Jonathan Farrington’s Blog

People have been debating the nature of leadership for as long as records have been kept – certainly as far back as Homer and his peers. The topic continues to fascinate and enthral us today, but the way in which we assess leadership roles is changing.

Where once we looked to military and political leaders for inspiration and insight, now it is increasingly business leaders who hold our attention and provide role models.

Ask someone to name a leader whom they have admired and they are just as likely to name Richard Branson as Tony Blair, Anita Roddick as Margaret Thatcher. This focus is reflected in the growing number of books and articles about business and the main players.

Most writing on good management and what it takes to get to the top focus on leadership. It is regarded as one of the most important areas of personal development. This also explains the growing interest in leadership courses.

Defining just what makes a leader effective, however, remains as difficult today as it ever was. But that does not prevent us from seeking to distil their secrets – quite the reverse.

Of course, there must be almost as many theories on leadership as there are leaders themselves and models for the best kind of leadership change with the times.

In the 15th century, Niccolo Machiavelli advocated a combination of cunning and intimidation as a way to more effective leadership. His philosophy, if not his practices, became unfashionable some time ago.

“Great Man” theories, popular in the 19th century and early this century, are based on the notion of the ‘born leader’ who has innate talents that cannot be taught. An alternative approach that is still in vogue is based on trying to identify the key traits of effective leaders. Behaviourist theory prefers to see leadership in terms of what leaders do rather than their individual characteristics, and it tries to identify the different roles they fulfil. More recently, attention has moved away from the individual in the leadership role to embrace a more holistic view and investing less in what some commentators refer to as the ‘myth of the heroic leader’.

Requirements of a Leader:

It is my view that an effective leader needs to be:
• A good diagnostician, who can sense and appreciate differences in people and situations.
• Adaptable, in the ability to adapt the leadership style to circumstances.

A leader must realise there is no one best way to influence people.

In summary, to those who would suggest that great leaders are born not made, I would say this: We can examine all of the great leaders in history and identify some common characteristics but we cannot say they were “Born Leaders.” They all developed into their leadership roles over a period of time, learning the skills along the way. I do believe that leaders can be developed – I have to believe that because currently we have far too few of them in the world.

Today’s News: This week, the Elves have been working on a facelift for Top Sales Experts and adding a number of highly distinguished new members. They have also added a ticker box, to make it easier for visitors to locate upcoming Business Expert Webinars that will be delivered by TSE team members. In fact they have placed one on Top 10 Sales Articles too, prior to giving that site a makeover.

As I mentioned earlier in the week, BEW kicks off next week and I will be highlighting it often because it is a great initiative and fully deserves my support and your investigation - if you haven’t already done so, you can check it out by clicking the box in the left-hand column. 

Tomorrow: I’ll be catching up with outstanding mail, watching the English soccer Cup Final and hoping that the rain eases up :-(  Next week, on The JF Guest Author Spot, we have a couple of “big-hitters” so be sure to join me. As always, wherever you are, have a great w/e. Best - JF 

Business people in the UK have devalued selling for far too long and some managers have convinced themselves that they would do better if they did not employ salespeople - after all good products sell themselves, don’t they?

As a consequence, until very recently, salespeople have done everything possible to avoid calling themselves “A Salesman or a Saleswoman.” They have developed a series of euphemisms such as: “Sales Engineer,” “Account Executive”, “Technical Sales Consultant” etc. But nowadays we accept that we all sell everyday - doctors, lawyers, estate agents, architects, and politicians.

The fact remains that anyone who is in business has to sell themselves and their products - and the so called “Captains of Industry” - Branson, Roddick, Marshall, Hanson, Gates, Dell and Co. are thought the best salespeople in the world.

It therefore follows that the quality and success of our salespeople will ultimately determine the success of our companies. Certainly the world has become more competitive and in order to survive and stay in business we need to continually expand and develop the skill sets of our sales team.

Sir John Harvey-Jones said “Most companies fail not in their attempts to be innovative or creative. In this country most of them fail because they undervalue the importance of professional selling”

Unfortunately, the task of selling never becomes any easier and as competition continues to intensify, sales people will face issues that can be extremely difficult to deal with e.g. decreased product uniqueness, increased competition within ‘safe’ markets, longer sales cycles, and shorter product life spans.

Every organisation that intends to survive in the re-engineered environment, which arrived with the new millennium, must, in my view, respond to those realities and recognise that there is not one critical sales related challenge, which must be addressed but five and I will discuss these in a follow up post.

In Summary:
Our commercial functions, particularly the sales team, represent our forward line, if they are not scoring regularly we cannot possibly achieve our overall commercial objectives – i.e. nothing happens until somebody sells something and all of that investment in costly accounting software, new office equipment, expensive IT systems etc. will count for nothing.

