A friend of my wife was seeking my advice a few weeks ago about her boss. She’s a highly educated and polished professional who works for a large business and reports to a powerful director. As she was sharing her experience with me, I realized that she didn’t really want my advice as much as she wanted my opinion on some of the decisions her boss had recently made – all of which she thought were poor.
After she listed three scenarios, I smiled and said: “You’re going to hate me. I understand why he did those things – all three of them – and I agree with him.” I then explained her boss’s position and the many things he had to consider when making those decisions. We also talked through the possible outcomes if he made other choices – all of which would’ve been bad. After about 25 minutes, she agreed with me and even admitted that “Maybe I’m too hard on him.” And then she said the magic words - the comment that made me realize that her boss might have been making good decisions, but he probably wasn’t a very good leader:
“I guess it’s just him. He’s so crabby and upset all the time that it’s miserable to go into the office.”
So, how does your sales team feel when you arrive to the office? How do they feel when you walk into a meeting? How do they feel as they’re driving to meet with you? Are you motivating or depressing? Are you positive or scared? Are you full of energy or sucking wind? These things matter. It’s not just about the x’s and o’s and 1’s and 0’s. It’s no longer black and white. You’re a leader, and it’s all about the gray. Be a leader. You know what that means – I don’t need to add 10,000 words to this post to define it. You can visualize it. You know leadership. Are you leading? Again, how does your sales team feel when you arrive?
