Thanks and goodbye
Yesterday, June 20 of 2020, was my last day at Groupon. I sent this letter to my current team and coworkers, but my thanks also go to ex-grouponers who shared my journey. This letter is for you as well.
After 7+ years, I've decided to change my very own status quo and end my Groupon journey.
In March 2013, less than a month after I moved to Chile and joined Groupon, I was ready to resign. As you can guess, things were not working very well, and I believed Groupon had made a big mistake in hiring me. In addition to that, my efforts to rent an apartment in Santiago were unsuccessful; it made things more complicated. I was completely down and disappointed. Being writing this letter more than seven years after that is a feat in itself.
Groupon has been an amazing place to work and learn, but even more importantly, to build strong relationships with people like you. That is why, before I say goodbye, I want to share with you my three most important lessons learned during my time here.
Culture is king. Not any culture, the intentional culture. When I wanted to change the culture of my team, I started by changing my behavior. As John Maxwell says, the culture will never be better than the behavior of its leaders. All your effort needs to be aligned to build an intentional culture: adapt your processes, change your message, and act accordingly. When you hire, remember that anybody can learn to build a binary search tree, but not everybody will fit in your team culture.
Learn to live with uncertainty. It's very little what we can control in our lives, and it is not an easy fact to accept for anxious people like me. However, feeling comfortable with uncertainty and shaping my life through my decisions and not my conditions have helped me to overcome significant challenges.
My vulnerability, my greatest asset. As someone said: "People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." I couldn't agree more. To lead, you need to influence, and to influence, you need to connect with people in a human manner. That is what my vulnerability allowed me to do. Being vulnerable means that my purpose is more important than my fears and failures.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you for being part of my journey.
Franco.-
