Energy Leadership, 2nd Edition

4“I Want It Now!”

If you want to build a ship, don't gather your people and ask them to provide wood, prepare tools, and assign tasks. Call them together and raise in their minds the longing for the endless sea.

—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, writer and aviator

“Whoa,” I exclaimed. “Hold on there, buddy. It must be extremely upsetting to you to lose an important account. Why are you blowing it off?”

Richard was slow to respond. He said he was aware this might happen because Nate hadn't serviced the account properly. It was only when Richard had forced him to do so that Nate had actually visited the client in person. Nate must have gone to Simpson and Simpson not long after we saw him in the hall, and it had obviously been too late to salvage the relationship.

“I'm not blowing it off. It's just that the water's already under the bridge. There's nothing I can do now, and blasting Nate or anyone else won't accomplish anything. Getting mad would just be unprofessional and unproductive at this point. Really, Bruce, there's nothing I can do about this one.”

Now we had at least three items on the docket, despite Richard's nonchalance: He was dealing with the loss of a major revenue source, Simpson and Simpson, both from an emotional perspective as well as his firm decision to just let it go without a fight; addressing Don's ultimatum and his continuing brawl with Tonya; and answering Christina's request for a raise. In addition, there were underlying issues, some of which we'd uncovered ...