In part one of the series on building company morale I discussed the importance of putting the right people in the right place with the right manager. For part two I will address a simple, yet all too frequently overlooked, method of building morale by sharing the credit for what goes right, as well as sharing praise with teammates whenever the opportunity presents itself.
As I began the process of selecting topics for this series I asked my wife (a former professional salesperson in the media) what had helped build and/or damage morale in the large companies she had worked for. Without hesitation her reply was that bosses who took the credit for everything were the worst, and bosses that shared the credit were the best levers of company morale at her former employers. Being somewhat surprised by both her answer, and her passion around it, I decided to ask some additional professional associates of mine if they had experienced anything similar. The answer wasn’t just “yes” but “heck yes!” Obviously a nerve had been struck with quite a few people around the subject of sharing credit. If you doubt the passion around this topic try performing a Google search on a phrase such as “taking credit for others work” and read a few postings. This is clearly a hot topic!
With the people I interviewed the main culprits for accolade deprivation were managers who took credit for closing deals where such acclaim was largely undeserved. It seems that quite a few sales people REALLY don’t appreciate managers that let them do all the hard work associated with developing a new customer from a prospect all the way through to a final presentation, only to be joined on the call by the manager who promptly takes credit for the deal. What a surprise, huh? The flip side of the same coin is the manager who ALWAYS cedes the credit for closing sales to others. Giving away the credit for closing deals, even when it isn’t completely deserved, scores BIG on the morale score card.
The root cause behind what causes someone to claim credit for the work of others is really pretty simple to understand. It is either ego, insecurity, or a toxic combination of the two. If you suspect that you are guilty of such behavior don’t be offended, just try to recognize the behavior as nothing more than what it is. It is just a non-productive behavior that will help you improve results if you change it. Sharing, or completely assigning, the credit for wins to those around you will go a long way towards drastically improving company morale.
I am going to expand the topic of sharing the credit for what goes right to also include just sharing praise for a job well done. These two acts of selflessness seem to work quite well together from my experience. While I like to think I am pretty good about sharing the credit, I am still very much a work in progress for consistently sharing praise.
Giving praise to others is a little bit like watering flowers in your garden. You might get enough rain to keep the flowers alive, but if you want to have a truly beautiful garden you must also take it upon yourself to regularly water the flowers. Nothing lifts spirits and morale quite like a healthy dose of public praise for a job well done. Take the time to set yourself a daily minimum goal for catching others doing things right and then publically sharing the praise.
I have shared with you two powerful behavioral tools that will help improve morale in any company. Share, or give away, the credit for what goes well and set minimum daily goals for public praising. As long as you are sincere in your efforts, these behaviors will have an immediate and positive impact upon company morale.
Chuck Terry is the Executive Vice President and CSO of Carew International and is regular contributor to Carew’s blog – Executive Insights
Carew International is a leader in sales training and leadership development; specializing in comprehensive, proven training programs for sales, sales management and customer service excellence. For over 30 years, Carew has earned its reputation of delivering increased productivity and profitability to our valued clients world wide.
Categories: Building Company Morale · Business · Business Presentations · Effective Presentations · Sales · Sales Management · Sales Presentations · Sales and Leadership Insights · building sales force morale · customers · dps sales training · positive energy · sales growth
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February 26, 2010 · 1 Comment
One of my most popular blogs of the last year is titled “Low Morale in the Workplace- Causes and Cures.” Apparently, many companies are still struggling with righting the morale ship coming out of a tough recession.
Given the popularity of the subject I decided to expand upon the theme by writing a series of blogs on the subject of building morale in your company through proactive means. This week’s topic will be based upon putting the right people in the right place with the right leadership. It could also be subtitled “Don’t Send Your Ducks to Eagle School.” While neither of us coined the phrase, the preceding link to Jim Rohn’s excerpted article of the same name is a good read on the subject as well. The basic point is simply this, if you want motivated people working for you, hire motivated people. You can’t motivate people, they have to motivate themselves and you can’t “train in” skills where potential doesn’t exist.
