By Bryan Stephens, Commercial Director, Appliance Traders Ltd
I've held six different roles at the same company. That's an unusual career shape in an era that prizes moving between employers, but it taught me something about team-building that I don't think I would have learned otherwise: the people who make a commercial team work are rarely the ones you'd pick from a resume alone.
Early in my time managing a sales and commercial division, I introduced an internal incentive program aimed at lifting quota attainment. It worked, but not because it motivated people in some abstract sense — it worked because it made the connection between effort and reward legible. Most underperformance I've seen has less to do with a lack of drive and more to do with a compensation or process structure that quietly punishes the behaviour you actually want.
Every role I've moved into at ATL existed because something needed fixing — a supply chain, a product line, a branch's profitability. When I build a team now, I look for the same signal in others: people who are already circling a problem, not people who are simply available.
Reversing a period of negative results across ATL's commercial units meant being honest, early and often, about what wasn't working. It also meant recognising that the people executing a flawed process usually aren't the reason it's flawed. Fixing the system and holding people accountable within it are not opposites — you need both, in that order.