We can therefore say with complete confidence, that selling really is the key factor in the total marketing process

Today’s News: I had quite a lengthy conversation with Robin Frey Carey of The Customer Collective - have you been over to there yet? - and we were discussing, amongst other things, webinars and tele-seminars. My view is that like all things in life, there are good ones and erm, less than good ones. For example, the Business Experts Webinars initiative is superb and I think Lee has a really big success on his hands - if you want to check the itinerary for May, just click on the box in the left hand column. (Due to the pressure of other commitments, I will not be appearing until September)

Thanks to a superb suggestion from my good friend Keith Rosen last week, we are working on something very unique and I promise to share it with you very shortly.

Talking of upcoming tele-seminars, have you really booked your place for my conversation with the remarkable Kevin Eikenberry yet? Just click on the banner below - please.

Tomorrow: We are putting the final touches to the re-worked Top Sales Experts site and preparing to give Top 10 a makeover - plenty to keep me going. Wherever you are, have a great w/e and enjoy the sunshine

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, not the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change” - Charles Darwin

Whatever got you where you are today will not be sufficient to keep you there. A rapidly changing environment is the regular background against which organisations must develop.

Change is continuous and will become more rapid as we move forward over time. Senior management must be capable of reacting to those changes and be prepared to take advantage of them and yet stay within the overall framework and agreed strategy.

The role of strategy is fundamental if the people within an organisation are to be enabled to make the level of contribution of which they are capable. Strategy, based on a good grasp of the core competencies of a business, is an essential precursor to achieving optimal shareholder value.

The world’s leading organisations continuously seek to improve their performance. There may be unlimited potential for achieving accelerated improvement but if this potential is not being realised, good change agents must line up and mobilise all the forces (or drivers) for improvement.

There are five main drivers for improvement in organisations:

• Strategy

• Lean operations

• Balanced culture

• Customer responsiveness

• Leadership

Strategy sets direction and give focus to improvement. It must however be deployed throughout the organisation to be effective.

Processes need to be mapped and analysed in a methodical way; projects must be managed; problem symptoms traced to root causes; data must be collected before decisions are taken; trends in customer preferences detached and fed back; improvement activity of any kind reported on and coordinated; improvement action measured. Just about everything should be done to a discipline.

A balanced culture means effective, creative management of people. Customers are served by people; processes are managed by people. Only people can deliver quality improvement. For them to work well they must be empowered, given direction, measured, reviewed and success recognised.

Customer responsiveness keeps the organisation focused on customer needs, reactions and changing requirements.

Finally, leadership ensures that everyone is enthused and supported to work on the strategy, improve processes, served customers and active team players.

Today’s News: It is a while since I mentioned my good friend and publisher, Jeb Blount, who has created a superb sales community over at Sales Gravy - if you haven’t discovered SG, do take a look here

Tomorrow: We are continuing our work on three exciting new projects, so the likliehood of some downtime is very slim, but hey-ho, that’s the way of the world right now. You have a great w/e and be sure to make it back next week to join me and my guests. - JF 

Today’s post was prompted by my considerable frustration last week, at being unable to make contact with people who appear to spend their entire lives in meetings. These are my thoughts:

Have you heard the one about meetings?

“Are you lonely?
- Work on your own?
- Hate having to make decisions?
- Rather talk about it than do it?

Well, why not hold a meeting?
- You get to see other people
- You can sleep in peace
- Offload decisions
- Learn to write volumes of meaningless rhetoric
- Feel important
- Impress (or bore) your colleagues - and all in work time!”

But of course, it doesn’t have to be like that.

Too many meetings, too little time. When the true cost of holding just one meeting is accurately calculated, it should provide sufficient motivation for us to want to ensure that all of our meetings are meaningful, necessary and can be justified.

Are Meetings A Waste Of Time?

Why they cause frustration:
• Too many of them
• No real purpose
• Too long
• Platform for the talkative
• Few decisions come out of them
• Make straightforward issues complicated
• Often slow things down

Potential benefits:

Run properly they can be an effective means of:
• Communication to a group
• Meeting people face-to-face
• Improving the quality of decisions
• Getting to know people
• Drawing from a variety of different experiences
• Building teams

The following figures are based on a working year of 288 days, with one working day equal to 7 hours. (I wish!) You begin to realise the true cost of holding a meeting.

Salary Per Annum: £40.000
One Hour Meeting: £24
One Day Meeting: £168

Salary Per Annum: £100.000
One Hour Meeting: £60
One Day Meeting: £420

Some Tips To Ensure A Successful Meeting:

• Only hold meetings if they are really necessary
Could people be told any other way?
Consider the cost; meetings are expensive – time away from job, salaries of those attending.

