When running a sales team, how often do you find yourself encouraging your team to make that 1 more call, to deliver that final customer pitch, and often what you hear coming back is “I’m not sure that I can”, or “I don’t think I’m quite ready”? How often do you double guess yourself before taking affirmative action? If you are like me, you do this on a regular basis, and this simply means you are human. It is amazing how, as individuals, we somehow find it challenging to easily identify what we are good at, and yet can rattle off a list of 5-10 things in 2 minutes flat on where we can and should improve.
It often plays out like this; “So Tom, what did you do well in that customer conversation”? And Tom’s reply is typically something along the lines of “Well, I think I did this well, but……”. As we know, everything that is spoken before the word ‘but’ is ignored, because the real feedback is what comes after the ‘but’. And we also have a tendency to try and ‘soften’ self feedback, so we use the words ‘I think’ far too often. It is rather unusual to hear someone provide positive self feedback with certainty without the ‘I think’. This played out exactly like this last week during a 2 day presentations program with a great group of corporate managers. Every single person in the workshop used the terminology ‘I think’ to provide themselves feedback, after delivering a small presentation.
What really struck me was that each of them had capabilities that were significantly higher than they thought they had, or were giving themselves credit for. Now, the danger with any program that involves individual contributions is that participants can very quickly and easily begin to compare themselves with others, and therefore rate themselves accordingly – and mostly, not that well!! However, when they can simply compare themselves to themselves and a standard or expectation they set for themselves, a whole new world can open up. It is no longer about a ‘hierarchy’ or a ‘league ladder’, it is about improving and developing a higher level of skill set, and in the process, self awareness. And when that happens, their capability increases.
It was a privilege to facilitate the program and witness each of the participants make a significant transformation over the course of just 2 days, and this experience further solidified for me that people’s capabilities are often better than they think they are. A number of key lessons came out of the experience which can be applied immediately, including :
- Put yourself in an uncomfortable position – for many people, presenting in front of an audience, or public speaking, is a very challenging thing to do, and many people would rather do anything else than present. However, as the participants discovered, it is never as bad as they perceive it to be, and thankfully not one of them spontaneously combusted or turned to water! Through standing up and presenting, they discovered that they could do it and despite how they were feeling, could have an impact and influence on their audience. How can you encourage your team to put themselves in uncomfortable positions? It is one of the best ways to grow.
- Be open to feedback – this is a big one. The ability to get uncomfortable and attempt something you are unfamiliar with is a big step. To then be open to feedback afterwards is huge, particularly when it comes to self feedback. To their credit, each of the participants did this well (although truth be told they had no choice!) and they embraced the feedback and applied it immediately. And to the surprise of a few, they discovered that their capability was better than they gave themselves credit for. Are you and your team open to feedback? I hope so, because people who become feedback seeking machines and then apply it immediately, tend to significantly speed up their development.
- Don’t attempt to ‘boil the ocean’ – often in programs, participants will attempt to implement as many of the learnings as possible, all at once, and then discover that it didn’t quite work. When it comes to developing a skill set, it is often best to take 1 or 2 new skills, implement those until there is a higher level of competence, seek and implement feedback, and then implement another new skill. This will develop a higher level of capability, which when executed well, will result in higher levels of confidence. And when confidence is high, the willingness & therefore ability to implement a new skill is enhanced. So don’t attempt to implement multiple new skills at once – select 1 or 2, implement them well, before introducing new ones.
- Develop a habit of viewing yourself in the 3rd person – for many people, the thought of watching themselves on video scares them senseless, however, the ability to disassociate from yourself can uncover some nuggets of gold. The participants discovered that there was a huge gap between how they actually felt during their presentation and how they looked on video delivering their presentation. Many of them were incredibly nervous delivering their presentation and yet on the video, they came across as being certain and confident. So develop the habit of viewing yourself in the 3rd person, and if you can, take video of yourself to assist you in this process. You will then get to see you as others see you.
- Be very mindful of your self talk – it is widely acknowledged that we are our own best critics and as mentioned earlier, it is much easier to believe in our ‘short comings’ than it is to believe our good qualities. Now there is nothing wrong in setting high standards and expectations for yourself; just ensure that your self talk in relation to those standards and expectations are optimistic and encouraging, and not pessimistic and disparaging. Our mind is incredibly powerful, and it doesn’t distinguish between good and bad – it will deliver based on the most dominant thought. Make your self talk positive and encouraging and encourage your team to do exactly the same.
The 2 days again reinforced for me just how powerful we all are, and that our belief in our own capabilities plays a massive role in how those capabilities come to the surface. To see the smiles on the faces of the participants after day 2 when they realised just how much they had transformed, was priceless. It was at that moment that they realised that their capabilities were in fact, much higher than they thought they were. Take this message, internalise it for yourself, and then allow yourself to share it with your team, and watch them embrace it, flourish and transform.
To your continued sales leadership success.
Darren
If you want to know how you can better lead your sales team, send me an email at darren@darrenmitchell.com.au
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