Читать книгу The Sales Leaders Playbook - Nathan Jamail - Страница 6

When we talked about Tiger Woods being the best golfer in history, and not a “natural born” golfer, it was with the understanding that we are born with some talents, while others are developed through hard work and dedication. However, if “natural born” talent is left untouched, it will just go away or fail to develop.

Tiger Woods tapped into his golfing abilities young and then had the desire (this being the actual talent he was born with) to go after it. He practiced – oh did he practice, and practiced some more. There were many days and nights when Tiger probably missed some fun activities with his friends because he had to be either resting or practicing, but he chose this – he desired to succeed.

Like Tiger Woods, many of us are born with the desire to succeed. Desire to succeed is just one of many attributes people are born with. Through valuable life lessons, we further learn and enhance our knowledge which strengthens our attributes. So, what exactly is an attribute?

An attribute is defined as: a quality or characteristic inherent in or ascribed to someone or something. In laymen terms, an attribute is something that is inherently part of who you are as a person.

Key attributes that a great leader needs to possess include kindness, strength, discipline, focus, vision, action and self-motivation.

What are your attributes and how can you improve them to become a better leader? Take the time now to list three of the top leadership attributes you have and the ones that you would like to have:

I Have:

1.

2.

3.

I Would like to have:

1.

2.

3.

Just because something is inherent does not mean practice is not required. As with anything worthwhile, to maintain and improve an attribute, you must put it into practice – into action, and consistently use it. For someone who does not inherently possess an attribute, they will need to first work to acquire it. Then, practice will be needed to develop and strengthen it.

Skills of Leadership

A skill is something that can be learned and definitely not something we are born with despite what people say (we have been through this, and I think you understand). Key skills for a great leader include: communication, prioritization, delegation, coaching, the ability to get people to follow, the ability to create ownership in others, and the ability to teach others to be future leaders.

Communication skills allow a leader to communicate his vision to the team. Successful communication allows the team to understand the vision and goals and adopt them as their own. During tough times, a strong communicator will not sympathize with his team and console them; rather, he will guide them toward the winning path.

People must want to follow you on the path you have communicated, not just because the organizational chart says so. People will follow you as a leader if they believe you have the answers and knowledge needed to help them achieve their goals. This is a key requirement – it must be their goal too.

No one, no matter how dedicated of an employee, wants to be given an order and then told, “Now, go do it.” This communication style leaves them without input or the ability to use their own skills and knowledge to achieve a task. When communicating with your team and getting them to follow you, make sure it is on a path that has been created together.

Let’s Talk About It

How can you do this and still retain your leadership stance? Start by asking your team for their opinions – their visions. Be sure to stay on track and not let their input get you lost. In other words, you must know what the final destination is and what cost you are willing to spend, which is not always monetary. With your leadership and direction, let your team help make the road map to achieve their goals so that they own them and desire to achieve them. Use your action list to guide the process.

To reinforce this concept, I want to use a common, real-life scenario, which I am sure you have seen happen before. There are two teenagers. One teenager is given a car by Mom and Dad. The other teenager has to work, save and sacrifice for his car. Of these two teenagers, one babies the car like it could break any minute and takes great care of it. The other always forgets to wash it, change the oil, or even gas it. Which teenager do you think took care of his car and which one did not? The answer: the one who worked for it took care of his car. The reason why is because a vested interest leads to success. This same concept applies to individuals and goal setting. Let your employees own the goals, and they will care about achieving them.

As with most things, there are exceptions to this as a leader. There will be times when you are given marching orders from the top that must be precisely executed – times when what must be accomplished is not negotiable. In this situation, it is much harder to create ownership for your team. At such a time if you did ask for their ideas, but followed the orders anyway it could easily appear that you did not care enough to use their ideas. During times like this, I find it best to ask for help from your team to create ownership on the atmosphere of the marching orders. Gain their understanding, not just their ideas.

Words in Action

In 2002, I took over a market and right away I was handling a budget issue with a large lack of return on investment. I had over 400 contracted sales people that were being paid extravagant amounts of money to sell a product with very little product being sold. I consulted the finance department about this specific problem and soon found out that this market spent the most dollars with the least amount of return in the country.

Based on the situation, I felt the best decision was to change the compensation structure in order to increase production. This was a time when I had to approach my sales managers who ran this department with marching orders, but needed their buy-in to help effectively communicate and execute the plan.

First, I explained to them the problem and showed them where we were headed if we did not fix it. Then, I asked for their help in executing the changes. Most importantly, I needed their help in creating a positive atmosphere around the changes (put more money in the commission and less in the salary, rewards for production, etc.) so that we could create a winning atmosphere around a perceived bad situation.

Within the first week, we created the new compensation plan along with the new expectations for all of the employees in this organization (did you read the ‘we’ part?). The first step was to take 30% of their current hourly wage and move it to their commission. The second step was to realign the leadership positions to maximize growth and profitability. This was done by having the twelve supervisors take on a coaching and training role and less administrative work by realigning their daily job duties and expectations. Then, we took the twenty-five senior sales people and put them in the stores to actually sell versus the training that they were previously doing.

Delivering this message was not an easy task, but getting everyone’s buy-in was a must. During the roll out of the changes, the division manager explained the current situation and showed the team that, by making these changes with the team’s help, the company and they would increase their results and profitability.

Not everyone agreed immediately (some even left right off the bat). But the core of the team started to work towards the goal and the others soon followed. Soon, the entire team was seeing the results and celebrating their new found success. Within twelve months, the contract labor team was number one in the country with the greatest return on investment and highest production.