Well, Zack has left the Royals. What does that mean for them, and is there a meaning for the business world?
Longtime readers know that one of my afflictions is that I happen to be a Kansas City Royals fan. I remember the glory days of the 70s and 80s, but I have many more memories of mediocrity and failure. Following in the footsteps of this is yesterday’s news that the Royals have traded 2009 Cy Young Winner Zack Grienke. After thinking about it for a few minutes, I’m not sorry to see Zacko gone, and it goes along with my business philosophies.
Let’s look – quickly – at Zack’s positives. He was a pitcher with amazing control and ability, who had the ability – when he wanted to – to dominate hitters. The trouble is that Zack really didn’t want to all that often. True, he won the 2009 Cy Young, but 2009 was basically the year that his potential became reality. Last season, when it became obvious that the Royals were not going to contend, Zack basically quit on the team by going through the motions on too many nights. I have a lot of trouble with players who complain about their team not winning when they obviously are not giving it what they have in an effort to win.
The trouble was that Zack had a lot of negatives, from the official diagnosis of “anxiety disorder” to the less commonly diagnosed, but just as present, “spoiled brat syndrome.” The Royals did a lot for Zack. They drafted him in the first round when other teams projected him as a second or third round pick, and more importantly, when he very nearly walked away from baseball in 2005 (in fact, he did walk away), the Royals handled him with extreme patience and got him needed treatment, continued paying him, and did not penalize his Major League service time; other teams have simply cut bait in these instances. Had the Royals handled matters differently, there’s a good chance that Zack would have the best curveball of any grocery sacker in Florida. For that, the Royals were rewarded with Zack complaining about how much the team stunk last year, and how much he wanted to be traded. In fact, last week, he fired his agents in the belief that they had kept him from being traded.
The Royals, of course, could have kept him under contract for 2 more years – but why? For the record, I’ve looked at the players that the Royals got in return for Zack, and I’m fine with them. I’m also fine with the fact that they packaged Yuniesky Betancourt into the transaction, along with his too-high salary and too-low production; this is addition by subtraction.
So, let’s talk about what this means for business. I’ve always felt that, when managing a sales force, it was best to let my team know the rules early. Two of those rules are:
1. I evaluate you by PERFORMANCE, not by POTENTIAL. Potential gives you a honeymoon, but not a marriage. I have watched a number of companies hang onto salespeople for extended periods based on what they hoped the person could accomplish, instead of looking at what the salesperson was actuallyaccomplishing. This gets expensive really fast; had the Royals paid Zack the $26 million owed him for the next two seasons, it’s unlikely that they would have received $26 million worth of pitching performance.
2. If you say “quit,” you just did. Nonsense like “I’m thinking of leaving,” “I might quit,” or other such BS is, to me, a resignation. Too many business owners will work to try to rectify problems and turn the salesperson around when these phrases are uttered. It’s a waste of time. Once a person starts to think of leaving (and I can back this up from my own experience), enough energy is expended on that decision that the person can no longer perform at top capacity. That’s why, for me, this is one of those things that there is no coming back from. I’m always open to fixing problems, but come to me as an adult and don’t threaten me. On two occasions, salespeople have said in a fit of pique, “Well, I quit.” Two very surprised salespeople had their resignations processed ASAP. In the sales world, you’re either all the way in or all the way out.
Which circles us back to Zack. The Royals did the right thing by trading him. Interviews with other Royals have revealed that his teammates are not exactly crying in their beer over the quit. You’ll find the same after a malcontent salesperson leaves your company.
