Stepping Back

Until 2018 the sentence ‘stepping back’ has not really been part of my vocabulary. It’s never been part of my nature, nor my business strategies to step back and let others take over for a while.

Now, March 2018, it’s become the one and only strategy that I can follow. This is my personal story. All I’ve learned and want to share. I hope it may inspire you. 

Over the last years I, in the role of CEO, was fortunate to lead a change process, and with that set up a whole renewed international software company. Let me start by sharing with you that being part of such a great operation has always been my dream and goal. Why? Because every company needs the experts and the professionals that do the ‘hands on’ things in Business, the basic necessities so to say. Within my company there was no problem there. What it really needed was someone to shout out how great this team was, to teach them enough self confidence to start shouting with me, to say no every now and then but overall to become more self relying professionals. In my opinion it’s not that difficult to gather a group of individual professionals to work on a project, that’s the ‘easy’ part. It’s making them operate like a team, working together, sharing information and communicating that to both the team members and the outside world. I was blessed with technologically skilled pros, highly educated and motivated to do his or her tech job. The tricky part was showing them they could and should use that knowledge and those skills to show each other, to show the outside world what they could achieve. I think we succeeded. At the end of the day, every single one of them knew what they could and couldn’t do, were able to add to the team and were motivated not only to do his or her own job but to help out others. They were self-confident enough to take that knowledge and those skills to the outside world, talking to customers. It makes me proud to see how they developed.

The fact that, together with a team of professionals, we’ve been able to turn around an organization completely, it has been a great achievement and a dream to work on. It brought out the best in us, as in all the members of the teams working together. It was like starting up all over again. The road we followed in the past years has not been easy; they were littered with strategic, personal and political hot spots that we had to even in order to get ahead. And yes, … I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.

'The Sweet Spot'

One of the parts of the process I’ve enjoyed most, which worked out the best, was building the team. Working on the ‘warm side’ of business so to say. It’s been a process of talking to people, listening to their dreams, goals wishes and problems and trying to find that ‘sweet spot’ in which both the company and it’s team members benefited most. Both in their business life as in their personal lives.

Through my experience in People and Business management we were able to bring the goals, both personal and business wise, together to balance the scales. We achieved the business goals and found the right job, spot and responsibility for every single employee.

“Searching for that sweet spot still does not have proper priority”

In these modern and fast times I still think that searching for that ‘sweet spot’ does not have proper priority in most companies. It’s the business goals that are most important and I do agree, in order to have someone on pay roll, you have to earn quite the amount. Still, … there is a way to get both sides aligned and we’ve been able to show the results. The proof, so to speak.

'Work life vs. Personal life'

In order to being able to be great at your job is having a ‘home base’. The place you go to when work is done, when the things you’ve done at work have satisfied you, you’re tired and got your to do list done for the day. Having a place to go, people to go to, share your day with, to talk about each others work, to enjoy each others company, teaming up with friends, family or even your pets. Planning for that next holiday or weekend get-away. It’s that kind of stuff that needs to be in order before someone can actually enjoy every single working day. 

On the other hand, being able to be that great Mom or Dad, that enjoyable brother or sister, or that attentive partner, you need to have a great ‘work-base’. The place you enjoy to spend most of the week’s time, the colleagues that make you smile, helpful and professional. 

The one doesn’t go without the other.

 During my career it happened more then once I sent someone off to take care of stuff that was going on at home. Not because I didn’t want them to be the professional dealing with our daily business, but because I knew that the person returning from whatever they had to deal with would return much more satisfied, effective, undistracted and focused. It’s that balance that needs to be nurtured.

‘Following the advice you give others is difficult’

As you probably know the sentence above is too much of a truth. You know what you need to do, you know what you should do, you know what you would tell others to do, … but actually doing it is always the last resort. 

History has shown it many times.

‘Superlative degree’

Now, my personal circumstances were quite extreme to be honest. It started in January 2017 when I was diagnosed with quite a large growth in the back of my head. A number of insecure weeks followed. Will it be benign or will it change the course of life immediately. Ok, although it was affecting part of my nervous system and causing small seizures, it wasn’t the worst. After a couple of weeks, the right medication, a monitoring schedule and rest, I could work again. 

In May of that same year, after months and months of ‘in and out of hospital’ my Dad, great example and dear friend, died at the age of eighty-six. In the same month my sister, age fifty-six, was diagnosed with Lung Cancer, with months and months of chemo and radiation therapy ahead. In August, coming back from a short holiday, my wife’s Mom died unexpectedly after a short sick bed at the age of seventy-six. In December, after a short sick bed, my Mom died at the age of eighty-five.

And then the day before my Mom’s funeral, in December 2017, my wife was diagnosed with a large brain tumor. The tumor was so large that they had to take it out as soon as possible in order to prevent any permanent damage or even death. She has been operated on January the eleventh and is now recovering. The recovery will take between three and twelve months.

‘You can’t coach yourself’

Although I would give the advice to take a long leave of absence to anyone on my team that would come to me telling this was going on in his or her private life, I didn’t do it. I kept on working while all above was going on in my personal life. Call it “excessive sense of responsibility” for what was going on in our business or call me “stupid” but I did.

…Until a month ago…

 I realized just how important the advice I would give others would fit myself. It’s just not possible to fight two major battles at the same time; it’s mentally and physically impossible to do your job with full force on both the Work and Private parts of your life. So I did what I would advice anyone coming to me with that kind of a story: Step back!

…So I did…

I’ve decided to give up my position, my base and my certainties, and to focus on what’s most important in my life: to make room to deal with the aftermath of the past year and to make room to plan renewed beginnings of my life.

‘Liberating decision’

I have to admit, it’s not been an easy decision to make but now I did it feels liberating. I can focus again on my family, dealing with the daily things that still require my personal attention now and in the upcoming period of time.

‘And when it’s all behind you?’

Well, that’s the fun part of doing this; stepping back. When the hurricane of happenings has died down, and the aftermath has been dealt with, I will find a different company (or a new company will find me!) a new exciting challenge where I can use all of my skills and experience, early and recent, to make companies, their customers and their staff proud to be part of that one, cooperating and ‘warm’ team. I feel passionate about that.

With this all said I’d like to thank Realworld Systems for their trust in me leading their change process and feel comfortable the team will continue their successful journey. I would also like to thank all individual team members within the RWSP group for sticking with me during the past years, I’m proud to have been part of our team and the great journey it made.