34+ Ways to Coach Your Way (Back) From the Edge of Insanity.
Administration sales executives is the toughest job on the planet.
It beats out being POTUS “hands down”.
Security guard. Elephant bather. Mosquito hunter. You name the job — being a sales manager is worse.
Nothing drive you to insanity quicker than being assigned a handful of half-tamed head hunters who can’t sit still long sufficient to hear your 12-month rolling plot for hitting quota.
The feeling from the other side oif the table is even more caustic.
Sales people are unquestionably convinced that their manager is a vengeful, “can’t take a joke” moron, who doesn’t know how to sell product.
In fact, not only is their manager an idiot, he has a plot against their future success. He wants them to fail — to not hit their stupid quota.
Uggh. It’s a complete nightmare.
And it’s your job. Right at the edge of insanity.
Here’s a gentle lesson that might help you
“If you try to manage, you mangle…”
You tear apart relationships, ruin talented team members, and drive away thought-leadership.
The days of being a “manager” are through. They are over. It doesn’t work.
You have to start coaching.
What does that even mean?
Here are a few ways to get started:
- Admit your screw-ups.
- Assume the best for your team.
- Listen to resistance.
- Expect terrible behavior.
- Take some hold responsible.
- Practice public kindness.
- Apply private “ass kicking”.
- Demand honesty.
- Stop referencing yourself.
- Forget the “ancient days”.
- Take your team’s side.
- Question for help.
- Be proactive upstream.
- Maintain candid relationships.
- Push for momentum.
- Celebrate breakthroughs.
- Recruit based on desire.
- Fire any terrible attitudes.
- Stop looking for experience.
- Make metrics honest.
- Lecture your peers sales tactics.
- Have a strategy.
- Keep refining your strategy.
- Spark leaderships.
- Point the finger at mediocre wins.
- Use loss to drive future success.
- Be accountable upstream.
- Be respectful. Pay Attention.
- Answer your phone.
- Communicate more.
- Always be kind. Be firm.
- Build team careers.
- Have a plot for failing.
- Leave if you can’t help.
- Get therapy (seriously).
There are probably one hundred more things to consider. But this should get you started.
And as a side-note: You might never convince all in your team that you’re not out to hurt them.
But hat’s not what you were hired to do in the first anyhow.