Make a Contract with Yourself

In 2009, I was working in Insight Global's Atlanta office.? We were in the middle of a bad recession, but while the other offices at Insight Global (I believe there were 15 of them) were growing, Atlanta was not.? Our revenue had dropped over 50% year over year on top of that Atlanta was our headquarters. There was added prestige and pressure being the office in the headquarters, and we were embarrassed because we were failing.? Our Sales Manager was taking another position within the company and we needed a backfill.? I wanted to do it really bad.? Mostly because I cared about the people in the office and I knew how much they were hurting, but also because I’m competitive and I wasn’t okay being part of a team that was losing.

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I had breakfast with our CEO at the time Glenn Johnson.? I made my pitch as to why it should be me.? I told him all the things that we needed and exactly what I was going to do about them.? After the best sale of my life, Glenn said, “I’m not sure…”? so, I countered his rebuttal with the only thing I had left, “If I don’t do all of the things, I just promised you, if I don’t turn things around, you can fire me!”? he smiled and said, “OK, we have a deal.”? When we got back to the office, he wrote up a contract with all of the things I said I would do, and at the end of the contract it said he could fire me if I didn’t.? I signed it right then and there and he proceeded to tape it on his wall where he could see it every day.? It wasn’t easy but two years later, Atlanta was had almost tripled its revenue, and I didn’t get fired.? What was so powerful about our contract was that Glenn didn’t give any input into what I needed to do to be successful, he let me own that.? Because let’s be honest, we all know exactly what we need to do to be successful, we don’t need anyone to tell us what to do (but we love to use that as an excuse).? All he did was hold me to my word. (a side note, when Glenn retired, he still had the contract and gave it to me as a gift.)

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What is your contract for success?? Is it known to your leader?? Are you willing to get fired if you don’t do it?? In my mind, that’s the only way to truly be successful, you have to be all in.