Sales Leadership - not a grass roots movement.
Posted by Frank Belzer on Wed, Jun 16, 2010 @ 05:02 AM
Perhaps you remember a few years ago Sir Richard Branson taking on his board and telling them that they either let him follow his vision or he would quit as CEO. Before that Jack Welch had said that it would be difficult for modern CEO's to make the right decisions as quickly as he did at GE because "so many CEO's are held captive by their boards these days".
We find that many CEO's are not only held captive by their boards but also by their sales people. Too many want to gain agreement or build concensus amongst the group. Sounds like a nice idea but does it work - no. Instead one nay-sayer will hold up an extremely valuable process. One or two people that don't understand what needs to be done and have not gotten it done themselves decide to get verbal and challenge everything. All of sudden your business is working like congress, not like a business.
At various times in history Grass Root movements, from the people up have forever changed the scope of history. Revolution, marches, campaigns, petitions, protests and the like have had a powerful affect on a number of key decisions. Leaders have had to yield to public opinion and quite often that was a good thing.
But, in business the decisions related to a company come from the top. Great companies even reflect the personality of their CEO. Do you think Steve Jobbs accomplished what he has through consensus? From what I have read NO. He had a vision and he conveys and gets folks to conform with that vision every day. Leadership is not always about doing what is popular or welcome at the time.
Those of you that are Parents understand that you cannot always be your childs friend - as nice as that might be - sometimes you need to be a parent. Sales Leadership and Business Leadership is similar. Stop listening to editorials from your VP of Sales as to why numbers are off. Stop worrying about what the board will think if you spend a few thousand dollars. Stop trying to "not shake things up". Thank HR for their cautious opinion but remind them that you are the boss once and a while. I assure you - it will feel good!