• If they are needed, then plan for them
What do you want to achieve?
What are you going to discuss?
What decisions will need to be made/actions taken?
Who needs to be there? How are you going to tell them what it’s about and why they are invited?
How long can you allocate to the meeting?
Remember, if you fail to prepare, then prepare for your meeting to fail.

• Prepare an agenda
Include only relevant items
Put them in order of importance
Decide who will lead the input on each
Allocate time for each item (don’t forget to allow for a 5 minute break at least once an hour)
What could go wrong and what will you do?

• Collect all information
If it’s lengthy, summarise it, outlining key points
Send out agendas and key points in advance.

• Prepare the room
Ensure that there are sufficient tables and charts
If you want equipment (eg: flip charts, PCs overhead projectors) make sure it is available and working
Arrange refreshments.

And Finally: Running The Meeting:

Achieve faster, more efficient results by:
• Telling everyone the purpose
• Setting the scene for each item, eg: open discussion by inviting specific contributions from those present
• Letting everyone who has something to say make a contribution
• Summarising what’s been said
• Watching for signs of non-participation
• Sticking to time (always start on time and don’t be afraid to finish early)
• Agreeing actions to follow
• Not being afraid to critique the meeting, i.e.: Was it worth it?
• After the meeting:
Circulating minutes promptly to those attending and interested parties
Monitoring and reviewing progress of any actions decided

End Result? A successful meeting and all in work time!

Today’s News: Congratulations to my good friend Keith Rosen, for such a mega launch of his new book; “Coaching Salespeople Into Sales Champions” which hit the very top of Amazon’s best-seller list last week. It has been so successful that he has extended the special bonus period until May 2nd, you can find out more here

There is a great deal happening this week in terms of site launches, major events etc. so be sure to stay tuned in

There are a brand new set of nominees over at Top 10 Sales Articles - all of them, very high quality and do drop in to the Customer Collective, when you can, as I am still hosting the Sales Sandbox.

Tomorrow (Tuesday): My guest is the amazing Leslie Buterin (as in buterin bread)

Some researchers prefer to move the focus away from the leader altogether and to examine instead what makes others prepared to follow these individuals. In 1988 an important article published in the Harvard Business Review, entitled “In Praise of Followers”, began to shift attention away from the machismo of leadership to the less glamorous side of the same equation: the role of ‘followership’.

What the advocates of followership recognised was that to become an effective leader, most people first had to learn how to be good followers. With few exceptions, this is as true of the corporate world as it is of military and political leaders. Aristotle noted: “He who has never learnt to obey cannot be a good commander”.

More than ever today, business executives have to operate as both leader and follower in the daily rounds of their job. Those who study leadership begin to take more interest in the ‘psychological contract’ between leader and followers. In other words, they began to ask what makes people prepared to follow one leader and unwilling to follow another.

These ideas are now changing both the way we think about leadership and the style of our leaders. This is in tune with other social and organisational developments, including the move to more participative management and the rise of industrial democracy.

Other new ideas are also gaining ground. For example, only now is the notion of ‘emotional intelligence’ becoming widely understood. For the leaders of the future, it is likely to be as important as a high IQ.

In his ground-breaking 1996 book, “Emotional Intelligence”, the American psychologist Daniel Goleman explored the issue of personal and professional effectiveness. He argued that in a business world too often obsessed by cold analysis, the emotional climate is more important to the success of a leader than previously recognised. At senior levels, ‘emotional intelligence’ rather than ‘rational intelligence’ marks out the true leader: “The qualities of leadership and the quality of the heart are largely the same”. This may explain why someone like Branson, who twice failed his elementary mathematics exam, can make a better leader than someone with a degree from Harvard Business School. Branson’s ‘emotional intelligence’ – his ‘people radar’ – is more keenly developed.

According to Goleman, studies of outstanding performers in organisations show that about two thirds of the abilities that set star performers apart in the leadership stakes are based on emotional intelligence. Only a third of the skills that matter relate to raw intelligence (as measured by IQ) and technical expertise.

“Our emotions are hardwired into our being”, Goleman explained. “The very architecture of the brain gives feelings priority over thought”. There is a sign in Harvard’s rat lab that says: “Rats under carefully controlled conditions will do any damned thing they please”. The same is true of human beings. Leaders ignore emotions at their perils.

Most important of all, the role of leaders in developing the next generation has too often been neglected. If we are to grow as a society, this must be the priority for the future. As Sir Adrian Cadbury, the former Head of Cadbury Schweppes, has observed: “Good leaders grow people, bad leaders stunt them; good leaders serve their followers, bad leaders enslave them”.

