What Sort of A Name Do You Want To Make For Yourself?

I was speaking to a dentist the other day who was asking me my opinion of a marketing company.

It was a company that I had used when I owned my own dental business.

It was also a company whose services I recommended for dentist coaching clients of mine.

The dentist on the phone asked me whether I knew what happened with this company and any online real estate [websites and webpages] that they created if he [the dentist] wanted to “get out” of the agreement.

My response was simple.

“It’s difficult writing the pre-nup when you’re filing for divorce.”

Sorting out how an arrangement needs to end and is able to end is better done at the outset rather than during the actual separation.

It’s much easier to do if the parameters are defined before we need to end the [business] relationship.

Just like in personal relationships, there are always tears at the end.

Nobody likes to feel rejected.

And nobody likes to do the rejecting.

Well, nobody “normal” anyway….

So having our ground rules outlined at the beginning makes life easier at the end.

We can use this principle when negotiating employee agreements and contracts.

There is no doubt that most employee agreements will end.

And so by outlining the accepted mechanism of that end we are able to reduce the amount of trauma and disappointment that one party needs to be put through.

Sadly, with employment, a mechanism of dissociation is rarely accounted for, for some reason.

Yes, for some reason, we are somehow transported into a mythical land in the future somewhere where it is believed that employees will continue working for us forever and forever.

And really, does that sort of world ever exist?

All I know with employment agreements is that they really only provide a guideline of behaviours expected between two consenting adults.

In reality, employment arrangements often end in tears as well.

What happens is the employee decides this is not the place where they want to keep working, and they leave, often letting the employer down in the process.

Or the employee decides that this is the place where they do not wish to keep working, but they do not leave, and so simply just keep turning up for work physically and not mentally.

And who is that really fair on?

Not the owner.

And not the customers who have to interact with this recalcitrant person.

It’s no fun having to transact and interact with someone going through the motions.

So if you find yourself doing that, if you find yourself doodling through your day, then lets all make a concerted effort to rectify this sort of behavior.

As an employer, I remember fondly the employees who finished up on good terms, with plenty of advanced notice and agreement.

As an employer, I also remember those employees who for one reason or another had mentally quit but not physically quit.

And that wasn’t fair on their teammates, or their customers, or their employer, in reality.

We all like happy endings.

Planning for them, and living them, goes a long way towards maintaining a good reputation.

A few weeks ago I spoke to a dentist who was planning to sell to a corporate and then “do a runner”.