Sales Savvy

I have seen more and more discussion on leadership lately.  In today’s world, the term “authentic leadership” implies that it’s a separate category because that’s where you get discretionary effort, etc. All leadership is authentic because it is a reflection of an individual, but not all leadership is impactful in the realm of discretionary effort, motivation, results and loyalty. Leaders who can positively impact the business and their people will be the most effective in the new normal.

As I look back at my work experience and that of others, I have found that the most successful leaders easily align their people to the business objectives and they do this by (in no particular order):

• Clearly expressing the business goals
• Communicating a simple roadmap to achieve the goals
• Providing transparency
• Genuine passion for their work
• Genuine compassion for their employees
• An inherent understanding—and practice—that customer satisfaction and fiscal performance is directly tied to employee satisfaction and employee performance
• Promoting innovation through trust and empowerment
• Enabling the success of others—creating leaders; building knowledge, skills, empowerment
• Accountable to the plan
• Rewards and recognizes the right things
• Creating an environment of mutual respect, communication and strong cultural values

Long ago I had a regional director who used to recognize the individual achievements of his sales team (tied to quotas)—well over 100 people, consisting of sales reps, administrative staff and his management team. He wrote in a green pen and he sent out individual notes each month to the achievers. It wasn’t just about getting the note, per se, it was the fact that the notes were personalized. We all knew what we had to do to get the notes (hit the number) but we also knew that we weren’t a face in the crowd. Perhaps more importantly, he was focused on the success of others in tangible ways, not just notes, and he was consistently rewarded for it through the results of the region.

We can all find instances of leadership failure in the past few years, much of it has been well publicized. But at the end of the day, it’s easy to take shortcuts on leadership due to increased priorities and responsibilities, less time, fewer resources, etc. What are you doing to create satisfaction for your two most valuable assets (your customers and your employees)? Are you taking care of your people so they in turn, will take care of the business?