with a large expense account and access to more power than they’ve ever experienced. The article was full of examples of well-meaning and deserving people who just couldn’t handle the pressure that came with the big promotion.  I actually experienced something like this, on a much smaller scale, when I became the Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) Coordinator for all of Puget Sound when I worked at North Coast Electric in 2006. I’ve written about it before because it had such a profound impact on my life.

I had started working for North Coast in April 2004 and worked my way up from a temporary job counting inventory in the warehouse to being a VMI associate to actually managing over 60 sites in Washington State and three VMI associates who covered the day to day work in under two years. We drove vans that supplied job trailers and smaller job boxes at construction sites and commercial manufacturers who had electrical shops internally. We supplied all of their electrical components from switch covers to copper wire, to electrical boxes and automation supplies.

It was awesome. I had a company credit card, an auto allowance because I used my vehicle so my team always had access to the actual company VMI vans and trucks, tech allowance that paid for my laptop and snazzy new Blackberry phone with the Nextel walkie-talkie feature, and a gas card. I had autonomy and the ability to be wherever I was needed at any time. I worked 60+ hour weeks and would occasionally put over 1,000 miles in a week on my vehicle. I loved being able to troubleshoot and help the customers wherever they were. I loved the challenge, I was good at it, and it went to my head. I honestly thought I was untouchable. I thought that I brought so much value to this team that I could do whatever I needed, break whatever rule I had to in order to get our customers what they needed. As it turned out, I could not.

I started making assumptions about what should and shouldn’t be part of my team’s responsibilities. I was being an advocate but I was also straining relationships between service centers and my team. One of my rules was that my team did not have time to pull their own orders. They were to go to a service center, check their orders for accuracy, load up and get going. If they had an understanding that they would pull their own orders at a particular service center because of timing or whatever I vetoed it. They were trying to build a good working relationship with the service center that helped them out. I saw it as they were being taken advantage of. One day, I walked into one of these warehouses where my team spent about three hours a week pulling their own orders. As I turned the corner, I could see that the warehouse guys were actually playing baseball. In the warehouse. My VMI guy was pulling his orders and trying to get out the door. I was fuming. Later that day, I received an e-mail from the VMI director asking why we were not supporting a customer (that was supported through the warehouse I just mentioned) like we said we would. (Most customers had a contract with us saying that we would replenish their sites once or twice a week, or however necessary.) I replied back to him that if that warehouse hadn’t been playing the “World Series of Warehouse Baseball” we could have gotten to the customer on time. Unfortunately, that had been a “Reply All” response and everyone who was anyone at North Coast Electric in WA and OR saw that e-mail. I got a threatening phone call from the warehouse’s manager and shortly thereafter was invited to go back on the road or find another job. There had been other incidences that compounded with this made it the nail in my coffin. I had also rushed a large order in the Seattle warehouse that ended up putting all of the other customers second and had thought that buying pizza for the entire warehouse to show my appreciation would smooth things over. (Which it did for the warehouse team, they didn’t mind helping us from time to time. It was the Big Boss who was not amused.) There were a couple of other things but I think you understand what happened. I ended up leaving after three weeks of dragging my feet and feeling sorry for myself. It took me a few years to really get over what happened and understand that while some of it wasn’t my fault, there were big chunks that were.

Kramer talks about the genius-to-folly syndrome. [A] swift and steady rise by a brilliant, hard-driving, politically adept individual followed by surprising stints of miscalculation and recklessness. (Kramer, n.d.) My example is so much less than the examples that Kramer shares in his article but the impact was still pretty heavy to me. I sincerely hope that when I have an opportunity to be in management again that I am more cautious and thoughtful with how I treat the people I work with, internally and externally. I learned a lot from that experience and it humbled me quite a bit. It actually impacted my self-confidence drastically. I still don't fully trust myself almost a full ten years later.

My intentions were to be an advocate for my team but in the end, I was really just a crazy person on full tilt. [W]hat we really need to do is to shine a light on our weaknesses to understand them better. (Kramer, n.d.) Obviously, in hind-sight on this situation, I can see that the risks I took in the name of advocacy of my team actually put other people in unnecessarily stressful or rushed situations. My actions were selfish and not considering the bigger picture. Today I’m hesitant to volunteer or apply for too big of a leadership role but I also don’t make decisions without considering everyone’s perspective.

References:

Kramer, R.M. (n.d.). The harder they fall. Harvard Business Review.