The recent announcement from Virgin Blue regarding their new CEO, got me thinking about friends and colleagues.
I always find it interesting when friends and colleagues go separate ways and end up on opposition teams. It was always a challenge playing against mates as a youngster, looking across the field and seeing someone you’ll ride home with. Mostly everything was left on the field and you rode your bikes home together via the milkshake shop.
Things change dramatically when you grow up and you have KPIs, SLAs and huge expectations from your new employer that may have drastic ramifications on your old relationships.
We’ve all changed teams at one time or another and I know from personal experience that old relationships can suffer, but do they need to?
Why were you friends and colleagues to begin with? Surely trust and credibility were high on the agenda. So how does that disappear when you leave?
The effort required to keep those chains of friendship intact can sometimes be too great and it’s often easier to just side with others on your team against past connections. This can certainly lead to extra motivation for those that leave.
It will be interesting to see what the domestic landscape looks like in 6 months with both major carriers being led by colleagues with a past connection to just one of those carriers.
Can business be done without the loss of past relationships? I’d like to think so but have grave reservations, based on past experience.
1 comment:
I think that in this particular case you are very right to doubt that the past relationship will survive. For the rest of us, who don't have the personal relationship involvement, there are certainly going to be interesting times ahead...!
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