Inspection is a bitch…

I was chatting with a friend and colleague of mine recently.  He has risen through the ranks to the level of Vice President.  Only a very few at my company earn their way up the “corporate ladder”.  He called, as he has been doing once or twice each year to ask, “What would Gary do…?” 

My friend has never managed Directors and Managers before.  He has been one, but now he’s their VP.  Being promoted over former peers can be awkward.  Some of his former peers are his friends; some feel they should have been promoted instead of him; you know… the usual 😊 

Nonetheless, now he’s in charge; setting the direction and the priorities of his team; expecting his Directors and Managers to implement said direction and priorities.  Adding to the challenge is his front-line salespeople across his entire organization average less than 3 years of experience.  Big quota; many expectations; young and inexperienced salespeople… now what? 

His ask was simple, “Gary, what do you think is the single most important thing I should focus on?”  My response was simple too… just not easy to do.  “Inspection”. 

Inspection is a skill that I don’t see being talked about in the volumes and volumes of today’s social media posts.  I suspect that’s because “inspection is a bitch”!  No one, myself included, enjoys being inspected.  No one deserves to be ignored either.  Not all inspection is negative, but they’re best done specifically.  It takes skill navigating between correction and acclaim. 

When inspection is done right it creates an uncomfortable level of tension between the inspector and the inspectee.  I believe it’s within those moments of tension that learning takes place.  Unfortunately, inspection is too often overlooked: 

Perhaps the greatest mistake I've seen executives make is to confuse expectations with inspection. 

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. 

To this day, I can remember the single worst business meeting of my entire career.  It took place in Cleveland at a time when I was a Sales Director.  The previous year we achieved a President’s Club performance and I was promoted from a Manager to a Director.  But that was then as they say… 

The meeting in Cleveland was our periodic “Operations Review” by my Division VP and the National VP, along with members of the sales operations staff.  We were given a template to prepare our information for review.  It was obvious, my team’s current year performance was going to make this Ops Review (aka inspection) a bitch. 

I went into the meeting poorly prepared.  Worse, although my Division VP offered to coach me ahead of time, I was too proud; too overconfident from the previous year to accept his offer.  Add-in a few technical difficulties of getting my presentation set-up in the conference room and the stage was set for the single worst business meeting I’ve had in my entire career. 

These two Vice Presidents’ approach was not an interrogation; nor were they mean-spirited.  These same people approved my promotion the year before.  But…  they could see all the weaknesses in my team’s performance – and my corresponding leadership – and they directed their inspection in a methodical… specific… relentless… no B.S. accepted… no excuses… nowhere to hide… way… to insure (after 2 tough hours) I saw my weaknesses, too. 

Yep, that inspection was a bitch.  And THAT was when my learning took place on the importance of inspecting what we expect.  Do you inspect? Or just expect? 

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.