Virginia Garrosino was the most high-ranking mentor I ever had.
My largest client in the digital print management world was worth 50 percent of my annual sales.
My relationship with Virginia evolved more out of curiosity on her part than anything else: who was this little upstart in Calgary turning the branch upside down after she sent our Bill Gates twin named Thomas [fictionalized name] the Alberta Sales Manager who was charged with assessing what was going on. Thor was givin the instruction to fire me and instead he took me for a beer to have a chat.
When I showed up for work by my typical 7:45~8:45am arrival timeframe, a few jaws dropped because rumour had it I was going to be fired the day before.
Virginia was curioser and curiousness enveloped her to get to know me since she wanted to sharpen her own judgment radar since the logic that was contiously reinforced the second time when she may have made an error in judgement. I think it was because two folks from opposite spectrums had plenty to say of me.
In an unusual approach in relationship building, I had actually made the recommendation to go to market. The response earned an invitation to the table of the RFF.
An RFP?
= request for proposal
Which means you have been invited to the song and dance to win a contract to have exclusive service agreement.
Thom was in his element, the roll up your shirt sleeves and going on the offensive to win it.
I knew my customer.
I knew the operation, the players and the numbers.
I started creating spreadsheets, a very arduous task when you think of 500 accounts all bundled in a big brother time management exercise like Goldmine.
Even then it wasn’t obvious on how important forecasting was to most people. I started thinking in 3 month increments.
Virginia came to Calgary and her E A set up meetings, stating she would like me to make reservations for lunch.
The interesting thing, no there are too many interesting things not to share: her background in HR (Human Resources who were covered by elegant, poised, intelligent women with a very firm and business first commitment.
One thing she said at a very dicey situation belonging to my biggest account: we’d f”@&=% up. Wisdom abound: everyone makes mistake but it is how you react at the moment is what you become reputed to be. So,yes, I buckled down and steered through turbulent waters to achievement and acclaim.
Virginia was smart enough to take the time to get to know me, asking me how I could be so successful in sales with 3 small kids at home.
It was easy. I had wonderful care for my kids so that I could escape for the day in the world of sales then waltz through the door, slip out the back with running shoes and headset pumping upbeats while I went through the decompression phase that men had been doing for eras, not merely years.
It was like I was playing hookey from doing laundry, cleaning toilets and dusting to a continuous shine. I got to go learn new things daily and converse with people all day.
This all came to mind after watching Canadian political drama for the past 24 hours, watching this evening’s news unfold: the Ontario provincial ruling party at risk to a complete about face that happened in my own province Alberta and more recently about spin in British Columbia Premier ousted.
The brief clip on the matter allowed me to come to this conclusion.
The interim Conservative [REF: US politics “Republican”] party leader will go far in Canadian: he stepped into it because it was needed for the good of a number of people rather than how it would impact him personally.
The risk is greater to an individual than a group.
Yet the greatest leaders take the risk alone, taking full responsibility
For the good or the bad
Emerging victorious
When knowing how to make good judgment calls
Is a gift and characteristic that is rare.
~Jeannette Marshall
@optioneerJM
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