“I was told I’m not fitting in,” said our new executive client at her VIM Executive Coaching initial consultation meeting.
She was hired as the assistant sales manager at a Bay-area company. It was a high-pressure, high paying job where in-demand items meant huge commissions and lucrative rewards. We hesitate to mention the industry for reasons about to become apparent.
Looking for a while
Her job search had been challenging, through many virtual meetings and a few aptitude tests (we need to address that as well). The company welcomed her with promises of promotions and swimming with the big-fish in an exploding industry – and all that kind of jazz! It was, at surface, anyone’s dream job. Indeed, she and her spouse could now afford to buy and restore that 1898 townhouse.
However, there was a problem. The sales team believed in playing it loose especially with respect to their international partners and customers. There was (so-to-speak) preferred pricing, under-the table deals, outright bribes and rather doubtful claims when it came to performance, efficiencies and such. In short, they operated in a gray zone and in turn, were unafraid to enter unethical waters.
She “asked questions” and registered doubts; she probed her manager’s claims and in turn the business practices. Finally, in a meeting she questioned the vice president of sales if he was aware of the behavior of some of the team members. She was told, not so subtly:
“We don’t know if you have the drive to fit into our culture.”
One morning, after another sleepless night, she quit her dream job. They had, by then, isolated her as do organizations often afraid to question their own ineptitude.
“I could no longer look at myself,” she said.
Understandable and authentic
Quitting a dream job because the organization was unethical was understandable and authentic. Authenticity is sometimes a challenging road to take.
Before we move on in this post, let us challenge so-called “sales aptitude” testing. Despite what industrial/behavioral psychologists might tell us, the testing itself is irrelevant if the outcome is that the employee must become inauthentic and go against values in order to fit into a corporate culture. If the corporate culture is so out of alignment, the testing is as unrealistic and the values of the corporation.
We might also add at this juncture that about eight months after our client left her position, a federal probe uncovered the sales practices of the organization and massive penalties were leveled.
However, on a positive note, our client had by then gained a new position with a firm that respected her authenticity and mindfulness.
Despite the story such as the one we talked of above, the world has been changing to embrace values we at VIM Executive Coaching fully endorse. The world has gone beyond the important sentiments of corporate social responsibility and equity, diversity and inclusion to a more encompassing vision of ESG or Environmental Social and Governance. ESG demandsexecutive leaders must face themselves and assess their values.
“What do I stand for?” must become the driving sentiment for the executive leader, the team and the company, and all of it flows from mindfulness, authenticity and compassion.
While there may not be a “correct way” to go down a path, mindfulness demands that the trip is true to human values and our planet and how society expects us to behave when no one is looking.