Good leaders must be good followers.  That is paradoxical, isn’t it?  This article from CNNMoney.com chronicles an M.B.A. students journeys from grad school to the Marines to a tour of duty in Iraq and back to grad school.  It is a fascinating first-hand account (h/t to JustSell.com).

This is profound (emphasis mine):

In many ways there’s probably no better preparation I could have had for the business world than joining the Marine Corps. The Marines teach you how to be both a leader and a follower.

I don’t have to lead in every situation – but I’ve come to enjoy stepping up in a time of chaos. When I’m working with a group now, I can honestly say that I think about the team first. The “I first” approach has been drilled out of me.

Therein lies a common problem I encounter with business leaders – they are not good followers.  Leadership has a way of removing empathy over time.  Some leaders forget what they personally experienced when they were in follower positions.  Other leaders develop what I refer to as “god complexes” where they believe they are all-knowing.  Usually they are not, but you can’t illustrate that point to them.

For instance, I know of one business owner who is a subject-matter expert in his field.  Unfortunately, that field is not a business field.  However, he believes his subject-matter expertise transcends the subject into business management.  His employees, some of whom do have business expertise, attempt to contribute to him in these areas.  He will not receive the input.  Instead he forges on making independent decisions that have cost the business dearly.

If you read the entire article you will see a unique process, employed by the Marines, to teach team-building amongst leaders.  The best sales leaders I have encountered are the ones who know how to empower their employees, direct through difficult situations and make the tough decisions at critical junctures.

That last sentence sounds trite, but it is true.  The gist of it is the opening sentence of this post – good leaders must be good followers.

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This is an 8 minute video on failure from Honda via JustSell.com.  The 8 min. may change your perspective:

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What makes a good sales manager is a question we hear all the time from CEO’s, Presidents and Owners.  We have worked with hundreds of sales managers over the years and each one brings his or her own strengths and weaknesses.  One variable that is oftened overlooked is whether the corporate culture allows the sales manager to do the job for which he or she is being held accountable.

Jonathan Farrington has a great quote that not only answers the question of what makes a good sales manager, but is also the foundation of the sales culture of any organization (emphasis mine):

The Sales Leader’s role is one of catalyst – constantly helping their team to keep up with events, to change in the light of events and to succeed. . .

If you not only hold your sales manager but your organization accountable to this statement, you will allow your sales manager to react proactively to the revenue goals of the company.  This approach is far more aluable than forcing them to be a firefighter (constantly having to put out fires).  The post goes on to give 7 objectives that a sales manager should be thinking about with their team to achieve superior performance.  They are simple, direct objectives, but they provide a clear and concise picture of how your team is performing and where effort will need to be placed to achieve your goals.  Here are the 7 objectives:

• Do you understand their motivators – what is driving them?
• Do you have visibility of their numbers – year to date, forecast vs. required performance?
• Activity levels – are they working hard and smart enough?
• Engagement – are they talking to the right level in their prospects/accounts?
• Messaging – are they capable of delivering an appropriate message at the right level?
• Qualification – are they only spending time on deals where they can compete and ultimately that they can win?
• Closing – are they constructing successful campaigns and closing business?

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I think I may be a bully because this Wall Street Journal article, to me, borders on the absurd.

New research highlights the prevalence and dangers of workplace bullying. In a 2007 survey of 1,000 U.S. workers, 44% said they had worked for a boss they considered abusive. The survey was sponsored by the Employment Law Alliance, an association of 3,000 employment lawyers.

In a 2004 survey by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Heath, 25% of companies reported bullying incidents in the previous year. More incidents were attributed to co-workers than to supervisors. The study was part of the institute’s research on work-related stress.

This year, two Canadian professors concluded bullying can take a more severe emotional and physical toll than sexual harassment, perhaps because companies provide greater support for victims of the latter.

“Abusive” is a completely-loaded word that is difficult to define in this context.  I’m also thinking this bullying movement could spell some trouble for High D managers.

