Stop Managing Your Team.
Gareth (his real name) was our first employee, serving as director of operations. We quickly got so busy over the first few months that many things floated in his direction that he had to handle.
I sat down with him once for two hours but instead of discussing what had to be done. we focused on what he liked doing and…I was taken aback when he said that he was sick of operations. What he really wanted to do was train and consult.
The more he talked about what he wanted to do, the more certain he became. By the time we completed the conversation, he had decided that within three months, he would resign as Director of Operations and prepare himself to coach and train.
I was so impressed that I committed to help him make the transition. We hired a new director of operations, Gareth started coaching and training in our organization, and he is now one of our delivery partners whose work is valued by many.
Sales managers often try to manage their people as one unit instead of managing each person as an individual. This is one of the most common mistakes we see sales managers make.
This behavior often proceeds from good intentions.
They try to be fair and treat everyone equally. They check in with people the same number of times each week and conduct an equal number of reviews and planning sessions with each person.
They try to manage their team in team meetings to save time because they have such a busy schedule.
They try to manage people as a team to create team spirit and cohesiveness.
There’s some safety for you in treating people as a team, especially if your company is unionized either in fact or in spirit. You don’t want to leave yourself open to accusations of playing favorites or neglecting your people. You don’t want HR or an over-zealous higher-up requiring yet another employee satisfaction metric.
Unfortunately, managing people as a team often results in them adopting certain roles to play within the group. People tend to find their place in a system and remain stuck in that way of behaving. For example:
There’s the head of the pack, closely followed by someone eager to knock that person off.
There are the people in the middle, playing it safe, and either just making or just missing their targets – but never having a spectacular year.
There’s the bottom third of people trying hard, including a few sad cases who somehow hang on.
We are assuming that you want to build a sales team that shoots out the lights. You want an atmosphere of friendly competition. Even more, you want a culture of peer learning and support, where everybody is hitting their targets, quarter after quarter, year after year.
To achieve this, you need to appreciate that the notion of managing teams as a group is fundamentally flawed.
Say you have eight people on your team. What you really have is eight individuals. The eight individuals have different ambitions, needs, ways of learning, and styles of behavior. People require different things from you in order to perform at their best:
Some need competence training (contact management, an understanding of the path to lead their customers along, and skills to do that).
Some need attitude training (development of confidence, quick recovery from disappointments, seeing possibilities in every situation).
Some need training in how to execute – how to stay on target and firmly refuse to be distracted from winning.
This commitment to individuality requires time and skilled attention. This means getting really good at getting out of things that steal your time so you have time to build your team. This generates the dividends of better performance, loyalty and professional satisfaction.
Try the following experiment. It just might change things forever for you.
Individually, ask each person what he needs to do to exceed his targets. Learn about any concerns the person has that stand in their way.
Ask him what he needs you to do for him to succeed. Don’t accept facile answers. Dig deep for exactly what they need from you:
Changes in your management style
Protection from other people in the company
Training they require
Determine your next step and follow through on whatever you promise to do for and with the individual.
Take your time in this conversation. Don’t settle for the surface answers. Keep asking what’s preventing him from doing what he needs to do to succeed. Hold him accountable for figuring out what to do.