"Back in the mid-90's I owned a small company that designed and developed internet sites. We were experts in the use of database driven sites before there were good tools or lots of experience and our client list was full of great companies like HP and Sun.
But we were struggling with the cost of explosive growth and every new project was celebrated.
I had a call from a hot new company in Silicon Valley who had been referred to us. The CEO was interested in our content management system for his sports news site. It was a perfect fit for our technology and it would be an awesome showcase. We took the job for much less than what it should have cost and it was still just a bit over $100K.
The whole team jumped into it full force. His team had been managing the site by hand and they were even more excited than we were. Plus we had to do a complete site makeover to take advantage of the database system. It was a win-win all the way around.
Except that the CEO was a fanatic micromanager. And he blew up at people at random.
I understood the pressure he was under from his venture partners and the competition in his marketspace was fierce. I worked with my team to deal with it as best we could.
Then, during an internal project meeting, the project manager told me she didn't know if she could work with this project anymore. And she told me some of the things he'd said on the phone to her and others on the team.
This was my best project manager. She was well trained, competent, professional, experienced and - on top of all that - one of the sweetest people you'd ever meet. I'd never seen her in such a state and, inside myself, I knew that it was time for me to take responsibility for my team.
I thought about it overnight and got my team together the next morning. I told them I was firing this customer and refunding all their money. It was a huge hit in every possible way but they agreed that it was for the best.
I was in Colorado and the customer was in Palo Alto, California so I decided it was wiser to give them the word over the phone immediately rather than flying out in person.
I called the CEO and told him - using the most level voice and manner I could muster - that we could no longer work for him. He'd never blown up with me before, but he did then. He made all kinds of assumptions about my company and our ability to perform.
I let him blow off his steam and then told him that none of those "reasons" were why I'd made the decision. I then gave him three explicit examples of his actions toward my team and why they were unacceptable. I told him that my decision was final and that a check would be in the mail that afternoon.
After a few minutes of dead silence I heard a completely different person speaking on the phone. He asked me a few more questions about his interactions with my employees and then said, "Well, you've got to do what you've got to do and so do I". But it didn't sound like a threat, it was just a deep resignation.
I told the team what had happened and we started picking up the pieces and moving on. About half an hour later my phone rang. The CEO was on the line. He told me he'd called his top managers and asked them about his actions.
They all confirmed that he made their lives a living hell and that it was embarrassing when he did it to their trusted partners. He thanked me for being straight with him and asked if I'd meet with him and his team the next day.
They wanted fly out and straighten things out so we could move forward. I told him that I'd have to take it up with my team because we'd all agreed that it was over.
We decided that we would take the project back up but only if the CEO agreed to stay out of it completely and to use professional behavior during any interactions with our team. He agreed.
We met on Saturday for a full day and the tone was amazing. He talked to me privately for almost two hours and poured out his soul.
We finished the project on schedule. He got another round of venture funding and sold the whole business to ESPN for a ton of money. But I think we got the better end of the deal. There is nothing more empowering than good boundaries clearly stated and held. It was a defining moment for me as a leader and for my employees as a team."
- Adriel Brunson
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