PERSPECTIVES by verville
It’s Never Personal; It’s Business. I
By Claude R. Verville, LPC Verville is the former vice president of loss prevention, safety, and hazmat at Lowe’s. He joined the company in 1993 and was promoted to VP in 1998. Verville started his LP career in California at Robinsons-May, a subsidiary of The May Company, where he worked thirteen years leaving as director of investigations. He has been a leading voice in the LP industry as a member of the Loss Prevention Foundation board of directors, LP Magazine editorial board, and the Retail Industry Leaders Association steering committee. He can be reached at ClaudeV@LPportal.com.
’m pretty sure most if not all our readers have heard this line on many occasions during their careers. Whether you are a loss prevention professional at the store, district, region, or corporate level, you have likely been on the receiving end of this phrase. As a recipient of this phrase over the years, I was fairly certain on some occasions that the issues and decisions being made had in fact been determined based on individuals’ personal opinions and experiences and often with limited exposure to my team’s winning formula. Even more troubling was when successful performance was not a key element in the decisions. As I heard on some occasions, “Claude, this is not about your team’s failure to perform to the established objectives; this is strictly a business decision.” Oh, okay then. In particular, a negative situation where not all perspectives had been solicited—which I realized was not always a requirement when tough business decisions had to be made—just made accepting the news and the subsequent outcome that much less palpable for me to digest. I will never forget one experience I had in my early years as a vice president of LP and safety. During a weekly executive store operations meeting, I was advised of a decision that required me to eliminate approximately fifty district-level LP and safety manager positions—one-third of my field district staff—within the next thirty days. As is often the case at the corporate level, I was not aware of or briefed on this decision prior to this weekly staff meeting. As anyone can imagine, I was less than enthusiastic, joyful, and supportive when all eyes turned toward me to gauge my response. As I sat in shock and thought about the personal impact this was going to have on these highly productive, committed, loyal employees, the next topic of conversation quickly turned to how many vehicles would be given out at our upcoming national sales meeting. One of the suggestions was to increase the number of vehicles. I, without much forethought, blurted out, “Maybe we give away a few less vehicles instead of reducing my field staff by 33 percent.” Later that evening, I received a heads-up call from one of the executives who had been in the meeting, who happened to be a huge supporter of my team. This executive understood my frustration and took the time to explain to me the importance of always remaining composed during such moments. He then informed me just how upset the lead executive was at my response and advised me to call
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the lead executive and apologize before more time elapsed to avoid any further consequences. I took his advice and contacted the lead executive. Do you want to guess what line was bestowed upon me? You guessed it—“Claude, it’s never personal; it’s business.”
Recognizing Your Supporters and Understanding Your Adversaries
Years later, I was told in confidence how close I actually came to being a former employee—one of my many encounters with near death, so to speak. The moral of this story: even if you suspect that it is indeed personal, don’t go there like I did. Stay calm, internalize your feelings, and keep in mind there is much at stake, both short term and long term. Everyone at every level—store, field, and corporate—will have supporters and detractors. And it is critical that we learn how and when to leverage the supporters while coming to terms with what we must do to change the attitudes and perspectives of our detractors.
Everyone at every level—store, field, and corporate—will have supporters and detractors. And it is critical that we learn how and when to leverage the supporters while coming to terms with what we must do to change the attitudes and perspectives of our detractors. I have absolutely no doubt that all people from all walks of life sometimes simply cannot forget, forgive, or let go of encounters that may have occurred years earlier. As a result, they will continually paint you and your team with the same negative brush, whether you are present or absent in the conversation. This of course becomes detrimental for
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