Remove interference

What is in the way of your team accomplishing their goals?  What bothers them?  What slows them down?

Is it something you can remove?

Do it if you can.

Create Clarity

People and teams love clarity.  

As a leader, your job is to create it, even if there is complexity to start.

What do you want them to do?

No one can want it for you more than you

I have a lot of experience observing business owners and salespeople over long periods of time.  Some make lots of progress quickly, some slowly, some very slowly, and some not at all.

Perplexing if you think about it from the perspective that if they did better, they would make more money and have fewer problems.

So why do some just not get there?  They don’t want it or want it bad enough.  

You can’t fix a broken ‘want to’.

Most people that don’t want to take the responsibility, accountability, or do the work (out of their comfort zones at first) to be a great salesperson or a great leader never take that kind of position.  But some do it anyway and then mentally park.  Often they fail, but sometimes they hang on just enough to keep it going – and that is painful to watch.  They can move forward, but they just don’t want it bad enough.  They’re comfortable in their mess.

The way I see it, being a leader means you have a responsibility to your team and customers to do all you can to get it right.  And being a salesperson comes with the responsibility that the rest of the organization is counting on you.

In the end, each of us has to find a role suited for us.  One we love or at least like, and one we are willing to be good at.

Attitude, Behavior and Character

Hire for the ABC’s – Attitude, Behavior and Character.  Train for skill.

Hire the right person, not the convenient person.

Build a team that you and all the other team members, and your customers want to be with.

(Have you made a mistake in this regard?)

Do you lead by fear?

If your people are afraid of you, they keep their heads down, stop coming to you with problems, they stop bringing you good ideas and ultimately leave.  You don’t attract other leaders to help and you and your biggest fear – not doing well, comes true.

Don’t lead by fear.  Get some counseling, or step aside.

What if I train them and they leave?

What if you don’t and they stay?

Bad employees

If bad employees are making your life a little bit miserable, imagine what they are doing to the other employees they work alongside every day!

Did you ever let someone go and the other employees around them rejoice?

Diagnostic Errors

Leaders misdiagnose problems in business all the time -and that is a really big problem.

They go working on things that don’t matter, or matter only a fraction of what the biggest problems do.

We have blind spots because of our conditioning, our training or lack of it, our ego, and because we don’t want to call our baby ugly.  

If you spent half your leadership time understanding the biggest problems, identifying them, and calling them out, it is time well spent.

Bonus #2 – Don't know how? Jump in anyway.

One reason we don’t focus on what is most important (the sticking point holding our business back), is fear because we don’t know much about that area and think we will look stupid or make a mistake.  

That’s no excuse.  You are the leader.  I’d rather look stupid because I asked dumb questions or exposed that I did not know something than look stupid because my business did not improve in 10 (or 30 years).

Man up.  Start asking questions of the right people in and outside your business.  You don’t know how to fix it but you can learn OR find the person who does know.  

Get on it.

Bonus – Optimize for more of what really counts

Are you optimizing for more of what’s less important this week – or more of what is most important?