After spending years coaching sports, consuming crazy amounts of content around leadership, management and coaching as well as having my coach who had decades of management experience I was feeling myself. For those not familiar with colloquial language, this simply means I was confident, perhaps even overzealous in my ability. I had visions of joining a start-up early and young and growing into a senior role in a relatively short time frame. This is the tune that serenaded many young graduates and Millenials and I believed the dream was due to be my reality.
I had performed well in my current roles, well enough to be even considered for what would have been the role of a lifetime: Head of Sales. Imagine my level of excitement when 2 members of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) approached me separately asking me whether I wanted to be considered for the tole…. before they could even complete their line of questioning I jumped up and said yes.
What happened next I found interesting….
A member of the SLT whom I have a great amount of respect for, both as a person and as a sales professional booked what was a 30-minute call which transformed into 90 minutes to talk in more detail about the role and opportunity. Out of respect for that person, I won’t share the context of that conversation but the takeaway was that yes I was ready for a HOS role and I would be a stretch HOS but perhaps for a company looking to be acquired it would be better to bring in a leader with more experience in running a sales org as well as people management.
Initially, I was pissed. In my mind, I had the role and this was news that I was to be demoted. The truth is my initial reaction was purely ego-driven. Virtually every aspect of our sales function could be improved. You can always be growing faster.
I started feeling a lot better about the Head of Sales search after I had some time to digest it. Here’s what I knew for sure:
- Those 2 members of the SLT had my back. They genuinely cared, and always acted in the best interest of their employees.
- I could learn a lot from a Head of Sales. Up to this point, all of my learning was “on-the-job,” and working with a more experienced leader would help me grow.
- Our sales team was relatively inexperienced for our stage, and since this company was my first time building and scaling a hyper-growth startup, we would benefit from a more seasoned sales leader on board, especially as the goal was to get to the exit
- I would continue to get cross-functional experience which would serve me in the future
Moral of the story, the next time your boss says it’s time to hire someone with more experience than you, don’t assume you’ve done something wrong. View it as a sign of progress and acknowledge there’s always room for improvement. Focus on what’s best for your team and don’t succumb to ego-driven thoughts like needing to have the fanciest title. What got you this far is a commitment to building a great company. Having a new leader on your team shouldn’t change that. It can increase your chances of doing so. It’s time to adapt and commit to setting up your new leader for success. If you do it right, and your heart is in the right place, there’s no telling how far you can go together.
It’s time to build the next phase of the company.
Bedroom 2 Boardroom 🚀 