Good Lockton fight…

Yesterday, as the Lockton conference was coming to a close, one of my clients reminded me of an early fight with me. We had only been practicing a short while and were still working through his discovery document. I was challenging him and struck a nerve. He responded in anger and went into full “triple d mode.” He defended, denied, and destroyed. His destruction was personally aimed at me. I, immaturely, responded in kind. I hadn’t had such a strong response from a client in quite some time and reacted poorly to his attack. Things got heated between us. We both walked away from practice feeling like we were becoming distinct and deeply divided. We were. Not good…

As I flew home that night, many moons ago, I wrote out what I was thinking and tried to make sense of our fight. It didn’t take long for my rational brain to realize it had run into some iron. Instead of loathing my client and his unwillingness to heed my advice, I began to appreciate his honesty and his demand for a better argument. My client, you see, is a serious stud. He is strong, hard headed, and not easily swayed to change his mind. My client, yes, is a lot like me – minus the stud part. Funny, huh…

As we talked yesterday amid the sea of souls that are his team, he leaned toward me to tell me his memory of our fight. He didn’t recall the details, nor did I. He didn’t know my motive back then and was unaccustomed to having a truth teller, besides his bride, hitting him with the truth. He smiled, grabbed my shoulder, and said, “We’re good, now. I know how much you care.” I returned his smile and before I could speak one of his Lockton teammates interrupted us.

Great teams fight to improve performance. Great teams do not live in the conflict free, soft zone. Great teams reside in the rough and tumble raw, real world of work/life. Great teams gotta learn how to fight to improve performance. My client and I are not alike. And, my client and I are good, now. We are iron sharpening iron. Iron is not sharpened when it’s teamed with mush, is it. Iron cuts through mush and turns it into an unrecognizable mess. Iron needs iron to make it better. Together we improve is our tagline at BTL. My client and I know there is nothing mushy about it. We are becoming ONE, distinct, deeply connected, and BTL. We are good, now, because we have learned to fight fairly together. We’ve learned to repair. We’ve learned to respect one another. Real, hard, work. Good.

Who, my friend, is sharpening you?