However, I think this paragraph sums up the motivation situation:

Some business groups and lawmakers say workplace bullying is too difficult to define, and a poorly worded law would expose businesses to unnecessary lawsuits.

I think there would be a flood of frivolous lawsuits if this idea became law.

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Have you ever worked with a “glass half empty” person?  They are something to behold especially if you are a bit of an optimist.  We get the chance to interact with many leaders of both sales departments (VP of Sales) and entire companies (CEO).  One thing that always catches my ear is the leader’s level of optimism.

I find leaders who have a realistic level of optimism to be the most effective.  I’m not talking about whistling through the graveyard, but rather a measured optimism that seeks positive solutions.  The reason this is so important is that employees have a more difficult time rallying behind a pessimistic leader.  I have seen this first-hand in many different organizations.

Pessimism has a draining effect on the team.  Electrical current flows from negative to the positive terminal and employees are similar.  Leaders that consistently migrate to the potential failure side of an outcome stifle employees.  If the leader’s pessimism is extreme, employees will leave for other opportunities.

I note all of this because I am knee-deep into a pessimistic customer.  The problem here is that the pessimism flows from the ownership down to the President and into the company.  This company has the potential to be a market leader, but they continue to flounder around losing market share to less-able competitors.

And here may be the reason why.  I emailed with the owner last week about a hiring topic and received a response from him that floored me.  They have hired a strong candidate after the owner, President and VP of Sales interviewed him and thought he was a strong fit.  When I emailed the owner, here is one sentence from his response:

I’m more concerned with cutting our losses as quickly as possible as soon as we recognize that we’ve made a mistake in hiring.

I reread it and am shocked all over again.  This statement summarizes his hiring philosophy.  Could it be any more negative?  Yes, I have significant concerns about our salesperson ramping up quickly and succeeding.  How much support is the new salesperson going to receive while he onramps?  The concern is that the pessimistic leadership team has an itchy trigger finger.  I’m all for firing fast if you make a mistake, but this negative approach serves to create self-fulfilling prophesy.

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We have really come to enjoy Dave Stein’s posts.  They are timely and cut straight to the heart of the issue.  Today’s post is no exception.  Working strictly on the sales side of organizations, one of the areas we look at while profiling their sale is compensation.  Most importantly, we look to see if the compensation structure rewards the behaviors the company expects of the salesperson.  More times than not it won’t and from one of Dave’s comments, he sees the same issues:   

I am bringing this up because compensation is another dysfunctional area within many companies.  During the past quarter, I’ve been engaged with several clients where “errors of commission” are preventing them from achieving their team and corporate goals.

We ran into a situation a few years back where a company President wanted to upgrade his sales team and bring in an experienced national salesperson who could help him grow his company.  He was okay about having to pay more for sales experience, but his commission plan wasn’t aligned.  The commission schedule for a sales person to break the 6 figure mark meant he or she would have to more than double the total revenue of the company.  If they accomplished that feat, they should be running the company.

Through all this compensation discussion, Dave makes an extremely important point:

One important point: Having the right people in sales jobs comes first.  The best comp plan in the world doesn’t mean much when the salespeople it is intended to motivate don’t have the requisite skills and traits to succeed.

I couldn’t agree more.  If you don’t know where to begin, let us help you get started.

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Peter Drucker is always an interesting read and clearly was way before his time.  BusinessWeek.com provides an article titled Drucker’s Take on Making Mistakes.  The article is filled with many great points so it is difficult to highlight just a handful.  Here is the gist of the article (emphasis mine):

A batting-average mentality, he added, allows for companies to accommodate different kinds of talent. “One man will consistently do well, rarely falling far below a respectable standard, but also rarely excel through brilliance or virtuosity,” Drucker wrote. “Another man will perform only adequately under normal circumstances but will rise to the demands of a crisis or a major challenge and then perform like a true ‘star.’ Both are ‘performers.’ Both need to be recognized. But their performances will look quite different.

“The one man to distrust, however, is the one who never makes a mistake,” Drucker continued, “never commits a blunder, never fails in what he tries to do. He is either a phony, or he stays with the safe, the tried, and the trivial.”

