As a young man, I spent a lot of time being right—and I was really good at it. I was a veritable superstar in everything I took on in business; I worked harder than everyone else, and I was right. If I wasn’t right, then I at least believed that I was SO passionately that I could convince, cajole, or just wear out anyone who wanted to disagree. I was RIGHT, and I won. A lot.
As a young man, I thought others found my passion and drive admirable, maybe even inspirational. It was certainly effective—at least in the short term. As age, maturity, and life lessons were imparted on me, however, the truth became very real—I was pretty much just a jerk, even a bully. I had to hit my head pretty hard, and pretty much foul up every aspect of my life personally and professionally to reach that realization, but it finally came. Along with the realization came a lot of pain, a lot of humility, but more importantly, a renewed perspective and resolve to do the right thing, no matter how uncomfortable that might be.
At this point, you’re probably wondering, other than a, “column confessional,” what my point could possibly be, and how does it relate to YOUR TEAM?
Since my “conversion”, I have had a lot of opportunities to encourage and promote my staff to do the right thing. Sure, here or there it might cost a few dollars—in some cases it cost uncomfortable conversations, and even losing customers, but in the long run, the ability to sleep well at night and really believe in what we do and how we do it, that’s a reward. Of course, I believe firmly and I see daily that customers also notice our culture of doing the right thing, and ultimately, we have been rewarded with great success and unparalleled customer loyalty.
I’ve had great success imparting my philosophy on my staff, but what about the rest of my TEAM?
In July, a member of my staff was mowing a vacant field behind our shop. Something happened, we are unsure what, but what we do know happened is that the mower being towed behind our shop-owned ATV, driven by a uniformed shop employee, working on shop time, doing what my shop manager told him to do…caused a fire. The fire was “minor” in fire terms I guess, but it damaged about 300’ of neighboring property owner’s fences, landscaping, backyard sheds, etc.
Of course, we initiated a claim with our insurance company. Thus started, the dance. Over the course of the next two or three months, we were thrown a series of hoops to jump through, all while the insurance company danced around responsibility, and all while I had 3 angry homeowners contacting me almost daily wanting to know what was happening.
First, the insurance company claimed the property wasn’t covered because we didn’t own it, and it wasn’t specifically insured. We handled that objection. Then, they were waiting on the fire report. Then, they took a specific WORD in the fire report, and said that because of that word, we were not legally responsible. With threats of lawsuits all around me, I got an attorney involved to attempt to compel the insurance company to act. This didn’t encourage them at all.
Based on what the insurance company was hanging their hat on, I implored the fire investigator to clarify his report, which resulted in a multiple page fire report supplement in which the fire department more or less called out the insurance company for inaction. I then submitted this supplementary report to the insurance company and asked them to make these homeowners whole, or I would do it myself. Apparently, having handled all of the insurance company’s manufactured objections just made them angry, because not only did they still refuse to acknowledge that we caused the fire, they actually threatened ME in a letter to my attorney, and essentially said I was not allowed to try to make these homeowners whole on my own.
Convinced that I had professionally, ethically, morally, spiritually, and in every way done everything that I could to do the right thing, I had a final heartfelt conversation with the homeowners. I truly believe that they understand that, particularly because of the poor conduct of my insurance company, I had attempted to work way above and beyond what an average business would have done for a neighbor that had been unintentionally damaged.
I did everything I could do, but I remained frustrated that I was not ALLOWED to do the RIGHT thing, and my insurance company refused.
Today, almost 4 months after the fire, I got served a lawsuit. I am being sued for approximately three times what it would have cost to make the homeowner happy if it had happened several months ago. Now, the insurance company that tosses around slogans akin to, “Problem Free” claims and how much they believe in the, “value of personal contact,” is going to be compelled contractually to act on my behalf. Because I was sued in small claims court, the insurance company will likely have to remove the case to a higher court that allows attorneys to be involved.
My guess is that the cost of simply responding to the lawsuit will well overshadow the cost that would have been incurred to make the homeowner happy in the first place. This, and my family business that has been deeply involved in our community for nearly 44 years now has a big black eye, and a dark spot on our otherwise stellar reputation. Why? Because they wanted to BE RIGHT, instead of doing the RIGHT THING.
So, now I ask you again…who is on YOUR team?
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