Think about you’re on the grocery retailer along 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 via your grocery record when he begins to get antsy. He desires out of the cart and promptly begins pulling issues off the cabinets, so you place 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 carefully adopted by naptime. It’s turning into obvious that you’ve got a call to make.
Do you select to make use of empathy by giving him a giant hug, telling him you’re keen on 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 excellent conduct? And which one is the appropriate factor to do?
Gross sales managers battle 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. Dad and mom don’t select between loving their youngsters and anticipating good conduct. Gross sales managers shouldn’t select, both. Efficient managers use a mix of empathy and accountability to construct belief of their groups whereas constantly driving outcomes on the identical 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 workers’ careers.
The Accountability Supervisor
Managers who deal with 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 often.
Which Course Do You Lean?
Each supervisor both leans towards being empathetic and will subsequently construct their accountability muscle, or they lean towards accountability and will discover ways to be extra empathetic. Take a second to replicate in your administration type. Odds are, you already know which route you lean.
For those who lean in the direction of empathy, clearly define your objectives and expectations for every of your salespeople. Use your empathetic aspect to replicate on how every particular person you handle might want their objectives outlined to them and the way typically chances are you’ll have to test in with every one among them. Guarantee everyone seems to be making constant progress, and ask them what you are able to do to help them alongside the way in which.
For those who lean in the direction of accountability, use your goal-setting mindset to set relationship-building objectives. Implement a software just like the Progress Information to deepen your relationships along with your salespeople. Perceive what their objectives and motivations are, but additionally perceive the kind of help they need from you in an effort to assist them achieve success.
Simply as in parenting, nice gross sales managers shouldn’t select one path or the opposite. Salespeople must be nurtured and grown, however additionally they must 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 Notice: This weblog was initially written in 2014 and has since been up to date.