And then there is this one:

“Nobody learns except by making mistakes,” Drucker wrote in his 1954 landmark book, The Practice of Management. “The better a man is, the more mistakes he will make—for the more new things he will try. I would never promote a man into a top-level job who has not made mistakes, and big ones at that. Otherwise, he is sure to be mediocre. Worse still, not having made mistakes he will not have learned how to spot them early and how to correct them.”

Spot them early, a great point wouldn’t you say?  Read the entire article.

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BusinessWeek.com has an article titled Today’s Top 10 Talent-Management Challenges that provides some interesting tidbits from 3 different talent managers.  One topic leaped off the screen:

6. Stemming the exodus of Gen X’ers from corporate life. A big threat in many firms today is the exodus of mid-career talent—people in whom the organization has invested heavily and in whom it has pinned it hopes for future leadership. For example, developing talent management practices and programs calibrated to leverage technology and create greater work/life balance has been a priority for Mercer over recent years.

The sheer smallness of my generation creates pockets of problems with the marketplace.  This particular problem is one with which I was not familiar.  However, I can attest to the fact that work/life balance is greatly valued among my Gen X friends.  This value has led many of them to pass on management positions in favor of continuing to excel in their current positions.

Now combine the aforementioned quote with this excerpt (my emphasis):

3. Developing a robust leadership pipeline. I believe one of the biggest potential threats to many corporations is a lack of a robust talent pool from which to select future leaders. This is in part a numbers issue—the Gen X cohort is small and therefore, as I like to say, precious. But it’s also an interest issue—many members of Gen X are simply not particularly excited about being considered for these roles. There was wide agreement among the panelists that a lack of individuals ready to move into senior client manager and leadership roles is a critical challenge.

Therein lies the challenge – how to develop leaders from a small (relatively speaking) group.  One possibility is that Gen Y will leapfrog Gen X and take those leadership positions at a young age.  I know this possibility does not sit well with me, but there may be no other solution.

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In recent weeks we have been dealing with a handful of sales managers who all have a different approach to the position.  They are all in different industries, but their sales all have many similarities.

One of the sales managers has progressed the best so far with his new salesperson during the onramping time.  One sales manager has had to fire his salesperson (yes, one we placed) due to many reasons – many of which were the salesperson’s fault.  The third sales manager has been tentative with his salesperson, but she is progressing well.

The one variable that has had the biggest impact on success has been accountability.  The sales manager with the best progress is also the one who has defined the milestones and goals most clearly.  He knows what he wants his new salesperson to accomplish and he has defined the target dates by which he wants it accomplished.

But the key comes back to accountability.  This manager is holding his salesperson accountable to the activities that will guarantee success by those dates.

Here is why accountability is key – if the manager is holding the salesperson accountable, they are involved with the salesperson.  Granted, some sales managers only hold the salespeople accountable through brow-beating forecast/quota meetings.  Yet, I would say that is still better than nothing.

The best sales managers hold the salespeople accountable while working with them to help them reach their goals.  Coaching, strategizing, adjusting, leading…these priorities are normally being accomplished by sales managers who make a priority of holding their people accountable.

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Good article here from ManageSmarter.com titled Can Training Fix Manager Transition Troubles?  The primary topic is transitioning sales managers from sales rep roles.  This is now small task and we have seen many crash and burn.  The author provides some insightful commentary into this common problem.

This section truly stands out.  The topic is that there are some fatal assumptions new sales managers often make that derail their success.

The “fatal assumptions” identified were: 1. My individual contributor success will translate into management success; 2. It’s out of my control—someone else can and should fix this; 3. Being the expert is the most important factor for my credibility; 4. It’s the rational and logical approach or solution that counts; 5. The people I manage are just like me (in their thinking, approach, expectations, goals, and priorities); 6. Competent people do not need help.

Numbers 5 and 6 leap off the screen.  These two items are extremely common based on our experience.  Strangely, many sales managers believe these statements are valid.  Coaching other salespeople is a difficult task and one that many sales managers avoid to their own detriment.

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