Episode 19. Nothing Leads To Long-Term Problems Like Short-Term Thinking

Play This Episode

0 Votes

Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates is a novel by American author Mary Mapes Dodge first published in 1865 A short story within the novel has become well-known in its own right Hans Brikner the novel s main character notices that a dike protecting his country the Netherlands from flooding leaks He plugs the dike with his finger and stays there all night despite the cold until the villagers find him and repair the dike This story kept popping into my mind when I was firing one of the best heads of sales I d ever had Heroes never give up True heroes think deepIn January 2011 I hired a new head of sales Let s call him Peter He was a smart and ambitious executive young but experienced Two months later we faced a problem we could miss our quarter sales target Three weeks remained in the quarter too little to save the situation We were discussing the measures we could take to mitigate the impact But Peter didn t want to give up For the next three weeks he worked his tail off He called and visited our biggest clients He held meetings with the sales team twice a day But working hard on what apos s hardly useful is pointless We still fell short of the target though Peter managed to narrow the gap And yet I fired him soon after I didn t need a boy who could plug the dike I needed a system thinker