Today’s News: UPCOMING TELESEMINAR from Jill Konrath that you will not want to miss:

“The Voice of Experience: Develop instant credibility & contagious confidence on the phone”

Date: Thursday, April 17, 2 pm ET (7pm GMT) 
Price: $79/person  Register now.

Tomorrow: A very welcome return for the “Queen Of Cold Calling” my good friend Wendy Weiss

The JF Guest Author Spot

Paul McCord

Although an easy way to recruit, employing contract and in-house recruiters is generally a poor way for companies to attract top industry talent. Furthermore, studies indicate that within 12 months of the hire, 60% of all new hires are considered unsatisfactory (all hires, not just those who were introduced by recruiters). This doesn’t mean the under performing employees leave the company—it simply means that position is now filled by an unsatisfactory employee.

Recruiters have an extremely tough job that hinders their ability to recruit the best of the best. A typical contract recruiter must:
• spend hours locating a vacancy to fill
• negotiate their compensation for filling the position
• work with the hiring company to understand the stated and implied qualifications for the position
• possibly post the position on various job boards
• possibly create and place advertising in various media
• spend countless hours on the phone searching for someone, anyone with at least the minimum    qualifications that meet the position’s requirements who would seriously consider moving companies
• talk to numerous unqualified, overqualified, under-qualified, or not-interested people he/she has called or who have called them
• present the candidate or candidates to the hiring company
• after finding one or more candidates the company may have an interest in, coordinate interviews, follow-ups, offers, and negotiations
• prepare the new employee for their first day on the job
• follow up with the company and candidate to make sure both parties are happy
• and the list goes on

Moreover, usually not a dime of compensation until the job is filled, with the ever present risk of no compensation at all if they cannot find a suitable candidate. The in-house recruiter’s tasks, though slightly less time consuming, are very similar to an outside recruiter’s.

Based on the above, is it any wonder that the recruiter’s primary emphasis is to get someone with at least the minimum qualifications to fill that seat as quickly as possible? Their livelihood depends on their ability to quickly locate a warm, at least minimally qualified person to meet the hiring company’s needs. Simply put, top talent isn’t a priority—it is a seldom realized luxury.

Since most recruiters are recruiting for positions they have never personally performed or managed, they must rely on the hiring manager or HR’s stated minimum qualifications exclusively, even though all positions have implied qualifications also. Many recruiters are unfamiliar with the major players in the industry they are recruiting for, who the top talent for the position is, what expectations a top person in the industry would have of a new position, et cetera.—even if they claim to specialize in that industry. Many in-house recruiters suffer from the same limitations.

Of course, there are recruiters who are the exception, and they are worth their weight in gold.

You don’t need a recruiter, you need a recruiting program

Recruiting top talent doesn’t happen overnight and doesn’t come easily—even for the top companies. Unless you are willing to offer a phenomenal package, recruiting the top sales talent requires building relationships that lead to bringing the individual into your company. Sometimes, when the employment gods are particularly kind, this process can be almost immediate. More often, the process requires time, patience and effort. That is generally where the recruiter—outside and in-house–fail.

Because of the tremendous pressure on their time, recruiters don’t have the luxury of developing long-term relationships with top candidates. Most everyone has received the phone call from outside and in-house recruiters recruiting for a position. They inquire as to whether you would be interested. No. Do you know anyone who might be? No. You never hear from that particular recruiter again, or if you do, it’s months or years later when the recruiter has another opening and they run across your name again.

Though the common practice, this method of recruiting is terribly inefficient. The candidates the recruiter generates are the people who are ready to move today, and the likelihood that top prospects are looking to move today is extremely small.

Companies need a recruiting program in place to capture those top prospects when they are ready to make the move—and who knows when that will be? And when they are ready to move, will they call? Without a consistent, effective recruiting program, the answer to the last question is—probably not. And many companies erroneously believe that their reputation, visibility, or size will be sufficient to attract the top talent they need. Not true.

What a recruiting program will do

Implementing a consistent, well defined and executed recruiting program will:
• put your company in a position to attract top talent when that talent is ripe
• will place your company at the top of the candidate’s mind when the candidate determines the time is right to make a move
• and may help the candidate make a positive move toward your company before he/she may otherwise have decided to change companies

A well-constructed recruiting program is a positioning and branding program for prospective employees. Just as with a company’s or a product’s positioning and branding, a recruiting program creates in the target:
• an awareness of your company
• an awareness of your company’s interest in them
• a positive image of your company as a potential employer
• and the program moves the candidate to think about the possibility of putting themselves in a better position by making the move to your company (however the candidate would define “better position”).

