Three Things I Learned In SaaS, Sports, Tech, & Live Events
On cuts, layoffs, and downsizing - the worst part of competition
Three Things I Learned In SaaS, Sports, Tech, & Live Events:
On layoffs, cuts, and competition. They are the worst part of competition for everyone involved - and most so for those cut.
What I learned about cutting, getting cut, and layoffs
1. Surviving an attacking bear is a lot different than advancing a career.
Growing up playing sports, there were always tryouts. And, unfortunately, there usually weren't enough spots for everyone.
Usually, when someone doesn't make a team, get one of the promotions, or gets caught in downsizing, they focus on who they believe was the worst of those who did get the job.
"They took 12 players, and I'm better than the 11th and 12th" is a trap.
There are often reasons those last two are in their spots. An example:
When I played club volleyball growing up, we had a team with invitation-only tryouts during my junior year. Nike had pulled together the best local players and started a club with only one team in one age group to win gold in 1997. The coach, flying in weekly from Los Angeles, took ten kids. I was tenth.
There were a lot of better players than me who complained, but I was taken as a project with potential. The following year, I was a starter.
In my senior year, we took ten kids once again. One of them, my good friend to this day, played defense. We took him over a lot of outstanding players who could play multiple positions. They all whined, and still do, that they were "robbed by politics" and should have been on the team instead of him.
They are wrong. He was a good player, and, more importantly, he was the absolute best teammate any of us ever had. He was a huge reason for all our success- which made him more valuable to our team than any of those other guys.
When a sales team does layoffs, they often cut the "bottom 30%." Now, I'm not justifying layoffs at all. (We're guilty of it once - 13 people at the beginning of Covid, when live events went away for a year - done before PPP - and hired them all back within six months.) But nobody in the top 50% is concerned. The top half of the leaderboard is usually safe.
We're not running from a bear. We need to try and be at the top of the pack. Trust me, I've been 10th out of 10. I’ve also been cut. It's not a place anyone wants to be.
2. Cut to the clear line.
I learned a similar lesson from my better half, who was a competitive cheerleader growing up at the highest levels. Her coach would say every year there was no roster size; they would "cut to the natural line," which I find to be terrific wisdom.
When we set out to hire X number of people for a team, we sometimes don’t find enough talented people. But sometimes we find too many. I've found cheer coach advice perfect: Cut to the natural line. One of our best hires was an "extra" hire in 2013. She's on the executive team here today.
3. Sometimes it's just not personal.
Everything is personal to us. It's who we are . But sometimes, there just isn't room and a decision has to be made. Sometimes, it's not because we're not good enough, it's because someone is a better fit for what they're looking for. I was told, in college, I didn't get an internship because I wasn't professional enough in how I spoke. Then I made a nice living in sales. I wish we lived in a world where we could hire everyone and everyone made the team. But sometimes, not making it is the best blessing.