Sales Savvy

It’s been interesting to hear the conversations about the quality of work satisfaction in the past year. While anecdotal, the trends seemed to move to a higher level of dissatisfaction. Job satisfaction is often a variable in a business environment—for a lot of reasons. In recent conversations however, this seems to be a fixed state, not a variable. Surely factors like bandwidth weigh into the current state, companies are doing more with less, but the most disappointing factor seems to be the quality of management and leadership. Are we putting as much emphasis on people development as we would put into product development?

While I will one day write a full post on this, I have had several folks come to me with stories they titled “creepy things my manager said to me.” It’s now a standing joke and yet disturbing at the same time. Testing some assumptions, I determined that these “creepy” managers are Gen X (meaning likely in their second or third management role).  I’m not saying there is a generational factor regarding the quality of the managers but it does beg the question, has enough emphasis been placed on management development? In times when business is robust, do we look at management as a throw away category; that a poor manager can either be tolerated or replaced? As such training, have development and proper vetting during the hiring process become less important?

I was recently talking to someone who was telling me about a prior boss who in less than nine months had injected a significant amount of dysfunction, decreased morale, confusion and ineffectiveness into the division.  The new boss is now on clean-up duty and it seems the amount of damage is extensive for his predecessor’s short tenure. Employees are updating their resume and waiting for the recession to pass.  Morale is down, productivity is down, etc. The prior boss would be described as indecisive, lacking focus, “flavor of the hour” approach (meaning constant change with no clear vision or rationale), speaking without thinking (to all levels of employee rank), lacking strategic and tactical capabilities. This isn’t a frontline manager who is learning the ropes. This is an ineffective leader who wreaked a lot of havoc on an organization in a short period of time.

While anecdotal, I have found others who have experienced or observed these types of management attributes. I grew up in a business environment that embraced training and development—specifically management training. Management wasn’t a right, it was a privilege. If you wanted that job, you needed to demonstrate a work history of leadership and the strong management attributes long before you applied for your first management position.

Conversely, I had a discussion with a company who was hiring a frontline sales position. A large percentage of the hiring criteria was on the candidate’s management potential—could he or she take on the manager’s role in the next 12 to 18 months? There were three layers to the interview process with the expectations ratcheting up at each level: could he or she take on their boss’ boss’s role in a window of 3-5 years? The point being, they were hiring with the end in mind. I applaud the strategy. It was clear that this company valued specific skills and intellectual capabilities and they were not going to sacrifice that potential in their hiring decisions.

You may argue that there are a lot of great managers out there, and I wouldn’t disagree. But the depth and quality of the management bench is critical to the future of a company.   That’s where the next generation of leaders comes from. I’ll open this up for discussion, what other contributing elements do you see besides training and hiring? (I believe there are many…) What are you doing differently to ensure quality hires?