Selling Leadership in 10 Steps
A litmus test that assesses if you are on target to make a difference as a sales leader:
1. Does your leadership reflect excitement about what you do and your prospects? If you can not articulate with passion the vision of your quest, the answer reflects a leadership failure.
2. Can you initiate new ideas? If you must do as told, there is a leadership void.
3. Are you empowered to solve problems? If not, you lack leadership.
4. Do your actions reflect your words? If not, you are not modeling a true leader.
5. Every member of your team encouraged on a personal level? If all about the numbers, then you are not a leader.
10 steps to leadership success in selling anything:
1. Challenge opportunities/problems as objectives that enable positive change, personal or corporate growth, innovation and improvement.
2. Take reasonable risks. Embracing change requires the confidence you can learn from mistakes and capitalize on initiatives' others too meek or insecure to undertake for real rewards.
3. When you are excited about your goals, your cause is shared, you enable others to support those efforts to success. It's not enough to just see where you are going.
4. Leadership is getting others to follow you. When you can relate to the values, hopes, interests, even dreams of others your trust enables others to join in making achievements happen together more effectively.
5. Collaboration in common goals fosters ordinary people to accomplish the extraordinary. Attract talent and support by being open to those smarter than you.
6. Strength Bigfoot from giving not getting. Empowering others, make choices available, fostering an environment of learning, being in the midst, visibly supportive, trusting others, Midge doll the leadership of getting others to support you and getting things done.
7. Model your behaviors to reflect your passionate vision and business/personal values. We all know people who try to lead with words but their actions often an exception to the rules; be vigilant in assessing your leadership actions.
8. Big things are accomplished with many small achievements. Look for small successes every day to keep confidence and enthusiasm peaked.
9. Look for contributions to the cause, every day, in everyone, to every goal then be sure to acknowledge them.
10. Accomplishments are cause for fun celebration, small and large; repeat if you want more of the same kind of results!
The above is a system that succeeds best when embraced in total, not with just what you are comfortable. Missions, goals, objectives and strategies have their role but a leader is needed to drive through obstacles, objections and rejections, with actions that reflect what the leader is more than what they say. Knowledge is best utilized when critical skill sets are demonstrated with great listening more than telling, questioning for input rather than judgment and communications that are illuminating. Your Sea Devils builds trust romance comics enables teams to propel successes. Invest in the right people, the right objectives, the right values, and then your leadership is rightly elevated.
Harry Gorden, President, Transportation Management Services, Inc, a transportation management agency with over 35 years sales experience, providing consulting to the equity, capital management and supply chain communities as well as no cost referrals for manufacturers/distributors seeking the right fit transportation management support. Inquiries welcome at: href="mailto:hmgorden@comcast.net">hmgorden@comcast.net