When your associate fails you
The following is based on one of The Covenant Group’s clients. All of the names and telling details have been changed.
Alex Turkle’s plan to grow his business by bringing on Brad, an advisor and good friend, had been backfiring. But before terminating his relationship with Brad, Alex came to me for advice.
Alex was in his late forties and had been an advisor for nearly twenty years. Over the last few years, he had been establishing himself as one of the preeminent advisors for affluent business owners and professionals in Hillsview, a community outside of a major US city. He attributed a lot of his success to his relationship with a prominent accounting firm in the area. Alex had gotten to know the five senior partners and the four associates well and regularly exchanged referrals with them. The potential for more business from the firm was well beyond what Alex would be able to cultivate and service. Alex decided he needed to bring on another advisor, one who could work with the associates, while he concentrated on building the relationship with the senior partners. Alex first thought of Brad, someone he’d known for years, for that role.
Brad, in his early fifties, had been working in management for the past ten years but wanted to return to the field and jumped at the opportunity to work with Alex. Alex had arranged with the accounting firm to provide an office for Brad, who was to work there two days a week, networking with the associates and cultivating business opportunities. The rest of the week Brad was to be out seeing prospects and clients. Brad would keep 50% of all business he generated.
When I asked Alex what had gone wrong, he said that Brad hadn’t turned out to be what he wanted. Alex explained that for the first month or so, he had pretty much left Brad alone, giving him a chance to settle back into the business. But as the weeks wore on without many indications of activity from Brad, Alex started to get concerned. Whenever he asked Brad about the business he was working on, Brad answered that things were fine. When Alex asked for more details or offered to help, Brad got defensive. Alex decided to inquire at the firm and discovered that Brad was hardly ever there.
Alex had had enough. When he confronted Brad about his performance, Brad said he hadn’t come back into the business to have someone manage him, let alone someone he considered to be his friend. Alex was disappointed with Brad’s response. Brad was more interested in doing his own thing than helping him achieve his vision; clearly Brad was the wrong guy.
When I asked Alex why he thought Brad was the wrong guy, he said “He’s stubborn, and takes any kind of criticism personally. I like Brad as a friend, but I can’t work with someone like that. I think it comes down to a personality issue.”
“Actually, Alex, I don’t agree with you,” I said. “Personality differences are often used as a catchall for problems in business or the workplace, but they’re rarely the true cause.”
Alex shot me a curious look. But before explaining my answer, I asked Alex what his expectations of Brad were.
“I wanted him to work two days at the firm.”
“What does that mean to you? Would you be satisfied if Brad sat in his office at the firm with the door closed and didn’t talk to anybody?”
“Of course not.”
“So, what specifically were you expecting?”
“I wanted him to have a positive contact with each of the associates at least once a week, where he positioned our services and educated them on how we can help their clients.”
“Okay, good,” I said. “What about Brad’s activity, how much business did you want him bringing in?”
“Brad should have had no trouble gaining three or four key introductions and referrals a week. And from that, I’d expect about $10,000 of gross revenue a month.”
“Did you ever explicitly state your expectations to Brad?”
As I expected, Alex shook his head.
I then asked Alex for his perception of Brad’s expectations.
“I think Brad was looking for a place where he could sit and pick off low-hanging fruit. I don’t think he really wanted to put the effort into networking.”
“That’s your assumption, Alex, and it’s probably not fair to Brad. I take it you didn’t sit down with Brad and explore exactly what he expected out of his association with you.”
Alex shook his head again.
“Alex, one of the mistakes a lot of advisors make when creating associate relationships, is that they often leave the relationship informal and implicit. Which is a recipe for disaster. Both parties come to the table with their own set of expectations and when those expectations aren’t met, they start blaming each other. If you want your relationship with Brad to work out, you need to make the relationship formal and explicit.”
Alex needed to develop a role description for Brad that clearly outlined, in great detail, the terms of the relationship and what he expected from Brad, as well as what Brad could expect from Alex, in terms of support and resources. If Brad wanted to negotiate some of the terms, so be it, but Alex had to ensure that the final terms would support his strategy. And if Brad wasn’t going to agree to the terms, he’d have to find a new candidate.
“But,” Alex objected, “I don’t see how a document will make Brad any easier to work with.”
“The document gives you a framework for the relationship,” I explained, “and allows you both to hold each other accountable. Right now, there’s no common ground. You’re upset with Brad because you don’t think his level of activity supports your objectives. But you haven’t established what’s acceptable and what isn’t, so Brad interprets any suggestion from you that he’s not working hard enough as arbitrary and unwarranted.”
Alex eventually agreed that the lack of clarity around their working relationship, not their personalities, was the cause of the problems they were having.
Over the next couple of weeks, Alex defined the role of Senior Associate (SA). His role description outlined the SA’s responsibilities (e.g. business development), described the tasks they were mandated to perform (e.g. running quarterly seminars at the firm), set out the compensation structure and revenue targets. As well, Alex detailed various work processes, a communication plan and the resources (e.g. a junior advisor) Brad should use to assist in performing his role. Alex found the exercise of putting everything down on paper inspiring. He could more clearly see how someone like Brad would be able to help him achieve his goals.
After suggesting a few minor changes, Brad agreed to the role of SA, and he too was more excited about the opportunity with Alex’s firm now that he could see that, by performing all his tasks, he’d have a much easier time of generating revenue.
Both Alex and Brad noticed an immediate change in their working relationship. Instead of asking Brad ‘how things were going’, Alex was now inquiring about specific tasks, and Brad, in turn, expected those inquiries and no longer looked at them with suspicion. The results of the new arrangement are evident in Brad’s performance: since the change, Brad has consistently generated more than $10,000 a month.
Lessons Learned
Alex learned that his business relationship with Brad hadn’t been working because he hadn’t made the relationship formal and explicit. Alex had made a mistake a lot of advisors and other entrepreneurs make — he chose to work with someone he knew and relied on the strength of their personal relationship to make a working relationship work. However, as Alex learned, this informal approach usually leads to disaster. Alex went into the relationship with a set of expectations he hadn’t expressed to Brad, and as soon as he felt Brad wasn’t living up to those expectations, he became frustrated. Alex’s confrontation with Brad went badly because they hadn’t previously established what would be considered a breach of their agreement. Brad had been working away according to his own set of expectations and considered Alex’s intervention unwarranted. As often happens when there is a difference of opinions that isn’t grounded in a common language of previously established terms, Alex and Brad both pointed to the other’s personality as the root of the problem. But after making the terms of the relationship explicit in a document that both he and Brad agreed to, the strain in their relationship evaporated, and Brad soon became a key asset to Alex’s organization.
________________________________
The Covenant Group is referred to by many as the place entrepreneurs go to become Business Builders. They are considered to be thought leaders and have authored the best-selling books, The 8 Best Practices of High- Performing Salespeople, The Entrepreneurial Journey, and The Business Builder.