Friday, April 07, 2017

F : Fish in the Pond

This is an incident from my first sales and channel management job. I was six months into it and was getting increasingly frustrated that my seniors were treating me with kid gloves and not letting me handle the dealers where there were challenges or where you can prove your worth. I was being given areas, where business happened on auto-mode. That also reflected their lack of trust in my abilities.

After six months our boss changed. The new boss invited everyone for dinner party. When everyone got drunk, he started asking uncomfortable questions. He knew when one is drunk, one isn't politically correct. So when my turn came, he asked me what bothers me most. I don't remember the question verbatim. May be he asked something else and not what I mentioned above. But my response to whatever he asked was definitely clear. 

I told him that I am a big fish meant to swim in the sea, but I am being limited to a pond. I mentioned that I don't like to be a fish in the pond. My colleagues told me next day that I repeated this statement crazy number of times that night. On loop.

So when I was summoned to my boss' office next day, I knew that this is my last day at office. I was too brazen last night. He offered me two new markets to handle. Tough ones. I was out of his office after few minutes and the pond too.

Lessons Learnt:1.  Avoid drinking beyond a limit at office parties. 2. Always say your mind. 

6 comments:

Debby said...

That's funny. Good for you.

Charan Deep Singh said...

Thanks debby

Anonymous said...

A management lesson...Confused about allocation of work? Throwing a booze party for team mates can help resolve it...a good way of core strength identification.

Charan Deep Singh said...

@anonymous - haha

Darcy said...

That's a great story - I'm glad it worked out well for you.

Charan Deep Singh said...

@Darcy - Thanks