Over a period of time, you can populate your most important positions with the top talent that every company seeks but few can capture. It requires time, patience, commitment and a well-designed program.

Elements of a recruiting program

A well-constructed recruiting program contains six elements. There is, of course, considerable detail to each element that must be customized to your company, but all programs must contain:

1. Hiring Manager buy-in
A recruiting program depends on each hiring manager playing his or her part. The success of the program for each team or department is centered on that hiring manager.

That manager knows exactly what they are looking for in the person to handle a particular position. Consequently, there isn’t anyone more capable to recruit the position. In any recruiting program the most difficult part is obtaining buy-in to the program from all hiring managers. Typically, since managers will immediately recognize the initial time element required to establish the program, there will be managers whose participation is less than ideal until they begin to see the results of the program.

2. Identification of top talent
Identifying the positions where top talent is required and then identifying that talent requires serious thought and research. Does the company want to hire only the best for every position in marketing and/or sales? If so, that should be a goal known throughout the company. Otherwise, what positions are critical and require the best in the industry?

Once those positions have been identified, everyone, especially the position’s direct manager of course, should be fully aware of the crucial nature of the position, and the position’s importance and the reason it is considered to be of such importance should be in written format—that which is written becomes more real than that which is only verbalized.

After identifying the crucial positions, the identification of the talent becomes the focus. Both currently known and unknown talent must be identified. Known talent—easy, the company already knows who they are. Unknown talent requires considerable research and some of the best, most cost effective talent is often not the most obvious.

3. Initial contact
A crucial step in the process is the initial approach to the prospective employee. Whether a previously known or unknown prospect, there are a number of considerations that must be taken into account prior to the initial contact. Gathering as much information about the individual as possible and their current position will aid greatly in making initial contact.

Contact can be made through any number of channels—e-mail, the postal service, phone, meeting at an industry function, et cetera. However, the initial contact will set the tone for further developing the relationship; and for those prospects unfamiliar with the company, the initial contact will often establish their lasting impression of the company—good or bad.

4. Developing the relationship
The program must have a consistent, reliable, and positive follow-up system to stay in contact with and deepen the relationship with the prospect. Making an initial positive impression with a prospect that makes a move 18 months from now won’t help if he or she doesn’t remember the company because there wasn’t a follow-up program.

It is not uncommon for managers to run across prospects they had contacted only once or twice in the past only to find that the prospect has changed companies and had forgotten about the manager’s company after a few months without being contacted again after the initial introduction.

To be effective and workable, the follow-up program must be customized for each hiring manager’s style, personality, and work habits. A single, rigid, dictated follow-up system that is not flexible from manager to manager guarantees failure since every manager functions differently and what may work well for one manager, may not work well for another. That manager who is forced to work a system he/she is not comfortable with or that cannot be modified to fit their personality will ultimately refuse to participate. If done correctly, once the initial talent identification and contact has been made, the time commitment to manage that individual’s follow-up program is generally minimal.

5. Discover and feed the prospects wants and current dissatisfactions
Once initial positive contact has been made, the goal is to discover the prospect’s Wants–and what the prospect is dissatisfied with in their current position. By discovering the prospects areas of dissatisfaction and prying on those areas—assuming the recruiting company can rectify the issues—while, at the same time, discovering and feeding the prospect’s needs, which in most instances will not be money, but rather working conditions, recognition, status, a few inexpensive perks, and other easily met needs, the hiring manager can gently prod a prospect into moving companies much sooner than the prospect would have moved on their own.

6. When the prospect is ready to move
One never knows when their top prospects might be ready to make a change. At times the prospect will have little warning themselves. Everyone knows top people who were squeezed out in a merger, who finally got fed up with whatever situation was at their old employer and decided to finally leave on the spur of the moment, or who made a quick change for any number of other reasons. More than likely, a hiring manager would not have known the change was coming until after the candidate had made the decision, but with a properly working recruiting program, the hiring manager will often know even before the prospect realizes it that the prospect is about to make a change.

At times, a prospect the company has developed a relationship with will move specifically because of courting. Usually, however, other reasons trigger the move—the company just happens to be in the right place at the right time because they made it their goal to do so. More often than not, once a prospect the company has been building a relationship with decides to move, the hiring and negotiation process moves quickly. Unlike other hiring arrangements, both parties know one another and have a reasonable idea of what to expect. This, however, will not eliminate the need for both parties to further evaluate one another. It simply makes the process go much quicker. Having developed a broad outline of an offer letter for each position that can be quickly customized for any particular candidate will also expedite the process. Though the details may be slightly different from one candidate to another, the offers will generally be similar.

