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Goldilocks & the Four Managers

Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Goldilocks. She went for a walk in the forest where she got lost and came upon a house where four managers lived. They invited her to join them for lunch of delicious, hot soup.

The first manager said "I'll eat the hot soup so you don't burn your tongue."

The second manager said "My personal chef is in the kitchen. Bring my soup now! OR ELSE!"

The third manager said "Nobody eats before I wash the floor, do the laundry, weed the garden, fix the roof leak and cut down a tree for firewood."

The fourth manager said "The soup is in the kitchen. Help yourself and please bring me a bowl too. My driver will be here in an hour and can give you a ride home."

"Ahhh, this soup is just right," she said happily and she ate it all up.

A young leader comes seeking advice:

He says: "My colleagues say that it is the responsibility of the leader to sacrifice themselves for the benefit of the organization. If I give myself up, who will lead? But if I hold myself too high, how can I be respected? It's a riddle."

The Mentor says, "Good Questions. Let's consider three examples of how leaders conduct themselves:"

One: Self-Abnegation

At the outset of a great battle, the Commanding General steps to the front lines and offers himself up for personal destruction. Then the Colonels, Majors, Captains, Lieutenants and Sergeants Major. Oh and the Privates, First Class...

These leaders show great self-sacrifice... yes? But then the Army, lacking leadership - is destroyed.

We can all call to mind the examples of Saints, Parents and self-sacrificing siblings who gave of themselves for the benefit of the family, the team or the church. Martyrdom is respected in our culture. But then... Don't we need our leaders alive and leading?

Two: Self Aggrandizement

The new CEO calls in Office Services and his personal designer, spending a few days and a cool fifty K to redesign the Executive Loo in Gold Leaf. Executive Team meetings have become a little stilted of late owing to the depositions about the allegations of the CEO's misconduct. A tense silence prevails. The boss abuses his Executive Jet privileges, returning late and hung-over from weekends out of town.

The world is full of false leaders - people who mistake the executive chair as a throne and who behave more like ancient Mongol Chieftains than sober leaders - "Responsible for the Enterprise."

Both followers and leaders sometimes mistake charisma or political skills for leadership - and pay a terrible price. "Leadership by Gorilla" is the oldest form, and may take the longest to overcome.

Three: Self Awareness

A young manager becomes a leader. Full of dedication, she works harder, longer and more intensely than anyone - staying at the office later and contributing hugely. But then, she becomes steadily more exhausted. On the way home late one night, she swerves and nearly crashes. The following week, the Chairman takes her aside, saying, "You're doing fine. Relax. We're adding space in your office for a kitchen, a private bath, a closet and a couch. When you're tired, rest. When you're hungry, eat. When you need a workout, bring the coach in. And don't be foolish; take a vacation before you cave in. We'll send a car for you!" Given this Moment of Senior Sanity, our young leader relaxes a bit; steps back from the edge of the precipice and later resumes her campaign to change the world.

Perquisites come naturally - consistent with contribution, not as rewards necessarily, but to assist with future contributions. On the way up, you may desire the Perks of Leadership - thinking that they are rewards or recognition only. Of course, they serve that purpose - but more importantly, they provide the true leader "greater freedom to serve."

So, said the mentor, summarizing...

"Some leaders hold themselves too lightly and are not there for the victory. Some leaders put themselves above the enterprise, and self-destruct. Some see only the immediate business needs and must step back and take the larger and long view. Can you synthesize these examples and find the middle way?"

"Aha!" said the leader, "It's not only about me, it's about the enterprise. It's not only about the clients; it's also about the employee team and the community. This is the equation that the leader works on - moment to moment. Never solved, it is constantly evolving into a more perfect future."

Applications:

1. Personally
Recognize that your focus should be on the greater equation - "What's best for all concerned?" (And you're included in this equation too!) Don't let your hunger for the perks distract you. Rank and privilege must be earned before they're awarded.

2. At Home
Here's where a certain amount of self-sacrifice seems consistent with parenting. The thing won't work unless parents put themselves last... Yet, that private vacation and date night are the magic that balances/solves the equation.

3. As you progress at the office
Should the president fight his Secret Service Team for the "Honor of Taking the Bullet?" Perhaps as the perks start to come, you can graciously avail yourself of the driver, the couch, the larger space and the refrigerator to nourish your body and soul as you keep your eye on the larger context and take the company forward. Remember to breathe...


So, our advice? Serve your clients, your company, your family and yourself. Solve the ongoing equation and find the middle way.

Ahhh...just right!

Is it an Orchestra?

