WHEN YOU NEED TO BURN THE CLOCK

Dear Founder,

In many sports that depend on a clock—think football and basketball—when a team gets ahead and it’s close to the end of the game, they often do everything they can to stall and keep the ball away from the other party. This practice is called burning the clock. The reverse situation exists when the clock is running down and you’re behind. Here is when your hurry-up offense comes in!

In business, a similar set of circumstances happens relatively frequently. You may find yourself wanting to burn the clock:

• When you’re doing a deal or any kind of negotiation. The best chances for a great outcome usually require having multiple parties bidding or negotiating. There is often one bidder that becomes the favorite, but it’s incumbent on the buyer to keep multiple bidders happy and engaged. We had nine serious bidders in the Yahoo! sale process. All were watching for signals or signs that indicated if they were preferred or if they were not being seriously considered. We ended up with five finalists and worked hard to ensure all of them felt that they were on a level playing field.

• When you’re hiring. You may have a preferred candidate, but you must keep the pipeline of other candidates warm in case something doesn’t work out.

• When someone has quit. Often this person becomes a “persona non grata” in the company. I would rather have that individual fully engaged and working hard all the way through the rest of their tenure. If that means I need to keep being professional and polite—and put aside the fact that I may be disappointed—that’s a small price to pay. When I quit Figgie International, the head of HR was very upset with me. He made it clear that I shouldn’t play in the daily basketball game over lunch that I usually participated in. I became somewhat of a pariah and it was pretty uncomfortable. Yet it turned out to be a temporary banishment. He came to see me a few days after he made his point and welcomed me back to play. It was nice, even if I was fouled a little more often than usual!

When you commit to burning the clock, you are consciously agreeing to spend time on something (e.g., third preferred bidder or second-choice candidate) that is not likely to bear fruit—but this work is required to achieve your ultimate best outcome. I have found that rather than being annoyed about spending time this way, I feel far better about it when I remind myself that this effort is contributing to my ultimate goal.

Here’s to becoming a master at burning the clock!

All the best,

Maynard