How Kid Rock & Kind Leadership Get Results in Pipeline Reviews

Let me give you two scenarios:

1. It’s the end of the month, you are just off pace for your quota, and you have your 1:1 with your manager. Immediately, they start by asking you about your activity, what is in your pipeline, and telling you that you have four days left to hit your numbers. They don’t hesitate to let you know that this is the biggest month of the year (because every month is the biggest month of the year) and put even more pressure on you when you’ve already put enough on yourself. You leave that meeting with a mountain of stress, no assistance, and an expectation that you have to close out everything or else... How do you feel? Motivated? Inspired? Are you focused on the task at hand, or are you worried about your future?
2. It’s the end of the month, you are just off pace for your quota, and you have your 1:1 with your manager. They sit down with you and ask, “How are you? Are you looking forward to this last week? Let's go over how we can get you these last few deals?” The next 30-60 minutes are focused on strategy, reviewing opportunity details, discussing available incentives, collaboratively designing a step-by-step guide on how you will achieve your goals. With a better real-time assessment of your pipeline, this may naturally lead to preparation for the next month. In the end, your manager looks at you and says, “I like this plan. Let’s get after this week!” You leave feeling supported, motivated, and feeling excited for the week to come.

Which one of these resonated with you the most? Far too often, I see and hear that the first scenario is the current state of month-end sales leadership. Each example has the same baseline information: pipeline health, quota status, time to close. Each presents accountability and focus to hit a goal, but are those messages delivered equally? Who would you want to work for?

Get in the pit and try to love someone

In the sales world and any industry that involves a deadline, there is always a situation where it comes down to the wire. In these moments, people are not only looking to their leaders for advice, but are also passively assessing how their leader communicates when the pressure is on. Is that pressure applied downward, or is it a shared burden? Poor leaders fail to realize that how a message is delivered, directly impacts overall results. Simon Sinek says it best:

• "Leadership is a way of thinking, a way of acting, and most importantly, a way of communicating.”

As cliché as it sounds, communication is critical. If your leader helps you prepare to succeed instead of just demanding you achieve, which are you most likely to succeed under? It is here that Kind Leadership can help solidify all the coaching you have done with your team. This type of communication shows your team you care about them as humans and not just a set of activity logs or results. Rather than throwing them in the pit of despair, take Kid Rock's advice: 'get in the pit (with them) and try to love someone'.

Kind leadership has many parts to it, and communication is one of the most important. Look at it from a Golden Rule perspective. You would want to work for someone who truly cares about you and inspires you, not for someone looking to work you to the bone. Be a leader who cares. Your team will respect you, and you will sleep better at night, and guess what? You will see better results.

-stephen

If you need a leader in your life that's not afraid to get in the pit with you, contact me