There are many writers that I have a great deal of respect for. David Brooks, a writer for the NY Times, stands among the top few. For over a decade he has written a column for the Times and, in my opinion, has had a significant impact. We both spoke at a conference a year ago or so in New Orleans and I must say, he was as insightful as a speaker as he is as a writer. As parents and students are starting to think about getting ready for school (but it is still early August!), I want to point you to a column he wrote a few years back on the school and future achievement. It might help bring a bit of perspective as we start gearing up again for September.
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Coaching client Belinda received some very honest feedback in her E.I. 360. Areas identified for development included more willingness to listen, less tendency to micromanage and less urgency in jumping to solutions. Overall, Belinda was being asked to become more aware of when her impact on her directs was negative, adversely affecting trust and her working relationships.
She struggled with receiving this feedback and came to E.I. coaching quite defensive – in fact, closer to denial.
“Micromanaging? I don’t get that – I’m just trying to help people who need it. We’re at work to get things done and some people need to try a little harder to meet deadlines, so I make sure it happens.”
I spent the first part of our meeting letting Belinda share her thoughts about her feedback, adding some questions in order to understand but not to challenge. This gave her a chance to share her side of the story, which helped to calm her emotions. I was also modeling one of the key behaviours identified for her to develop – listening. When she stopped, I asked, “So, what was it like, being able to tell me how you feel about this feedback?”
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How should leadership, coaching, management and the 6 Pillars be viewed and acted upon within a sales department? Understanding and communicating this to your managers is critical to the productivity of sales teams.
If you don’t believe Sales Managers have the biggest affect on revenue, greater than your sales producers, stop reading and find another role within your organization.
Without that belief, without that mentality, you won’t likely take the necessary steps to help your team reach their potential. Great leaders and coaches believe they not only impact their teams, they also believe they control their productivity and hence, results.
So, why is it important to understand the role leadership, management, coaching and the 6 Pillars play? Because they have the most significant impact on sales team productivity. All those in sales management get paid for one primary, yet very critical objective-to drive productivity-and very few would argue that statement. How this is accomplished is where it seems to lack clarity for Sales Managers.
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I learned an important lesson from my attempt to ride the Etape du Tour. When I told my sister that I didn’t finish the ride, she said “that’s ok, goals are overrated anyway”. I agree with that, but I want to amend it to “goals are overrated, unless you don’t have them”. What do I mean by that? Having a big goal like riding a stage of the Tour de France provided me with incredible motivation and focus to do things I would not have done otherwise. I would not have done all the training I did, I would not have ridden mountains in Las Vegas, California, Tuscon, I would not have had the incredible rides in the Pyrenees of France, and I would not have rediscovered my passion for cycling. Finally I would not have lost 25 pounds and gotten into better shape. At work we always say that going through a solid process of training will result in a powerful and lasting learning experience. That’s what I got out of this.
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I didn’t make it. In hindsight, with the difficulty of this ride, there was no way I was ever going to make it all the way, so it was really about doing whatever I could. Even if I had trained another 6 months and lost another 20 pounds, I still don’t think I would have made it. This kind of a route just isn’t designed for guys over 200 pounds.
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This will be my last post before I head to France for my Etape du Tour ride on July 18th. June has been an incredible month in terms of my training. I was fortunate enough to be able to train on some very significant mountain climbs:
- In June, I took a break from keynote speaking and trained on Mount Charleston in Las Vegas. Did you know there was a ski resort 30 minutes north of the Vegas strip? Neither did I. The road leading up to the ski resort starts at 3000 feet above sea level and in mid June, it was 102 degrees at 9:30 in the morning. The road then climbs for 17 miles and 5000 feet up to an elevation of 8000 feet, where there is still snow on the ground. There is a 40 degree temperature difference. It was a very hard climb that took me 2 ½ hours. Then I did it the next day from the other side!
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I was flipping through a book on coaching the other day and it occurred to me that the process of coaching is rather like reading a good book. Read on to see how.
Coaching Takes You Away From the Every Day
You know how it is when a book catches your eye —you admire the glossy cover. Your interest is piqued, so you flip the book over and read the back-cover synopsis. Then you open to the starting page and dive in. In the same way a good book takes you out of the here and now and into a new world, a coach can help you move past your here and now into a future that is limitless and full of new possibilities.
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If you’ve ever been to the Midwest U.S., you know most of the big “hills” are the bridges that go over the highways, so how could I possibly train to do three long mountain climbs in one day? This was the second question I asked myself when I decided to ride l’Etape Du Tour – a mountain stage of the Tour de France (the first question was “are you nuts?”). The answer was that I have no idea how to train for mountains, so I got a coach who has done this same ride. Here is what I have learned through coaching;
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The decision to ‘approach what is difficult’ (what I call a micro decision of leadership) has immense impact on the important people around us. We are so worried about how we appear – something called ‘impression management’ – that we completely miss the power of admitting a mistake to everyone around us. Do you think being vulnerable makes others more open to admitting their own mistakes and their contribution or less open? I think it is obvious…
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“January and February have been a test of my “emotional intelligence” – it’s too cold to ride outside, so I’ve been cycling on my trainer in the basement. On the weekends, my coach – Steve – has me doing 2-3 hours rides in order to start building up my endurance and performance. This is hard as it gets boring riding in one place for that length of time. I do have my music, I watch some movies and sports, but most of all, I am keeping the end goal in mind. I know that the time I put in on the trainer now will have huge benefit to my overall performance once I am training outdoors and when the actual ride comes in July.
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