Promotion, promotion, promotion, cinnamon roll edition.  

How Not To Deliver Bad News  

In spring 2004 it was clear an NHL work stoppage was coming. Our team of 20+ salespeople sold full-time through the summer. Then we hoped for a season. As the games were cancelled, we "lost" the commission we would have earned. Finally, the season was cancelled and a meeting called the next morning for an hour earlier than our start time.  

Finally there would be answers. How would commission be handled? Were we being furloughed? Laid-off? When?

The room was set up with 6 managers in the front, the rest in a U around the room and plates of cinnamon rolls in the middle. It was the single most tone deaf experience in my career as management announced promotions for one another  giving them new revenue streams to manage and raises while we'd all just lost tens of thousands.  

It concluded with management smiling and  encouraging us to "enjoy the cinnamon rolls!"  

That meeting shaped my career. Three things I learned- all applicable today:  

1) Never announce your own good fortune to a team getting no benefit from it. It ruins morale and serves no benefit. That includes the self-aggrandizing individual achievement press releases and posts.  

2) If you get a "cinnamon roll," it's time to go find somewhere you're appreciated elsewhere.  

3) Always be learning. As Matthew McConaughey says: To find out who you are you can first decide who you are not. Nobody on any team I serve will ever feel like that. Ever.  

The story has a happy ending. Three of us did leave- two are CEOs of $100mm+ businesses and another is a multi-millionaire.  

Oh….and I didn't eat any cinnamon rolls. (And if you know me, you know I LOVE cinnamon rolls).