Motivation Shots from The Doc

When was the last time you gave the members of your team, some feedback? Successful managers realise that it is vital to give team members feedback on their strengths and also on their weaknesses. However these will only be weaknesses that we know the individual can do something about. It’s a waste of your time and effort trying to sort weaknesses that can’t be sorted.

Some people just can’t build relationships with customers; others can’t work as fast as you need them to, and others can’t write a report to save their life.

Many managers spend the majority of their time with team members trying to resolve weaknesses. They then don’t have the time or sometimes the capability to give feedback on strengths. Your most productive time as a manager will be spent giving feedback on strengths and how to develop these even further.

One company where I worked as a Regional Sales Manager had very strict procedures on how a field salesperson should conduct themselves. They had to present the sale to a customer in a particular structured way. They had to dress in a certain way and do their paperwork in a certain way. Their car had to be clean and their product samples had to be laid out in the trunk of their car in the ‘company’ way.

My boss, the General Sales Manager, was a stickler for these rules and regulations. However, needless to say, certain sales people in my team didn’t always do their paperwork on time or have their car laid out in the required way. They did however bring in the sales and as their manager that was the outcome I needed from them. Therefore, I was extremely careful how I gave them feedback on their performance.

I knew that I’d be ultimately be judged by my manager on the sales performance of my team so I concentrated on reinforcing their skills in that area. I didn’t ignore untidy paperwork or samples that weren’t laid out properly but I definitely kept any comments to the absolute minimum. I’ve witnessed a salesman, in another team, handing a big order to his manager and then being reprimanded for having an untidy car trunk.

If that’s the approach you take, then what you end up with is tidy car trunks and fewer sales.

What do you think?