What happens if your company is not ready to hire when the prospect is ready to move?

You still win. One typical objection from companies considering developing a recruiting program is that they might not be ready or in a position to hire when a prospect is ready to move. The simple answer is that they have had the opportunity to decide IF they want to pursue the prospect. It puts you in control of the situation rather than relying on the slim possibility that a top talent will be available when you are ready. Many companies will make internal changes by creating positions, expanding departments, expanding services, and even creating new businesses and products to accommodate a top talent who became available at a time when they didn’t necessarily need that person. However, whether you create a position, replace an under performing employee, or pass on the potential hire, you are in control of the situation—it gives you choices, it expands your options, it allows you to make decisions that you would probably otherwise not be able to make.

Developing a recruiting program can, over time, re-create your entire company. Of course, you won’t be able to replace your recruiter overnight—creating a recruiting program and generating the highest quality candidates who are interested in making the move takes time and commitment. Nevertheless, in time, not only will you have eliminated the tremendous recruiting costs to attract average or slightly above average talent, but also all of your most important positions can be filled with some of the best talent in your industry. What would a marketing and sales team—or an executive management team, or product development team–of the best people in your industry mean to your company? Increased productivity, increased sales, reduced operating and personnel costs, and increased corporate options. Equally important, you will have saved thousands, possibly millions of dollars in recruiting costs (and many times after having developed a strong relationship with a great prospect they will move for fewer dollars than they could demand on the open market)—dollars that find their way to your bottom-line.

Paul McCord is the president of McCord and Associates, a Houston, Texas based international sales training, coaching, and consulting company. He is the author of the Amazon and Barnes and Noble best-selling book on referral generation, Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sales Success through Client Referrals (John Wiley and Sons, 2008), and SuperStar Selling: 12 Keys to Becoming a Sales SuperStar www.powerreferralselling.com

Today’s News: Over at Top 10 Sales Articles, the panel had a particularly tough choice selecting the best article for March, but they did and a very worthy winner it is too - you can check it out here

Over at Salesopedia this week, the topic is Sales Attitude and there are some really good featured articles, which I think you will enjoy here

Tomorrow: Thoughts about the blame culture, which appears to be prevalent these days

I spend quite a lot of my time questioning the motives of would-be sales managers: is it the kudos that is attractive?; the lure of a new car?; the power that comes with authority?; increased responsibility?

The reality is that it can be one of the lonliest and most stressful jobs in the world. Being suddenly propelled from a situation where you are, by and large, totally responsible for your own achievement, into another where you are totally dependent on your team for your success. Is it any wonder that so many managers fail so early, in what could have been such a promising career?

When a salesperson gains promotion to management the first thing they have to do is to quickly acquaint themselves with a new set of working relationships - and a new set of rules.

The salesperson’s primary working relationships are with customers. However the sales manager’s is with the sales force i.e. his subordinates.

Essential Attributes Include:

Successful Salesperson:

- Personal drive (Ego).

- Needs to win battles (Individual sales).

- Able to work alone.

- Persuades customers to see his/her point.

- Needs selling skills, personal skills and knowledge.

- Able to work away from the office.

- Works well with people and numbers.

- Good at implementing sales tactics.

Successful Sales Manager:

- Submission of personal needs to the goals of the Company (Corporate drive).

- Needs to win the war (Meet corporate goals).

- Able to work with others.

- Persuades the sales team to see the Company’s point.

- Needs management skills and marketing knowledge.

- Needs to work at the office.

- Works well with people, numbers, paperwork and the corporate hierarchy.

- Good at developing sales and marketing strategies.

The most common danger in having sales managers who are basically super salespeople is that “relations with subordinates” including the critical tasks of development and supervision may deteriorate.

Lack of skills and resources:

Even when they do recognize the importance of developing their salespeople, many sales managers find that they lack the skills and resources to do it effectively. It then becomes easier not to bother.

An Overwhelmed Manager:

To make things worse, most sales teams consist of a number of individuals with differing levels of experience and ability, so the whole issue of team development becomes too daunting for the overwhelmed manager to contemplate.

The Answer? - Divine Intervention From Above:

Sales Directors who recognise that the different roles played by salespeople and managers require different skill sets; factor those differences into their recruitment and selection of sales managers. Instead of promoting top-performers purely on the strength of their sales performance, these Sales Directors look for management candidates who can demonstrate an ability to help others strategise, work effectively with customers, and build their self-confidence. These Sales Directors recognise that coaching competence is absolutely pivotal and feature it highly in managers’ performance reviews and remuneration packages.

