I recently found an event center adjacent to a restaurant and hotel I’ve been visiting for quite some time. However, I never knew they had an event center. I will use this space for my quarterly planning events moving forward. They have an event coordinator, it’s a beautiful location, the food is fantastic, and they have everything I like to deliver a primo product to my clients. What’s interesting is the location is next door to a building I used to be a stockbroker in 30+ years ago. The corner office of that building overlooked the pool of this event center that I’m now going to be utilizing.
I started telling my coach about this story which was quite some time ago. It had to be 30+ years. At the time I had a friend of mine that had the corner office. It was the primo office. And if you remember Wall Street or watched Suits on Netflix, there was a certain office, always the corner office, that people wanted. And a friend of mine shared that office with the best friend of the managing partner of the firm. Interestingly enough, the best friend of the owner wasn’t necessarily a producer. He was in this office simply because the managing partner wanted his friend to feel the energy from this top producer to hopefully bring his own game up.
Perry was the managing partner’s name, and he always used to say at the morning meetings, “Results talk, bullshit walks. Unless you’re getting results, don’t come crying to me.” Hmm, I wanted to share that corner office with Dwight, my friend. So, I asked Perry, “Perry, I know Dwight well. I’d like to share the corner office with him. I think he and I together in that office can produce some serious numbers.” Perry agreed on one condition. “When the month is up, you need to give the office back to Bob.” My reply was, “No problem.”
This was 30-plus years ago. And when you’re a stockbroker in your early 30s, we were a little bit arrogant back then. When the 30 days were up, I just so happened to have my best month in the business ever. Dwight and I absolutely, positively rocked it. No one could touch us in production as far as the two-man office. Shortly after that, Perry came in when I was working one afternoon and said, “Hey Mike, remember that deal we had?” Playing dumb my reply was, “I’m sorry, what deal?” He shares, “The deal was when the month is up, you would leave this office and let Bob back in.” I said, “Oh yeah, I changed my mind.” And that’s not something you say to Perry. He was very strong-willed and possessed a lot of intensity. For the next 10, 15, 20 minutes, there was a pretty intense, strong conversation taking place. To the point that he and I, both left the office and separately took a drive in our cars to cool down.
Later on, that evening in the office, Perry came in and said, “Hey Michael, no one ever talked to me in the way you talked to me today. You are one strong dog,” extended his hand, “This office is all yours. Keep up the great work.” I realized right then and there that when you feel strongly about something, you’re going to be challenged. There’s no doubt in my mind. However, people aren’t looking for yes men. Leaders are looking for people who are willing to step up and fight for what they want and feel they deserve. And when they meet them, yeah, it’ll be a little edgy in the beginning because two high-profile strivers both want to win. Perry and I were in a 15-minute conversation, I use that lightly, of who both wanted to win. However, in the end, we both looked at each other like, there’s a competitor, there’s a warrior. And those are the type of people that leaders, the strong dogs, really like doing business with and have on their team.
Lee Iacocca said a long time ago at Chrysler, “If everybody at this table agrees with me, you’re all fired. I need someone to disagree and challenge me so we can grow and get better.” So as a coach, I love those types of individuals who are willing to challenge me to get better so I can challenge them back to get better.
So, if you want that corner office, realize what it takes to get that corner office. Now that’s an old cliche of years back, but I’m sure in some of those high rises, in the brokerage industry and the other professional industries, there are still some people striving for that corner office. However, understand who you need to be to convince yourself and others that you deserve that corner office, and not just get it because of.
COACH MICHAEL DILL is an Award-Winning Certified Business Coach, global speaker, and published author. He is a proud Action Coach Franchise partner as well as the President of Power & Ice Wealth Creation a strategic leadership company that works with business owners, leaders, teams, and entrepreneurs to both develop a systematized and structured organization while accelerating their mindset, efficiencies, and effectiveness to grow both personally and professionally to achieve extraordinary results. He brings more than 40 years of business and entrepreneurial experience in his leadership, team training, and mentoring practice. Businesscoachmichaeldill.com