“If a team is to reach its potential, each player must be willing to subordinate his personal goals to the good of the team.”

- Charles Burnham "Bud" Wilkinson
Head Football Coach
University of Oklahoma
(1916-1994)

Is it an Orchestra, a Football Team, or a Sales Organization?

Yes!

A sales organization is in many ways similar to an orchestra, a football team or an acting troupe.

Certainly the playbook and a script have lot in common. Special teams, often carping at one another. Coaches, some zealous, some lost in the stats and distracted. Players, each wanting to do it their own way; competing for attention and glory. Stars and utility players. A strategy pulls it all together, while compliance makes sure we stay within the rules.

So this could be a ball club, but the comparisons break down when we look closely. The executives and managers are often too distant and distracted to really follow and direct the day-to-day practices of the sales force in their far-flung territories. A football coaching staff is focused on the careful, timely and perfect execution of plays minute by minute both on the practice field and on game day. The sales force – not so much.

An ugly reality in the sales business is that when a new idea or a market change comes along, the executives give marketing and sales management the word to “take it to the street” and then the silos take over. Marketing makes up a story, sends the literature and fact sheets to the field, and the guys are expected to pick up the story and run with it… But do they? Are they being followed and coached by management? Is there a standard for critique? Is the Manager able to demonstrate the story and sales process? Are executives demonstrating a knowledge and skill level that commands the respect of the troops? Unfortunately, once the key command is given, the system of careful coaching and focused attention to detail tends to break down – leaving the field and the phone people to make it up as they go along. Although the organization is “graded” daily on sales results, the cohesion that makes an orchestra or football team really successful is usually not present in sales organizations.

The truth is they look similar from the outside. But on the inside, the sports and arts have it all over sales in terms of rehearsing and practicing – because they have breathing time between appearances; and because they harbor the expectation of flawless teamwork.

We propose these alterations to the sales model:

1. Start with the executive team to make sure they acquire the high articulation skills and a shared approach to building sales organizations. (We respect seniors who still make us feel a little nervous about our own technique…) Get the leaders together – whatever it takes -- so they can and will model the skills being required of the field. Lead by example.

2. Tell them what you’re doing. Let the organization know that you’re building a new “Fusion Approach” to corporate sales. Tell them what the executives are up to. Tell them the managers are learning to coach. Tell them there’s training coming up and that they’re expected to show up and swallow it whole – with their last full measure of devotion. Tell them to take it back with them to the field and demonstrate the story there. Tell them that teamwork is hard in a large geographically diverse organization; but that you know they can do it – and that you expect them to play the part they’ve been taught – rather than backsliding into their “envelope.”

3. Develop the story as a “Senate” of contributors from around the organization to eliminate second guessing and back-channeling the story. Make sure everyone involved has already been trained in the same team story building and storytelling approach.

4. Get Managers learning, demonstrating and coaching both the story and the sales techniques from the beginning. It’s one thing to send people to training. It’s another to train them, put a story in their hands tailored to their training and then follow up with coaching and compensation based on sticking to what was taught.

5. Launch the story through a group meeting. Don’t dribble it out individually. If they contribute to the development through their representatives in the Senate, then witness the launch in a “Roll Out to the Team,” they will have the chance to explore and acquire the same “take” on the story as everyone on the team. After group practice and demonstrations, a competition for bragging rights sets the entire sales organization up to launch the story in the same way, with the same style and at the same time – all across the country. "One Story, Many Voices!®"

6. With the Story launched, it’s all about the coaching! Doing it again and again, with the same perfection and individual tailoring to specific clients requires careful adjustment and reminders to stick to the script while at the same time “listening your way to the sale.” If the story gets changed every time it’s told; in mere weeks the power of a large-scale sales organization will dwindle down to “a lot of guys showing up and smiling.” Yet with laser focused coaching, the story (and the organization) can retain its coherence and its integrity while the practitioners can “individually manage the relationship around the story.” The way we tell the story doesn’t change, but every sales call is a unique undertaking. Coaching is what makes this kind of professionalism a reality. If we train the managers as coaches, we can get this done.

7. Compensation. Must be connected – not just to numerical sales performance – but to the sales process. If we pay people for the sales numbers, then they will attempt to force the numbers. If we pay them at least partially for sticking with the process and the story, we are more likely to get the kind of steady, stable sales process that will set us apart in the long run.

“Don’t look at the scoreboard.” – John Wooden.

8. Now do it again! And don’t change it next year. It takes a career – it is a career.

So, is it an Orchestra, a Football Team, or a Sales Organization?

Yes!