Today’s News:

 Last week I mentioned that Jill Konrath has created a fantastic free e-book, “Can LinkedIn Increase Your Sales?” It is absolutely jam packed with superb advice for anyone wanting to make the most of the LinkedIn experience - make no mistake, business networking is here to stay - you will not want to miss this opportunity to devour her words of wisdom and excellent research, you can download it here

Tomorrow: This week I signed a publishing deal for my first book, “Tougher At The Top” and although it doesn’t launch until the end of the year, work begins almost immediately. It will demand a dedicated site, blog, newsletter and considerable promotion. I know I have got three or four good titles in me and this is an exciting start - watch this space

Wherever you are, have a great w/e and be sure to join me next week when two very “big-hitters” are my guests on The JF Guest Author Spot; my very good friends and best selling authors, Paul McCord and Jeb Blount - JF

I have read extensively on the lives, characteristics and leadership styles of all the great leaders including: Alexander the Great, Montgomery, Elizabeth 1st, Churchill, Ghandi, Mandella, Luther-King et al (the list is pretty extensive) because leadership is one of my passions. However, the one that earns my greatest respect and the one with whom I feel the greatest affinity is Shackleton, because I have learned so much from his style of leadership – characteristics that I have endeavoured to incorporate within my own management style.

Sir Ernest Shackleton has been called “the greatest leader that ever came on God’s earth bar none” for saving the lives of twenty-seven men stranded with him on an Antarctic ice floe for almost two years.

From 1914 to 1916 Shackleton and his men survived the wreck of their ship Endurance, in the crushing Antarctic ice, stranded twelve hundred miles from civilisation with no means of communication and no hope of rescue. The temperatures were so low the men could hear the ice freeze. They subsisted on a diet of penguins, seals and ultimately dogs.

When the ice began to break up, Shackleton set out to save them all on a heroic eight-hundred mile trip across the frigid South Atlantic – in little more than a rowboat.

Unlike most of the polar expeditions, every man survived – not only in good health, but also in good spirits – all due to the leadership skills of Shackleton.

So What Are The Leadership Lessons We Can Learn?

Here are just a few that I have adopted:

- Cultivate a sense of compassion and responsibility for others. As a leader you have a bigger impact on the lives of those under you than you can imagine.

- Once a career decision has been made, commit to stick it out through the tough learning period.

- Play your part in creating an upbeat environment: A positive and vibrant workplace is important to productivity.

- Broaden your cultural and social horizon beyond your normal experiences. Learning to see life from different perspectives will give you greater flexibility when it comes to problem solving at work

- We live in a rapidly changing world so be willing to venture in new directions to seize new opportunities and learn new skills

- Find ways in which to turn setbacks and failures to your advantage. This represents a good time to step forward on your own

- Be bold in vision and careful in planning. Dare to try something new, but be meticulous with your proposal so that your ideas have a good chance of succeeding

- Learn from your mistakes – yours and those made by others. Sometimes the best teachers are the worst bosses.

- Never insist on achieving a goal or objective at any cost. It must be achieved at a reasonable expense, without undue hardship on your staff

- Don’t be drawn into public disputes with rivals. Better to engage in respectful competition. Remember you may need their co-operation someday.

There are of course many others but as space here is at a premium, these are the values that I hold most true.

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, CVO, OBE (15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922)

Today’s News: Social Media Today are a pretty dynamic organisation and they recently launched The Customer Collective - do take a look, you will find me editing the Sales Sandbox this month

Tomorrow: Last week, I mentioned that I had finally connected with Krishna De - tomorrow, she appears for the first time on The JF Guest Author Spot

“The Lone Ranger is dead. Instead of the individual problem-solver, we have a new model for creative achievement. People like Steve Jobs or Walt Disney headed groups and found their own greatness in them”.

Professor Warren Bennis, Distinguished Professor of Business Administration, Marshall School of Business, USC,  provides a blueprint for the new model leader. “He or she is a pragmatic dreamer, a person with an original but attainable vision. Inevitably, the leader has to invent a style that suits the group. The standard models, especially command and control, simply don’t work. The heads of groups have to act decisively, but never arbitrarily. They have to make decisions without limiting the perceived autonomy of the other participants. Devising an atmosphere in which others can put a dent in the universe is the leader’s creative act”.

However, the role of the new model leader is ridden with contradictions. Paradox and uncertainty are increasingly at the heart of leading organisations. A lot of leaders don’t like ambiguity so they try to shape the environment to resolve the ambiguity. This might involve collecting more data or narrowing things down. These may not be the best things to do. The most effective leaders are flexible, responsive to new situations. If they are adept at hard skills, they surround themselves with people who are proficient with soft skills. They strike a balance.

