Not dramatically, not in a way that would have been visible to anyone who didn't pay close attention. But Marcus paid close attention. He had been paying close attention for 3 years, which he was now starting to recognize as a problem that he should have addressed earlier. She looked tired. Not physically, the other kind.
Sit down, she said. Please, he sat. I wanted to ask your opinion on something, she said. She set the tablet down. And I want you to know upfront that I'm not asking because you're maintenance.
I'm asking because in 3 years you're one of maybe four people in this building who consistently tells me the truth. Marcus was quiet for a moment. What's the other three? My CFO, my attorney, and apparently my head of maintenance. She almost smiled, which is a depressing commentary on the rest of my executive team.
What do you want to know? She folded her hands on the desk. What do people in the building think of the merger? Not the board. Not the executives, the people who actually work here.
Marcus leaned back slightly. You want the real answer? I wouldn't have asked if I wanted the polished one. He thought about it for a moment, organized it because that was how he operated. He didn't fire from the hip.
He assessed the situation first identified the core problem and then he spoke. They think it's already done, he said. And that makes them nervous because when a deal is decided before it's announced, it usually means the people in the building aren't the ones who made the decision. And those people never end up better off when the dust settles. Victoria looked at him steadily.
That's honest. You said you wanted honest. I did. She was quiet for a moment. Then what do you think of Richard Hawthorne?
And there it was. Marcus felt something shift in the room. He wasn't imagining it. There was a quality to the question that had nothing to do with business strategy. I don't know him, Marcus said carefully.
You've seen him. You see everything in this building. She wasn't pushing. She was asking. There was a difference and she understood that difference which was part of what made her exceptional at what she did.
First impression. Marcus was quiet for three full seconds. He's very comfortable, he said finally. Victoria tilted her head. Meaning meaning he's the kind of man who decides how a room is going to treat him before he walks into it.