The Sales Leaders Playbook. Nathan Jamail

and groaning, which can sometimes arise during difficult times or from difficult people – this behavior must never be encouraged. Instead, listen to real concerns when your employees come to you with them.

      Open Door, Open Mind

      

Here is one rule you can apply to this process: “When you come to me with your concerns, also come with solutions.” This simple rule will put a stop to your team just complaining (there are perhaps better words for this, but I will keep it clean). In other words, before complaining, encourage your team to work through a possible solution (write it down even) before bringing the complaint to you. This will allow them to be more open to your suggestion and to finding a winning solution.

      There is an old saying, “Everything alive is either growing or dying.” The truth of this statement is something we all could live by and another great philosophy for business. Though many people say they want to learn, are they actually willing to learn? Winston Churchill once said, “Personally, I’m always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.” Churchill certainly was not alone; in fact, this statement rings true for most people in business today.

      Throw in the Towel or Grab a Tissue?

      In 1998, I was conducting a one-on-one meeting with a manager of mine who was responsible for running one of my four sales teams. She was a very intelligent person and a good manager. She possessed over fifteen years of sales experience along with eight years of sales management experience. She truly cared about her work and wanted to learn. Unfortunately, she was very difficult to coach.

      During our meeting, I attempted to bring up a skill she could improve on, which would help make her a better leader and prepare for her next step in her career. She became defensive with me and completely shut down. I overlooked her response the first time it happened, but after a few one-on-one meetings, which netted the same result, I began getting frustrated and thought I was making a mistake in trying to help this manager grow as a leader.

      So, I decided to do a little research. I spoke with a couple of her previous managers who told me they found the same obstacle when they managed her and that they stopped trying to coach her. Both of

her previous managers agreed she did her job well enough at her current level and had decided it was easier to not focus on developing her because she made it very difficult.

      In my next meeting with this manager, I asked her what her goals were in the organization and if she was looking to be promoted to the next level and grow as a leader. She responded excitedly, “Absolutely! However, I have been in the same position for over seven years, and I have not been asked to interview for the next level position during the past four openings.”

      I asked her what she thought about coaching and personal development. She eagerly answered, “Yes, I want someone to help me develop as a better leader!”

      I nodded my head with understanding as I leaned back and grabbed a box of tissues off my credenza and got them ready. I knew this was not going to be an easy conversation, but I felt I owed it to this manager who was good. I wanted to help her.

      I started off by explaining to her that if she wanted to be coached and get to the next level she had to be willing to be coached. I shared with her that I, along with her previous two managers, believed she was a great manager with some great potential to grow as a leader. However, coaching her appeared to be way too difficult.

      As expected, she started to get defensive. I used her reaction as an opportunity to show her exactly what I was referring to and why some of her past managers (and almost I) had given up on her. At this point, I had captured her complete attention. I explained further how I would be willing to work with her, coach her, and then recommend her if she would be willing to learn.

      

After a two hour meeting and a few Kleenex tissues (emotions are not always a bad thing – sometimes it means passion and ownership for a job), she understood and was willing to be coached. Hooray!

      In the end, I am very glad I took the time to work with her because, as she allowed me to coach her, I witnessed her growth. I also found myself growing and becoming a better leader too.

      I almost did exactly what her previous managers had done, which was to not waste my time and energy on coaching her to be better because I felt it may not be worth the time and energy, and that it would be just too difficult to do. This experience taught me that everyone is worth taking the time needed for improvement and advancement.

      Stay in the Game

      I live by the advice I give to many: “Be easy to coach or people will stop trying.” Willingness to learn and change takes discipline, modesty, and, most of all, hard work. Think about it. It is much easier to continue doing things the same way you are doing them today than to have to take time to learn a new system. However, the gain from doing things the easy way is short-term.

      What if everyone remained short-sided in their efforts? What if doctors and the medical community stopped being willing to learn and advance medicine? Would we still treat an infected wound by cutting off the patient’s limb? No, of course not! We expect doctors and scientist to find new cures and treatments.

      So, with that in mind, what is to be said about the leader who has been leading people the same way for the past 20 years? Are they doing a good job by today’s standards?

      Over the past decade alone, we have learned a lot about leadership and leadership skills. I encourage you to look back over what you have learned and what you have implemented to make you a better coach and leader. I challenge you to take some ideas and programs from this book, and implement them to improve your leadership today.

      Being a Leader: 20% - Ability to Act

      

Take action, even if you make mistakes. Mistakes are a natural part of the decision making and learning process – remember this as you make every decision. I used to tell my teams, “If you are not making mistakes, you are not making enough decisions.” The truth is unless you are a brain surgeon (or the like) no one is going to die because of a bad decision you make.

      Take calculated risks. What is a calculated risk? Based on the information you have (that means you have to work to get as much information as you can), make an informative decision and then go from there. Numerous books have been written about executing a plan and getting the job done. Even Elvis had a slogan which he lived by: TCB with a lighting bolt – meaning: Take Care of Business in a Flash.

      As a leader, one of my rules for my team was to call a peer some where in the country every week and share best practices. In every new team I would lead, when I first started asking my managers to do this, they often acted concerned and defensive. Some of them thought I must not believe what they were doing was working. So, I would have to explain to them that I wanted them to share best practices with their peers because they can learn from each other.

      Once, a manager announced to me that he did not think we should share our best practices. He explained that, if my goal was for them to be number one, by sharing what they were doing, everyone would do the same things therefore preventing anyone from being number one. My response to him was this, “The difference that will make us number one is our discipline and ability to take action on the best practices.”

      There is a saying: “Knowledge is power.” Well, I for one disagree. If that was the truth, then librarians would be the most powerful people. They have access to tons of knowledge contained within the pages of books (of course, this is not to say there are no powerful librarians in the world). However, knowledge is only power when you have the discipline and the motivation to do something with it. You must be willing to take action.