Business luck

I have a similar story to Ricky Ledée's.

In some ways. Not in others.

When I graduated college with a degree in accounting, I went to work with a large public accounting firm. There’s nothing unusual in that move. I figured out pretty quickly that I didn’t much care for it. So, I went a different direction and took a role as an internal auditor. Meaningful to me, but that’s not the important part. 

The important part was the company - and the people - I joined. 

And here, finally, is the similarity to Ricky Ledée. I lucked into joining a very successful team. And I didn’t recognized it at the time. 

This was a regional banking group. And it was led by prominent, very successful business people. They had high ethical and performance standards. They sought out the best talent. They established a culture where everyone knew their role. The top executives took good care of the rest of us. They paid us fairly. Many of us were allowed to share in the company’s success with stock and bonuses. It was wonderful. There was just - something - that made success so easy. 

We were so successful that another bank bought us. And we became a regional division of this larger bank. Fortunately, that company also had a great culture and a long history of success. 

But there was another merger. Then another. And, ultimately, the high-performing culture from 10 years earlier was long lost. Over those 10 years, we went from a very manageable organization of, maybe, 500 people to being completely broken apart and integrated into a global company of over 100,000 employees.

Clearly, at this point I wasn't a significant part of this huge organization's success. It had stopped being an adventure for me. Now, it was just a job. I was a spot on an org chart. That’s when I left. 

I worked at a handful other companies in the following 20 years. Some were good. A few were not.

And, like Ricky, I was never again a member of a team that routinely operated at that top level of success. 

Looking back, the success we all shared at the regional bank group started with clarity. We all knew the direction we were heading. We each had clear responsibilities. We were all expected to deliver the outcomes entrusted to us. We all knew each other. We trusted each other. We relied on each other. We were engaged, together, on a common mission. And we delivered.

Some of my subsequent employers - the good ones - were solid. But things were never quite so clear and easy. The differences wouldn't be noticeable by most people. But, because I had seen better, I recognized it - three things weren’t as prominent. They weren’t completely lacking. But they weren’t emphasized. And that, honestly, made a huge difference.

My earlier regional banking group had a clear emphasis on alignment, accountability, and transparency. In my subsequent organizations, it’s not that they intentionally ignored these things. It just wasn’t their focus. They didn’t govern around these three core ideas.

These things need to be embedded in the culture.

That was the difference.