The Case Of The Employee That Doesn't Fit

• Situation No. 1: You have a manager who has her budget buttoned down tight, is in touch with all the numbers, is a whiz at Excel spreadsheets, has finance and HR happy, is loved by the CEO because "she really is in control of her stuff," BUT whose major-gift program is failing, caseload values are low, the ratios of MGO expense to caseload value is below average, and growth is flat? Or...
• Situation No. 2: You have a successful, vibrant, growing, above-average-ratio major-gift program in which donors are happy and retained, but you might have to manage a few things on budget and personnel?"

"Well," he said, "it's not just a few things I have to manage." And he listed a few more items he found irritating that HE had to manage because Ann wasn't.

Then I told him a story about myself. I told him I like things in order, just like he does. I am a manager, and chaos, of any sort, used to drive me nuts. It still does, if I don't watch myself. So, I told him, I could relate to what he and managers and CEOs like him are thinking and feeling.

I told him about the early years of my ownership of a major direct-response agency in the United States and Europe and how I had to learn that a good agency (read, a good organization of any kind) is made up of good management folks, product people, creatives and sales people.

I related to him how often the product, creative and sales people, from the point of view of the management people, are viewed as just "out to lunch". It's sad, and counterproductive, I said, that management people really think this, because this kind of attitude works its way out into the hearts of these good people, makes them feel small and less valued and therefore less productive.