Last week, I had the opportunity to work with a sales management team of a large client in Pennsylvania. The focus of my workshop was on how to build a world-class sales culture. Much of the time was spent on effective coaching and mentoring. I have to applaud this client since they were investing in their people. In fact, from a recent survey, 74% of organizations don’t provide sufficient training to their sales managers. Crazy when you think about it, isn’t it? If sales are the engine of your organization, sales managers are the spark plugs. When was the last time, you gave your company a tune-up?
During the program, we did some self-assessments, participated in role plays, discussed attributes of great coaches, aired challenges and discussed best practices. It’s the best practices that I want to share with you. Here are three important ones that make sense to most managers, yet somehow fall short in most real life coaching scenarios:
1) Make Coaching & Mentoring A Priority – There is NOTHING that will have a greater IMPACT on your organization’s performance than developing your team. Whether it’s one-on-one mentoring conversations or group coaching sessions, you should look for ways to seize any and all opportunities to grow your team. Yet most managers admit that they spend ONLY 20-30% of their time on these critical activities. What if you could invert the time you spend on individual and team development? Instead of 20-30%, what if you spent 70-80% of your time on growing your team? What impact would that have on performance and results?
Questions:
How much time do I currently spend in my day/week on coaching, mentoring and developing my team? (Hint: Using a Time-Use Matrix to get your actual “spent” time is a very enlightening and valuable exercise.)
How much time should I spend (in ideal world)?
What can I start doing NOW to move closer to my ideal?
2) Praise The Person – We all know that encouragement and support does wonders in building trust and improving morale. But to get the BEST results, it also matters how you do it. Let’s look at a good, better, best scenario. “Good” would be a general accolade for a team member. “Better” would be tailoring your encouragement to a specific task or accomplishment. “Best” would be to be specific while congratulating the person in a way that reinforces their belief in themselves (and your confidence in them). For example, “Melissa, you are a top producer who I can always count on. The way you found a creative way to salvage the deal with the Peterson account is a testament to your discipline and perseverance. You really set a high mark for the team and you should be really proud of your accomplishment, as I am.” In this example, you are not only recognizing Melissa’s exceptional performance, you are reinforcing how she sees and identifies herself – as a “top producer” who makes the extra effort. It’s a very subtle shift, but it’s noteworthy. Praise the person, not just the activity or result! If she believes she is a top performer, she will internalize that belief and continue to do things that she perceives other top performers do.
On a related note, research by Losada & Heaphy found that the ideal praise-to-criticism ratio with employees was 5.6 to 1. In other words, if you want to get optimal performance and improve morale, you should be doling out praise about six times for every criticism you express. So the lesson seems to be to not only “praise the person,” but to do so often. Praise will also be valued more when it is shared authentically and is specific. Just telling an employee that they’re doing a great job isn’t going to cut it.
Questions:
Do I give enough positive reinforcement of my team? (Remember, Millennials like constant feedback.)
Does my feedback typically fit in the good, better or best category?
What can I start doing immediately to improve my feedback?
What’s my praise-to-criticism ratio? Do I need to shift it?
3) Look For Ways To Be More Collaborative – While there are times as the manager that you have to be directive, collaboration is the preferred method for coaching and mentoring. In other words, how can you bring your employee into the conversation and engage at a deeper and more meaningful level? The easiest and most effective way to do this is by asking open-ended questions, actively listening and probing for a fuller understanding and discussion. Before you say, “Yea, I know that,” I want you to think of the last time you were coaching or mentoring someone. From my experience doing role plays with managers, they rarely do this well, even though they think they do. In fact, most managers typically shortchange the “asking” and get into “telling mode” or if they do ask a question or two, they typically leave the respondent’s answer hanging there at face-value and move on (usually back to “telling mode”).
Let’s quickly address both of these common responses. “Telling,” while expedient, is not engaging. And it won’t evoke the type of ownership you want to engender in your team. In other words, if you as the manager/coach help me come up with the answer or the insight by your questions, I will have much more buy-in and commitment for changing. Isn’t that the goal? And by taking your team member’s response to a question at face-value, you are usually making assumptions and missing out on what lies below the surface. Probing deeper is usually where the real gold is if you want to facilitate a fuller and richer understanding…and consequently, a greater opportunity for a deeper and more meaningful discussion. So before you give feedback or tell one of your employees how they should handle something, start by asking questions. And keep digging. This process also works particularly well when an employee comes to you with a problem and they want you to fix it. Instead of just taking the monkey off of their back, won’t they grow more by you asking, “What do you think you should do?” And…”Why do you feel that way?” And…”What are the possible outcomes with this approach?” And…you get the picture. Stop being the problem-solver if you want your team to grow.
Questions:
Is my coaching style more directive or collaborative?
In what situations do I need to be more collaborative? In what situations do I need to be more directive?
How will a more collaborative approach impact me and my team members?
Are there ways that I can probe deeper and more positively impact the teaching/learning opportunity?