While flexibility is important in this new leadership model, it should not be interpreted as weakness. The two most lauded corporate chiefs of the past decade, Percy Barnevik of Asea Brown Boveri, and Jack Welch of General Electric, dismantled bureaucratic structures using both soft and hard skills. They coach and cajole as well as command and control. The “leader as coach” is yet another phrase more often seen in business books than in the real world. Acting as a coach to a colleague is not something that comes easily to many executives. It is increasingly common for executives to need mentoring. They need to talk through decisions and to think through the impact of their behaviour on others in the organisation.

In the macho era, support was for failures, but now there is a growing realisation that leaders are human after all, and that leadership is as much a human art as a rational science. Today’s leaders don’t follow rigid role models but prefer to nurture their own leadership style. They do not do people’s jobs for them or put their faith in developing a personality cult. They regard leadership as drawing people and disparate parts of the organisation together in ways that makes individuals and the organisation more effective.

Today’s News: 

I have just accepted an invitation to be an author with CanDoGo - they are collecting together a very impressive line-up of sales experts- “CanDoGoTM has amassed exclusive knowledge content from some of the world’s best sales and motivational speakers and subject matter experts. We have converted their libraries of information to fit the needs of the modern knowledge economy — to provide you with instant, easily attainable answers.”

It is a fantastic concept and if you are not familiar with it yet, you should check it out here 

Tomorrow: On the JF Guest Author Spot - “At the Sound of the Beep… the Basics of Leaving a Voicemail” a very quirky piece from Tim Wackel

In these days of having to achieve more with fewer resources, it’s easy to neglect the skill of delegation.

Why delegate?

• To give you more time to do important activities.

• To develop and motivate staff.

• Because others may be more skilled than you.

What stops you?

• Unable or unwilling to let go.

• Don’t want to; like to give the impression of being overworked.

• Fear others will make mistakes and show you up.

• Enjoy doing the job; love to get your hands ‘dirty’.

• It takes time; it’s often easier to do it yourself.

Should You Delegate More?: The Acid Test

Do you work longer hours than those around you?

Do you spend some of your working time doing things for others that they could do for themselves?

Do you have unfinished jobs accumulating or difficulty meeting deadlines?

Do you spend more time working on details than on planning and supervising?

Do you work at details because you enjoy them, when someone else could do them just as well?

Do you lack confidence in others’ abilities so that you are afraid to let them take on more responsibility?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of those questions, then you may want to take note of the following advice.

What To Delegate:

Yes:

• Routine tasks and the associated decision-making

• Complete jobs to give a sense of achievement

• Tasks that others could do better and possibly less expensively

No:

• Ultimate responsibility for the task

• Tasks without guidance

• Unpleasant tasks which are really your responsibility

Do Remember:

Delegation means giving people the freedom and authority to handle jobs on their own initiative together with the confidence to succeed

How To Delegate:

• Make a list of what could be delegated.

• Select people who are capable, willing and interested.

• Explain reasons why and the results expected.

• Let go of authority but maintain responsibility.

• Let staff establish their priorities; you fix deadlines.

• Follow up on the task.

• Be available for help when needed but don’t spy.

• Be prepared to invest time early on explaining /coaching; it will pay off in the end.

• Demand finished work; don’t accept problems but do accept suggestions for. solution

• Always give credit for good work.

Remember – intelligent people learn from their mistakes.

Do You Procrastinate?

• Are you in the habit of putting jobs off?

• These could be:

• The boring or routine tasks that no longer challenge you

• The difficult phone call or decision that needs to be made

• A new job or project where you’re unsure where to start

• Facing up to the individual who is making life difficult for you

You know these jobs have to be done. Whilst recognising that it sometimes pays to delay and weigh up the options, it’s amazing how much time, energy and creative thought goes into putting jobs off.

TIP: Ask yourself what you are avoiding doing at the moment.

Procrastination – What To Do:

• Do something (anything) to make a start; associate the pleasure you would gain from doing the job

• If it’s a big job or project do a little each day

• If it involves some form of creativity, do it when you are at the most energetic

• If it is a boring job, do it when you are at you least energetic

• Reward yourself at the end

• Get out of the habit of putting things off; problems are easier to handle when they’re small

TIP: Study your ‘To Do’ list and tackle the worst thing on it – you’ll
    feel so much better afterwards!

Today’s News: Earlier in the week, I did promise you a great interview with Anita Sirianni on prospecting, over at Salesopedia - you can catch it here

Tomorrow: Well, in many parts of the world it is Easter, so wherever you are, have a great w/e and I will be back here for you on Monday - JF