Letter To A Former Boss

Note: Names have been changed to protect identities (but I guess these are obvious anyway). Just a bit of explanation. What follows is a letter I sent to someone during the last day of my stay in a company; it was a practice of catharsis and closure since I didn't want to leave without at least trying to make things better for those who would be replacing me. I've posted it here in my blog on the 30th of March, 2014, after almost a year since the date I wrote it (although my initial intention was really to keep it between me and her and one other person). The abrupt decision is merely for the sake of permanence. This is part of who I was before and I didn't want to lose this piece of prose if my laptop crashed. I also am confident this isn't going to be discovered by anyone else (unless I become extremely popular). It's going to take a serious stalker to comb through dozens of posts just to arrive here. For you who are about to read this though, let's just keep this between you and me, shall we?

April 28, 2013

PROLOGUE

Hello Ma'am.

I hope you don’t mind if I give you this letter. I’m not sure if there’s someone among your staff who’s foolish enough to commit these thoughts into writing. So I did it myself. There’s nothing to lose, anyway.

To begin, thank you very much Ma'am. Despite how it ended, my stay in the company is something I can never regret: I got the chance to meet you, new faces, and new friends. At this point, I only have gratitude for the company.

I also apologize for the inconvenience my resignation has caused. I know I left at a bad time and I’m sorry. I really am.

Before anything else, let me be clear first lest you mistake me. I hold a great deal of respect for you Ma'am. Your work ethic and the effort you put into your job is downright remarkable. A lot of things did happen since last year. Yet, you’ve held the BC together despite this. Take a look and we’re still here. In fact, we’ve managed and moved on. That’s a testament to your attitude and ability. That alone deserves a round of applause.

However, like everything else, things can get better. As the cliché goes, there’s always room for improvement.

What follows are my personal sentiments; they may not be shared by the rest. But I hope that I might enlighten you on some things. Perhaps, it may make you a better manager. Or you might teach me instead a thing or two about leadership. I really don’t know.

First, allow me to give you a silver lining: with my departure, you will be working with staff who cannot compare you to your predecessor. You will now be with people who do not know Ma'am Goku.

Needless to say, I have always looked up to Ma'am Goku. Looking back, the way she handled the branches, the RMs, her staff, her bosses, and her officers was simply awesome. There’s absolutely no need to elaborate on this. She was really a leader and, more importantly, she reached out. For me, she was the closest thing to a rock star if the BC ever had one.

I know it’s definitely not fair of you to be compared to her. But you probably know this is unavoidable. That’s why my departure, in a way, is a silver lining. It’s because you Ma'am deserve to be working with staff who have faith in how you lead, who believe that you are indeed a BC head. You deserve people who will not question or second-guess your competence or who will compare you to Ma'am Goku and sadly find you wanting.

This wasn’t supposed to be. Personally, I was happy for you when Sir Yamcha announced to the group the news. Admittedly, you were raw and you weren’t ready but, even still, you had it. The potential was there.

My hope is that, over time, people can appreciate you even more. I hope that, by the mere mention of your name, people will say you’re amazing, that all along, you were the right pick for the job.

Let’s start now.

INVOLVE THE STAFF

You’re probably familiar with the business maxim: Take care of your people and they’ll take care of you. The BC isn’t an exception. If we know that you care, we’ll take care of your performance. The tricky part is getting us to know.

I first heard the news that we failed audit from Ma'am Vegeta. It was Holy Week and I was surprised that the other departments already knew while we didn’t. Or more specifically, most of the Dragonball marketing staff didn’t.

At first, I thought the news will eventually be shared, that you were waiting for the right time to do so. But now, more than a month since, I‘m doubting if you still want to share it.

This instance, I presume, underscores your perception of the department: there’s you, there’s the team, and there’s the staff. There are many more instances like this wherein important information isn’t trickled down to us, where it is limited solely to your clique of officers. I don’t know if you instruct them to disseminate information to us but the bottom line is we are left outside looking in.

