It wasn’t the decisions themself, but the time around them. by Chad
I remember sitting in my pick up in our driveway in California after a full week on the road. I had been with customers and our team. But in the heat of the business and working to get everyone headed in the same direction… the thoughts start to tug and pull. I sat there thinking – as a newer district sales manager in 2010 – man leadership can be lonely.
Getting out of the truck, I remembered a mentor’s advice – don’t go in the house and push your mental load onto your family. Learning to leave my worries in the truck wasn’t instant. Things are still on my mind, and so many things keep me from being fully present. But, his words always seem to find their way into my head as a reminder. Now, the Farm and winery end up being a continuous topic at our family dinner table. It’s amazing what our boys have learned from it.
In my early years leading a sales team I thought – oh this is something I’ll get used to with experience. Making decisions that affect peoples livelihood, deciding strategy with the team, making tough calls with customers, carrying out organizational change, navigating product performance issues with large growers and more. What I didn’t know or understand was the feeling would continue as my roles changed and new decisions continued. It wasn’t the decisions themself, but the time around them. Afterward – did I make the right call. Before – do I have enough information, have I consulted the team and other leaders.
I remember one particular example in a turbulent time at a company. All parts of the business were being consolidated. We had to decide which people would stay on the team. There was one part that did not make sense to combine. Our team knew it, and I had to push back on the change with my boss. I was afraid he might be upset and it come back to haunt me. This was a nail biter that had to go up the ladder for approval. I prepared for the conversation with my boss by creating something that could arm him to make the argument to his leadership – a visualization to help articulate reasons for not changing. Fortunately it was received well – and agreed to, plus became the standard.
As a small business owner – leadership is lonely is incredibly relevant. Only in this space it’s your own dollars in play and gobs of your time. If you’ve been part of our Farm and winery community – thank you – and you’ve seen the journey we’ve been on. We’re proud of where we’ve gotten to – and it’s all because of you. Where we go from here is scary. What got us here won’t get us there.
The decision I’m sitting alone with right now is – how do we continue growing? A day for us can be all over the board. Most of my day is at work, but afterward it can mean doing wine work, or working on irrigation, or spraying for squash beetle in the pumpkins. Staying small means doing all the work ourselves, growing means we can build the team.
