Timothy M. Dodd

Sales people have a love/hate relationship with goals. We love to achieve them but know they reset almost as soon as we've hit the mark. I encourage sales people to look, not just at the number at the end of the month, but rather, the numbers at the end of the day that tells you how many calls you made, presentations you delivered, prospects you uncovered, etc. By making these smaller, more immediate goals part of your self-evaluation process, you've got a chance to "win" every single day! Especially when closing sales in challenging, this approach helps keep self-morale high.

The best trainings I've done categorizes communication styles into four colors - Red, Green, Gold and Blue. Everyone on my team took an assessment to determine their style color. Then we took a half-day to train on what each style meant, and how each "color" might react differently to the same communication. The discussion was amazing. The best part was when we all revealed our colors to each other. Talk about a lightbulb moment! We instantly knew each other SO much better. Then, each of us got an appropriately-colored dot to stick on our nametags (required as part of our attire) so we would each know what style the person we were addressing was and how we might need to modulate our own style to most effectively communicate with them.

When a team I'm leading is underperforming I like to determine first if it's just one or two individuals or if the group is consistently not doing well. The nature of the problem then determines the nature of the solution. If it's the whole group, then we have some team meetings and no-holds-barred discussions about what they're challenges are. The team has to feel free to bring up any issue and the leader has to be open to hearing them out. Then let the team come up with solutions, help each other and collaborate. If it's just one or two people, then the conversations should just happen with those individuals. No use involving an entire team as there are likely specific issues with the underperformers that don't apply to the rest.

Setting a regular cadence to communicate with a mentor, a trusted business partner and/or colleagues is crucial. Purposely scheduling time isn't impersonal. Rather, it shows the other person you truly value the relationship, so much so that you're willing to set a hard stop in your calendar for it. All of us are busy. Setting calendar dates shows that the relationship is more important than other things that might otherwise occupy that space in the day.

In any negotiation, whether it be for a salary, buying a home or a business deal, it's important to walk into the room ready to walk right back out again if your terms aren't met. You can't want the deal, or the job, so badly that you're ready to sell yourself short to get it. It's fine to start high and then have a fallback position in mind. But there has to be a number below which you simply will not settle, no matter how great the company culture is. I mean really, if the company is really that great and they want you that badly, they'll meet your terms. If they don't, you probably dodged a bullet.

If you want to implement a 360-degree-feedback program for your team, you need to start with yourself first. By allowing yourself to be vulnerable and open to potentially difficult conversations, you model the way for how your team can benefit. Of course, you have to be sure you're in a healthy head-space to accept the feedback you receive, no matter what it is, in a spirit of cooperation, learning and growth. I cannot stress this enough: If YOU don't trust your team enough to accept and act on their comments then there is no way they trust each other enough. The leader MUST set the example. Only when that trust is built is your team ready to proceed.