As a small business owner, I face many challenges but one of the most frustrating for me is defending being single threaded. While I understand the concern; why am I being held to a higher standard? I am here to tell you that my lifetime of experience has taught me that all companies have that same problem “everyone is “single threaded.” Large companies will never staff up to a level that would provide the type of meaningful redundancy clients’ demand. The bigger the company the more thinly spread are their employees. My dealings with vendors, clients, and other service-related people that I encounter in both business and professional settings proves this is more than just anecdotal.
Unless you are working at a call center/help desk/assembly line no one really has a backup, not the kind that provides value. Sure, someone may return a call or an email while covering for a colleague, but they are never truly prepared to get in the weeds to get the job done. “Your query is registered but we’ll have to wait until Joe gets back to handle.” Let’s also keep this in perspective; while I don’t like to diminish the work, I do; we’re not saving lives. Nothing is so crucial that it can’t wait a day, or a week to get done so let’s lighten up or at least apply the same standards across the board.
The last company I founded was small, we had about 6 people covering 10 clients. My role was client facing and I was charged with overseeing service delivery from an operational standpoint, all employees reported to me. I had 2 extremely talented lieutenants who had very similar skillsets but there was an aspect of my job; an explicit expertise I was selling that wasn’t mirrored by other staff members. Being a consultant for most of my professional life prepared me for service delivery. While I argue that no one really has job security anymore; as a consultant you are easier to dispose of, which means you need to outperform, provide value or else…. Knowing my name was on the door guaranteed a certain level of service I could argue you rarely find in larger corporations. You could say I was single threaded for that specific function.
Hence my gripe when I am told people are concerned about my lack of a deep bench. You will find at most firms there are only a small amount of overperformers, those who may be able to step in to provide support, when necessary, much like utility players. But most firms are not professional sporting teams who need to win to strengthen their brand.
In my current role I deal with very large vendors all with name recognition and most of the people I deal with are single threaded. When they go on vacay their away message provides cover while they are OOO, but that usually results in a thud. Not everyone can prepare their backup for every nuanced conversation that has taken place over the course of months that it sometimes takes to negotiate these large data agreements. It’s never a general question that needs answering but something much more specific.
One client I was pitching business to, was reluctant to hire me until the person I was hoping to replace who was also single threaded disappeared for a week. Light bulb moment for him but I also told him that in his capacity as a C Level executive, in his role for 15 years he was also single threaded. There is no amount of prep that will replace all the institutional knowledge someone stores up over the course of their tenure at a firm. While nobody is indispensable there will be rough spots until they hire a suitable replacement, and that person gets up to speed.
Most recently I needed to expand my business insurance. I was working with my long-time agent over the course of a few days; she still owed me additional information and then I received the dreaded OOO for 4 days. Since I am trying to close additional business, I wasn’t expecting her to disappear. But not to worry she has 2 backups on her away message. Neither one of them had any idea of where my quote stood, (they clearly were not up to speed,) but she had backups in the email, too bad they were useless to me.
Gotta love the box checkers….
Another potential client of mine relayed her frustration with one of her vendors who was supplying a service to her. Apparently when the main person who runs the account day to day is on vacation, the workflow stops. While this vendor professes to support their client with a team of people it is mainly back slappers and glad handers, showing up without the skills to fill in for said employee, which means even companies that appear to have deep organizations are really paper thin. That team assembled for the Holiday card looks great but falls flat on value creation. Their weekly call is more of a PR event, masquerading as client support. You are important to us, let’s assemble a team of ill-suited resources to support you. It reminds me of the scene from the movie Erin Brockovich where the senior partner at the small law firm Erin was working at felt they needed to fill the conference room with all their employees (none of whom were lawyers) to create the illusion of a deeper bench of professionals as a defense against the large utility PGE with their stable of attorneys. In the end “Single threaded Erin” was all they needed.
An old colleague of mine used to remind me that “perception is reality” but is it? only if you don’t look deep enough. As it relates to being single threaded it may be best to give people a chance before we label them.
