Investing Lesson: Respect History
A quick post on a lesson I learned in my corporate job.
It’s been a busy summer filled with some traveling, catching some sort of virus that wiped me out for two weeks and quality family time. I am, however, working to keep my streak of weekly posts with a short one today regarding the importance of “respecting history”. It was something I didn’t consider until I was in a leadership role.
This was a lesson I had to learn the hard way in my days of having a corporate job. When I started in my first manager role I wanted to prove myself and make some changes to “fix things” in a short time. I remember talking to members of my team individually and asking what they thought would help the department run better. Many of the things brought up were valuable, while some were not. There was one technician who was ambivalent to change that I was hoping would be more open to contributing, due to his extensive experience and knowledge. I had a sense that there was some low hanging fruit that could be implemented to help things run more efficiently. As well, he was fairly influential, so winning him over would help me execute in my position.
I sought out some guidance from my boss, and she said I needed to “respect history”. She said in my haste to prove myself, I didn’t take the time to understand the dynamics of the department before I was in the role and how those dynamics shaped the department today. I decided to try and engage with this employee again on an individual basis. I had 40 reports spread across 3 shifts so it was not easy to make time for all of my reports.
I asked him to tell me about his journey in the department and how he got into this role (which was the highest paid in the plant). I just asked open ended questions and listened to him. Things, such as if there was ever a time when he didn’t agree with something or someone in management. He started talking about an incident he had with my predecessor, 3 or 4 years prior. He had taken initiative to meet a customer’s request that was against our (not formally defined) safety guidelines. It was something he felt was “safe enough” in order to get the job done. His concern was getting the customer’s needs met. However, the incident resulted in a formal discipline on his record (that could be removed after a 6 month period). My internal dialogue kept saying “Dude, you’re living in the past. Let it go. Let’s talk about today” but he was stuck there, so I just listened and validated. Once I validated the injury he had, we were able to move forward and he was a more positive contributor to my department. He was more collaborative with his peers and would bring forward suggestions to make the department safer and more efficient.
What does this have to do with investing?
There are two lessons I can draw from this experience.
Being a leader is time consuming and requires hard work.
I think of this while looking at the leadership of my companies. Are they leaders that have high expectations for their team? Are they likely to dictate orders or help their team by removing obstacles with them?
Each company has a history that needs to be respected.
I think about this when there is change in leadership. Even if there is a change in top leadership, there is a bunch of history under the surface that will need to be understood. Turnarounds seldom turn, if I remember correctly. it also shows how much effort it takes to successfully execute a turnaround.
The history of a company, people and experiences all play a role in how we operate. I would love to hear others' examples or perhaps stories regarding how respecting history, or not respecting history, may have impacted your experience or gained you a lesson.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Thanks for reading.
Dean