Each Sunday our goal is to share a piece of gold with you. Some small piece of information that helps you to have a better week and achieve a better outcome.  

What would you do if…  

You have a rockstar performer on your team, but culturally, they are just not a fit.  

Or  

You can sell to, or work with a new customer where the revenue would be amazing, but they don’t fit your Target Customer Profile because they are a bit too big?  

Or 

Your organization realizes a mistake was made with a customer that the customer doesn’t know about yet, which may put the business at risk?  

Dealing with these tough situations is never easy or fun, but it is why leaders are in their roles. Your responsibility as a leader is to navigate through decisions and conversations where experience helps to guide the path.  

Here are a few thoughts in solving the issues:  

  1. Clearly identify the issue. If you can clearly write down the issue, you are halfway to solving it. If a person isn’t a culture fit, identify why. If you can articulate it, there is a possibility of having a courageous conversation and working through it. At a minimum, you can be honest with the individual and help them understand the challenges. When I have been in these situations, the first step is to find out if the individual wants to be a part of the company. If they truly do, and are willing to change, then there is often a pathway forward. Make sure as you are outlining the challenge that you are dealing with, including the facts of the situation, but also the emotions that are created, both good and bad. Download the 3 P’s Worksheet to help with this exercise at the bottom of this email. It focuses on identifying if challenges are a result of a Product, a Process, or a People problem. It is a great way to clearly identify where issues exist and what the next steps should be.  
  2. Outline what the impact(s) will be if you do or don’t move forward or deal with it. If you don’t have the conversation with your customer about a mistake, you are obviously going to betray their trust. If you do, you might lose the business. However, I would much rather lose the business because I was honest about an issue than because I was not. Often, by being transparent and sharing with the client that you have identified the challenge and have put processes in place to ensure it doesn’t happen again, they are willing to move forward. You may have to make an adjustment in billing or accommodate an order in a special way, but leaning into the problem is a reason the customer is doing business with you—because you can own up to issues when you make mistakes. All people make mistakes. Leaders own them, learn from them, and make corrective action. After the emotions settle, most partners will see this and appreciate the fact that they you are growing with them.  
  3. Collaborate with your team. Problems, big opportunities, frustrations, and challenges are often solved best with others. Just because an individual is in a leadership role, doesn’t mean that they have to solve the world’s problems alone. I used to think that I had to shelter my team from these tough situations. The reality is that they have always been happy to work with me and rally around the problem to bring it to resolution. Collaboration has always created a better outcome. If you have an opportunity to work with a customer that is larger than you normally serve, first ask, “Can we do the job or deliver the outcome they expect?” If the answer is 100% yes, then what accommodations or challenges are going to be created by doing so? Is it going to impact other customers? Is your team going to have to put in extra work? Are those challenges that you can overcome? If the answer is that you cannot deliver 100% of what the customer expects, then the first responsibility is to tell them clearly what you can and cannot do so you’re not promising things you cannot deliver. They may or may not do business with you, but you’ll gain their respect for being candid and honest, and as time goes on, you may earn all their business down the road, or maybe even a portion right away.  

The summary: When things get tough, lean into the truth. You may not like it, or you may have to have courageous conversations—but by focusing on the facts, you can operate with integrity and transparency… which is always a winning move.  

The goal of Adapt or Die is to build better leaders who run better companies and change the world. Here is a link to a template for our 3 P’s Worksheet. I hope you enjoy it and that it helps you to solve problems more effectively and with transparency.