In organizations, sales teams are special. They have a sense of drive, an entrepreneurial spirit and a way of thinking that sets them apart from others. Talking to a Sales Manager recently about how he would describe his team, he grinned and said, “it’s like leading a group of ADHD teenagers with the attention spans of gnats”.
There seems to be a parallel between sales teams and families. Leading these employees can be like parenting young children. We need to respect each individual’s needs. They need enough boundaries and structure without cramping their style. To keep the team performing at their best need constant motivation, reassessment and reorganization.
Parents look forward to the seemingly self-indulgent psychological benefits of increasing the longevity of their gene pool, the possible immortality of self through offspring, experiencing the world through fresh and magical eyes of the innocent child. In sales teams, managers aspire to lead their teams as a privilege and a responsibility to make a difference in the topline of the organization, perhaps leaving a legacy, transforming themsleves through developing others.
Managers however have been doing it tough. Having to deliver ever more with dwindling resources through budget and workforce cutbacks, attempting to re-engage workforce with low morale through constant restructuring in our rapidly changing world ….. they don’t seem to be getting too many breaks! In global research by consulting firm BlessingWhite, where more than 7,500 survey responses were studied and interviews were cnducted with HR and line managers - fewer than 1 in three workers are fully engaged. There is a strong correlation between engagement and retention. 85% of engaged employees plan to stay with their company compared with 27% disengaged ones. Engaged employees appear to stay for what they give (they like the work they do), while disengaged employees stay for what they get (favourable job conditions, advancement, growth, or job security). That’s hardly a winning business relationship, is it?
Parents are also not being portrayed in best light by the media. It is cool to be carefree singles like Carrie and her unattached friends from Sex and the City and those friends from Friends and Seinfeld. On the contrary, The Simpsons, Everybody Loves Raymond and the Married with Children paint a darker picture of what it is like to be tied down in a family way.
Sales teams also fight a battle being stereotyped as greedy individuals with little to no team spirit and only motivated by monetary bonuses, who play outside rules ‘normal’ to you and me …. this image has also not been helped by the fall of Wall Street giants.
Society’s unflattering picture of children today is formed by the media’s images, founded in the marketplace and fostered by fear. We may accept our toddler with all the charms and challenges of that age group but other shoppers in the supermarket will only see the tantrum-throwing purple rage of a spoilt tot (the kind we see on SuperNanny regularly) and the ineffectual discipline of a flustered parent caught between the lollie counter and a quick exit.
Childhood today is institutionalized and managerialized around our image of the workplace: Hours are precisely timetabled, outcomes (health, literacy, crime) are benchmarked and measured, costs are privatized and care (nappy services, childcare, tutoring, entertaining) has been outsourced. Sounds familiar for employees being pigeon-holed into systems that may not be useful to enhance performance?
Consequently, BlessingWhite’s www.blessingwhite.com employee engagement research validates the engagement model which focuses on individual employees’:
- Contribution to the company’s success
- Personal satisfaction in the role.
Aligning employees’ values, goals, and aspirations with those of the organization is the
best method for achieving the sustainable employee engagement required for an organization to reach its goals. Full engagement represents an alignment of maximum job satisfaction(“I like my work and do it well”) with maximum job contribution(“I help achieve the goals of my organization”).
Engaged employees are not just committed. They are not just passionate or proud. They have a line-of- sight on their own future and on the organization’s mission and goals. They are enthused and in gear, using their talents and discretionary effort to make a difference in their employer’s quest for sustainable business success.
A few questions come to mind for our managers/parents.
Have we lost the natural instinct to lead/parent?
Are there models of effective leadership/parenting ?
Why do we want to be leaders/parents?
March 3rd, 2010
In these uncertain times, it is about taking action as a leader.
According to Stephen Parker, Senior Vice President of BlessingWhite Inc (a global consulting and research company), the ripple effects from the 2008 financial market meltdown have crossed oceans and industries. The numbers boggle the mind — dwarfing the losses associated with the dot-com bust. Even those organizations that appear to be unscathed are holding their breath as the economic drama unfolds in 2009.
Meanwhile nearly everyone is angry, fearful or frustrated — customers, employees and investors large and small. It is not surprising that those who feel victimized by the effects of the market meltdown are now eager to indentify people that can be held accountable for the situation.
So, how are people in your organization feeling right now? Do they feel that you and your fellow leaders are ducking for cover?
It’s tempting to retreat from negative emotions, particularly if you know you don’t have the ‘quick-fix’ others are looking for. It is easy to find yourself avoiding the topic altogether or defending your innocence as part of the larger community of victims. As leaders in a time when everyone is relying on your ability to inspire, you don’t have the luxury to hide Put yourself out there in the line of fire.First make sure you’re visible. Managers may desperately need heads-down, closed-door time to rework strategies or crunch numbers. However this is the very time when the workforce wants accessible leaders. Visibility reassures. It says “We as leaders are stepping up and addressing these issues head on … if there are difficult decisions to make, we’ll make them and we’ll keep you informed.” Visibility means being available for informal discussion and offering a more personal setting for employee questions instead of simply ‘making a presentation’.
Being visible isn’t about bringing your workforce to you for a formal meeting. Rather, you need to go where they are. Bring yourself — and your message — to the communities that exist and the conversations already occurring throughout your organization. Join weekly sales meetings, drop by lunch groups, post to your firm’s social network and ask to kick off scheduled training sessions virtually or in person.
Acknowledge emotions… directly and sincerely. You may spend hours preparing your messages to employees, knowing that clear, frequent communication can quell rumors, re-focus energy and assuage anxiety. But have you considered why people might discount everything you say?
Those in your organization may be surprised, disappointed and fearful. They may question why you didn’t have a better contingency plan for a soft market — “I mean, didn’t you guys see this coming? Isn’t that why you get paid the big bucks! ” They may not understand why you had to lay off half of their department. They may be wondering how much you knew by when — and what you know now that you haven’t yet revealed. They may have lost faith in your competence or trustworthiness because you’re called a “leader” — just like all those other executives in the news who seem to care more about their bonuses than their workforce. They are disillusioned, worried and angry. It doesn’t matter whether their cynicism is influenced directly by your own actions or by the general behavior of so called ‘leaders’ or ‘captains of industry’. Either way they’re not likely to be a receptive audience.
Forget the generalities like “I can sense anxiety” or “I know that everyone is worried.” Such comments will fall flat and sound insincere.
To successfully acknowledge emotions you need to really think about what, specifically, people are feeling and why. You need to do your homework. Find out: · How is your organization’s situation affecting them personally? · What have they lost — or are afraid to lose? · What “undiscussables” are on their minds? Bring up the sensitive or touchy subject and take personal accountability: · “I know some of you are angry with me about this decision… and it’s understandable that you feel that way… and I want to talk about it… ” · “You may be thinking, ‘What in the world were managers like me doing while our customers started canceling orders… I think you deserve an answer… I want to address that today…” As a leader, it’s your job to stand in the firing line — at least metaphorically. The sooner you step into the tension of employee emotions and honestly acknowledge them, the better. Your candor and accountability as a leader is the first step for helping those around you move from the paralyzing effects of uncertainty and negative reactions to change toward positive actions that will fuel your organization’s success in this sour economy whether it persists three months or three years.
Copyright © 2009 BlessingWhite, Inc.
March 10th, 2009
