You hired him. You built him. He listened. He worked his fool head off. He played by the rules. He got that giant trophy client. You fed him some resources and he payed you back with a pile of revenue. You helped him through a bad situation with a client or regarding an order or just simply a tough time in his life. He told everyone how great you are including the regional who complimented you on what a great find he was.
George had a smart producer, let’s call her Charlotte, who was early in the 401k business. Lots of assets but relatively little revenue but the trajectory was straight up. Ed inherited a hard worker, let’s call him Chris, from the previous manager. Clients loved him and sent him referrals by the truckload. Ed cleared away some serious office problems with assistants and Chris flourished.
Then one day, it seemed like overnight, Charlotte and Chris suddenly got smarter than the boss and the firm and the industry. And they made sure to make their presence known to regional management that they were now smarter than the manager. George’s regional had it figured out but Ed’s never quite got it. These folks had come down with an affliction known in this business as the “Rising W-2 increases Intelligence” Syndrome.
Ed thinks he was slow to recognize this in Chris. He figured it out when the Regional confessed that Chris was overtly trying to undermine Ed in and out of the branch and that that info had come to him from Chris himself. George lost Charlotte to the competition since George simply refused let Charlotte run all over him and Charlotte’s disease would not allow for any other solution. Ironically, Charlotte actually left George a second time after George’s firm acquired Charlotte’s firm.
The good news is that this affliction is generally temporary. How long the duration varies from producer to producer. There seems to be two different ways of dealing with this disease: either squish them early and often or treat them like any other producer and wait for it to pass.
You can’t fake the “squish” method. This is the oldest of old school techniques and is usually reserved for the most senior of managers. This dying breed can get away with saying and doing stuff to producers that George and Chris never felt comfortable with. If you are going to be a drill sergeant, go ahead and be one but that better be who you really are.
If you are not that type, then there are 5 things you can do to hasten the disease’s demise. (Yes, these are the commandments. Try to keep up OK?)
1) Call it to the producer’s attention early and often, but do so in private. If you do it in public you risk bruising these newly maturing bananas. And you know what happens to bananas once they’re bruised.
2) Feed their ego in public. They are sometimes craving attention and public praise goes a long way to helping the relationship. Acknowledge the big new account or the creative investment idea.
3) Give them unexpected spiffs if it is deserved. Give her a better office. Remove some work from her assistant. Take her and her spouse out to dinner. Most importantly, do this when it is not expected or requested.
4) Give her inside scoop of information. If you hear a bigwig type is getting shot, be sure she hears it from you before the rest of the crowd does.
5) Do not do anything for them before they earn it (or at least when they are certain to earn it) or anything you wouldn’t do for a similar producer.
How have you dealt with the young producer who gets too big for his/her shoes? Got a story you can share anonymously? We want to hear it at manageia2@gmail.com.
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