Page 109 - Never Fly Solo

82 | NEVER FLY SOLO
Regional managers, supervisors, and internal staff need to
see and be seen with their wingmen. E-mails are good ways
to communicate, but sometimes you just have to shake hands
in person, see each other face-to-face, and openly offer your
help and support.
In a large organization with many departments, connect-
ing across organizational silos builds an appreciation of what
each entity does. But in most companies, IT has no idea what
finance does or what challenges it faces. Sales shies away from
engineering, and marketing never touches base with HR
unless it has to. But in those organizations where they do keep
sight of each other, observe each other in action, and under-
stand each other’s processes, trust develops. And when trust
is built, performance rises. Bottom line: you need to feel con-
fident that when you call on your wingmen to get a job done,
they’ll be flying with you “same way, same day.”
What about your vendors, partners, or customers? Are
they keeping sight of you, and are you keeping sight of
them?
If you’ve been to one of my programs, you may still have
one of my gold and silver “Never Fly Solo, Wingman” team-
work coins. My clients love these coins, which symbolize the
mission to win as one unified team. I had a great vendor out
of New Jersey who supplied these coins to me for three years,
and we developed a great relationship. After a while, though,
we just lost touch. When a new coin supplier from northern
California pitched me on his coins, guess what? I listened. He
wound up being a really nice sales rep, and he developed a
custom “Wingman” coin for me at a better price than my
previous vendor’s. Here’s the thing: I probably never would
have entertained this new vendor’s call if my current vendor
had kept in touch with me.