This isn’t ideal. It creates a disjoint between management and the staff. It doesn’t make a team out of the department.

I hope you can fully appreciate Ma'am the caliber of people that comprise your staff. These are persons who are achievers to begin with; they do try hard to excel. But the communication gap prevents us from doing so.

Show us that you care. We would appreciate it if you can give us the feedback necessary to do our jobs. Include us in the loop. How are we doing vis-à-vis the other BCs? What are your KRAs and what have we achieved so far? What’s left to be done? Ask us how we’re doing and we’ll make sure you’re doing well.

To be fair Ma'am, you did try to involve us. I remember one instance last December that, out of the blue, you emailed us that we were behind target, you showed the figures, and exhorted everyone to give their best effort. But it was a classic case of "too little, too late". My first reaction then was, "Why only now?"

On a lighter note, you do know there’s a big difference between telling people what to do and asking people what they can do. The former reeks of traditional management which paints the manager as a taskmaster. The latter envisions the manager letting their subordinates manage themselves.

I hope you will be the latter Ma'am. In our case, we have the docdef issue and the volume/portfolio performance to live with. Instead of instructing your staff or officers to reduce docdefs by this number or to achieve the target by month-end, try asking us what we can do to achieve your KRAs. Who knows? You might be surprised at what we might suggest.

Other than that, you will have our utmost commitment to do what needs to be done because the solution is coming from us. It’s not a directive imposed by management; it’s instead a self-made promise that we will try our best to deliver.

CARE ABOUT THE SMALL STUFF

During the staff meeting last January, you mentioned that you will be meeting each product team personally to discuss matters. If I remember right, you said the same thing last year after you presented to us your brilliant SWOT analysis. Last year, the meetings never materialized (You were busy). This year, the same thing happened (You were busier still).

This is simply small stuff. Even so, I hope you care about the small stuff because it really does matter. Going back to the situation earlier, if you have to say something like that, make sure you can do it. All of us are aware of the adage that if we commit to a client, we better make sure we can deliver. Same rule applies to the "small stuff". Moreover, words that you say Ma'am, in your capacity as the head, are not easily forgotten.

Another small stuff: staff meetings. Now I understand why Sir Gohan was adamant about this even before he left. Last year, he was pestering you to hold a meeting at least once a month. But you were busy then to heed his calls and, this year, you still are. With this, allow me to share a modified saying, courtesy of myself, which says, “Kung gusto, may paraan. Kung ayaw, palaging busy.”

You obviously know Ma’am the purpose why we have a staff meeting. I hope you can also appreciate the intangibles that come with it and eventually learn to value it as well. Staff meetings are not just avenues to talk about concerns. They are also opportunities to bolster camaraderie and boost motivation; it feeds the idea that we are in this together as a team. Again, "small stuff".

MAKE PEACE

I don’t know what came up after your coordination meeting with Operations but anyone can say there’s still a lot of animosity between the two departments.

I may be a hypocrite for saying this, given that I have a long history of quarreling with the people upstairs. But you got to make peace with Operations. You got to make sure there’s a positive working environment we can all dwell in. We’ve got to be confident enough to say that, at the end of the day, no anger lingers in our veins.

I hope I make sense and I do hope I am way wrong with my assumption. But from the way I see it now, we’re no way closer to working with Operations in a more congenial way.

As children, we don’t want to see our parents fight. In the same way, we don’t want to see the BC Head and the Ops Head hold a cold war above our heads. It becomes toxic after awhile.

I hope that, in due time, you can do a team building activity together with them with no shred of reluctance. I also hope that next year’s summer outing will be an inter-departmental event, in line with a “tradition” that was championed by Sir Trunks, Ma’am Goku, and, finally, Sir Gohan.

EPILOGUE

That’s it Ma’am.

But, then again, I have never managed anyone nor have I taken management in UP. My three years is nothing compared to your experience.

Who am I to tell you what to do?

Good luck Ma'am and God bless you.

Sincerely Yours,

Paolo Bataller