Member-only story
For my first year as a program manager, I always had this lurking feeling that I was on the chopping block.
If my department had a bad sales month, I felt this impulsive need to find some way to justify my team’s performance and prove that we were worth keeping around. I would put together a strategy to present to the company that included charts, creative new ideas for drumming up more business, and bold ideas. It might sound like this was fueling me to move forward in positive direction — and to a degree it was — but it lacked the kind of targeted power that created indisputable value.
My small team was pushing millions of dollars in product sales. However, because of the thin-margin nature of the IT industry, it was unclear if we were even providing a net benefit to company.
This is a common experience for sales reps and managers.
The reason for this dilemma is because very few employees have the mindset of a business owner.
Very few are willing to be an intrapreneur that can genuinely care about the company’s profitability as much as they care about getting their own paycheck.
