Getting pinned up against the end of a run of shelving in a half-fitted out store might not be everyone’s idea of good management training but it provided a lesson that came in handy over the next thirty years. It wasn’t even my line manager doing the pinning. But if it takes a village to raise a child it takes more than one senior manager to teach you about company culture and personal discipline.
Over four decades, I started a new job 12 times in nine different companies (three of them invited me back for reasons that are hard to fathom). With 21 direct bosses over that time, I’ve had nine leave or be replaced and nine where I left for greener grass or personal reasons. Maybe I’ve been fortunate but all the social media posts about people leaving bad bosses (rather than companies) has always felt strange in the context of my own curiosity, ambition and occasional arrogance about chasing the next opportunity.
Beauty in the Beasts
There have been two bosses that I would think of as being directly responsible for me leaving a company. There was also one organization where I couldn’t stay but my boss had my sympathy for being totally outgunned, outmanoeuvred and possibly even bullied into submission. These examples account for three of the five occasions I’ve jumped ship without a lifeboat (or a job to go to).
The dismal duo of bosses were poor in very different ways. One was very competent and went on to be a successful CEO but was always away, made no effort to help me settle into the company and, as it turned out, had inflated the importance of the role and opportunity when I was being interviewed. The other was of limited ability in their own specialist field and a micro-manager who didn’t understand marketing and communications but was happy to take the glory when things went well while wielding the stick when things were less than perfect.
If those types of bosses are the beasts of a career, they also lend a certain beauty to management development in learning from them how not to behave. It’s not very comfortable at the time but taking the lessons can help you avoid making the same mistakes. There is also something to be said for working out if what looks like an inadequate boss is doing their best to protect in impossible circumstances.
In fairness, I doubt that I matched up to their expectations either and would have to accept that from time to time I have been a less than perfect subordinate. Hard working certainly but not always the best at accepting authority and, particularly in my younger days, a little too likely to burn the candle at both ends. The only defence was that the early days were at a time when you were forgiven most things as long as you turned up on time and got the job done.
Beginnings and Belonging
My very first boss, Tony Dobbin at Tesco, was immensely hard working and benevolent. When the company opened the UK’s largest superstore at Weston Favell he would lead the photography sessions, get home at 4am and still be at his desk in Cheshunt by 8.30am. He also very gently taught me the nuances of word selection when writing promotional material where the word “aroma” was definitely an improvement on my draft about the “smell of freshly baked bread.”
Despite a year on a journalism course my judgement of text was rough round the edges and I had an upbringing which meant I briefed a leaflet for a celebratory leaving event as a dinner when it was at lunchtime**. It was a good job that I was keen to take on any task, enjoyed driving long distances and had no real sense of my own limitations or naivety. Long hours, weekend working and full commitment were expected but usually rewarded.
It was the broader retail management of the company who gave me a real sense of purpose and belonging. They ensured I got my first company car – a 950cc Ford Fiesta with a foot-pump operated windscreen washer. The price was weekends photographing charity cricket matches with suppliers, evenings shepherding councillors around new stores and always being available for late night discussions about the latest food crisis.
One certainty is that in the best companies, senior management outside the direct line manager pay attention to newcomers. There is nothing better or more reassuring than having your existence and your work recognized by someone from elsewhere in the business. It eliminates silos, encourages collaboration and creates the best sense of company culture.
Create Your Own Pressure
But the defining lesson in my first job was much more personal and came a few days before the opening of a new store. I was with a senior regional director who was a company legend for his business success and who had been very supportive. He was well over 6’and it is fair to say that I am somewhat less lofty.
It was total mayhem as painters, electricians, merchandisers, tilers and chippies raced to complete the fitting out in a breathtakingly short timescale. At the time Tesco was opening two or three stores a month and every occasion was a race against the clock with most of the new store team living out of suitcases as they moved from town to town. Only after I left retailing would I realise that not every business worked at this type of pace.
As we walked along the bank of half-built checkouts with their trailing wires he turned to me and said, “Do you feel the pressure, Al?”*** As a 23-year-old who got on well with him I felt this was a good moment to try and be smart. My response was calculated to try and be sophisticated, “Pressure. What’s that?”
In a moment he had turned and physically pushed me up against the racks at the end of an aisle of shelving. My recollection is that he had my lapels and I was on my tiptoes as he loomed over me but he was calm and urgent. He just growled, “If you don’t feel the pressure, you’ve got to make your own pressure.”
I’ve told the story a number of times since and am usually asked why I didn’t report it to someone. My response is that this was someone I respected giving me forceful advice about humility, self-discipline and respect for the work. It was over as quickly as it began and my overwhelming sensation was that it had been done for my own good.
I wouldn’t recommend the physical element but when the book Radical Candor came out, I recognized that at an early stage in my career I had been shown the value of a manager caring enough personally, to challenge behaviour immediately and directly. The underlying message was even more important. Your boss is not responsible for motivating you – you are.
NOTES
* A lyric from Happy by the Rolling Stones. One of those joyous moments when Keith gets to sing. Not sure he’s had too many bosses in his life.
** This is one of the classic differences between U and non-U English.
*** He was one of only three people that called me Al (and even then only occasionally). I am mildly fixated on calling people by their full names unless they ask me not to.