Think about you’re on the grocery retailer together with your three-year-old son. He’s promised you he’ll behave, and also you’re planning to shock him with a deal with on the checkout counter.
You’re roughly midway by means of your grocery listing when he begins to get antsy. He desires out of the cart and promptly begins pulling issues off the cabinets, so you set him again within the cart, and he begins throwing a mood tantrum. You take a look at your watch – it’s getting near lunchtime, which is intently adopted by naptime. It’s changing into obvious that you’ve got a choice to make.
Do you select to make use of empathy by giving him an enormous hug, telling him you like him, and letting him know you perceive it may be robust to be affected person—or do you select to carry him accountable to his promise of fine habits? And which one is the correct factor to do?
Gross sales managers wrestle with related questions: Ought to they be the empathetic supervisor who helps and grows their salespeople—or ought to they be the sort of supervisor that holds their salespeople tightly accountable for outcomes?
The reply is each. Mother and father don’t select between loving their youngsters and anticipating good habits. Gross sales managers shouldn’t select, both. Efficient managers use a mixture of empathy and accountability to construct belief of their groups whereas constantly driving outcomes on the similar time.
The Empathetic Supervisor
Empathetic managers are heat and pleasant. They know their salespeople effectively—not simply the small print of their private lives, however they know what makes them tick and what their key abilities are. They care about their folks, assist them construct their abilities into strengths, and work to advance their staff’ careers.
The Accountability Supervisor
Managers who give attention to accountability are extra performance-driven. They monitor the numbers, analyze what they imply, and use the information to set particular objectives and expectations for his or her folks. They create an setting based mostly on measurement and efficiency requirements, and everybody understands there are penalties for falling beneath requirements too continuously.
Which Path Do You Lean?
Each supervisor both leans towards being empathetic and will subsequently construct their accountability muscle, or they lean towards accountability and will learn to be extra empathetic. Take a second to mirror in your administration type. Odds are, you already know which path you lean.
When you lean in the direction of empathy, clearly define your objectives and expectations for every of your salespeople. Use your empathetic aspect to mirror on how every individual you handle might want their objectives outlined to them and the way usually chances are you’ll have to examine in with every one in all them. Guarantee everyone seems to be making constant progress, and ask them what you are able to do to help them alongside the best way.
When you lean in the direction of accountability, use your goal-setting mindset to set relationship-building objectives. Implement a instrument just like the Progress Information to deepen your relationships together with your salespeople. Perceive what their objectives and motivations are, but in addition perceive the kind of help they need from you to be able to assist them achieve success.
Simply as in parenting, nice gross sales managers shouldn’t select one path or the opposite. Salespeople have to be nurtured and grown, however additionally they have to be held to excessive requirements of efficiency. Think about whether or not you’re extra of an empathetic supervisor or extra of an accountability supervisor, and take motion to develop the opposite aspect.
*Editor’s Be aware: This weblog was initially written in 2014 and has since been up to date.