Don't Send Your Ducks To Eagle School
My company, Carew International, is a professional training and development company that specializes in training customer facing employees in client organizations on the skills required to succeed in areas such as sales, service, and leadership. We have a great track record of developing the skills essential to increase sales, customer satisfaction, and employee retention but we can’t develop skills where adequate potential isn’t there in the first place. We work closely with our strategic partner H R Chally to assess our client’s sales, service, or leadership organizations prior to a training initiative to ensure we are applying the right training to the right people with the right potential. The reason is simple, because sending ducks to eagle school just doesn’t work and it ends up causing morale problems with both the ducks AND the eagles. Often times a predictive talent assessment can identify where the ducks in one job role have the potential to become eagles in another.
In the ground breaking book “First Break All the Rules” authors Buckingham and Coffman conducted extensive research to learn what drives share value in publically traded companies. In the appendix of the book you will find a graph that identifies the three root elements of driving value as having the right people in the right place with the right managers.
As we are coming out of the recession and preparing our organizations to prosper in the coming months NOTHING is more fundamental to increasing morale than ensuring we have the right people in the right places with the right leadership. Aligning your resources to maximize eagle potential while re-deploying or de-selecting the duck’s will do wonders for company morale. It will also do wonders for business growth and profitability
Chuck Terry is the Executive Vice President and CSO of Carew International and is regular contributor to Carew’s blog – Executive Insights
Carew International is a leader in sales training and leadership development; specializing in comprehensive, proven training programs for sales, sales management and customer service excellence. For over 30 years, Carew has earned its reputation of delivering increased productivity and profitability to our valued clients world wide.
Categories: Building Company Morale · Business · Business Presentations · Effective Presentations · Sales · Sales Management · Sales Presentations · Sales and Leadership Insights · building sales force morale · customers · dps sales training · positive energy · sales growth
Tagged: better sales, better selling, Business, Business Growth, Business skills, close more sales, Customer Loyalty, Customer Relationships, customer service training, Effective Presentations, Hiring For Sales, improved sales, Leadership, leadership ideas, Motivation, poor sales, Positional Selling, professional sales training, professional training, Sales, sales advice, Sales Assessments, sales development, sales effectiveness, Sales Force Management, sales ideas, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, sales management training, sales mentor, Sales Performance, Sales Professionals, Sales Skills, sales success, Sales Team, sales tips, selling skills
While in Quebec with my family for the world famous Tournoi De Quebec Pee Wee, the Mecca for twelve year old hockey players, I saw a perfect example of life imitating art or business in this case. My son’s team was playing a team from the Eastern United States (who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty) and the game ended with two different twelve year old boys being thrown out of the game. Trash talking, intentional attempts to injure other players, poor sportsmanship, it was all on display in this game. I was embarrassed for the other team until I listened to some of their parents in the stands and it became apparent that the fruit didn’t fall far from the tree.
As adults we are setting examples for our kids to follow with all of our actions, all of the time. I like to win as much, or more, than just about anyone I know but certainly not at any cost. The shabby behavior at the hockey game got me to thinking about how we deal with each other in business. How does this type of “win at any cost” attitude, displayed at a youth sporting event, manifest itself in business?
At my company, Carew international, we have developed several courses designed to teach business people how to negotiate deals more effectively. At the heart of our approach to negotiating is a concept called “Quid Pro Quo”, Latin for “something for something”. We use it as a term to describe what is often referred to as a “win/win” deal where neither party leaves the negotiating table feeling like they didn’t receive fair and equal value for what was exchanged. In a “Quid Pro Quo” negotiation every concession is exchanged for something that has value to offset every concession that is given.
In the world we live in today so many of the deals that I see being negotiated are much like the hockey game I described above. Someone is going to win and someone is going to lose. If someone gets their knees taken out, who cares as long as we win in the end? Both parties are doing their best to find the ultimate leverage point where they can gain the upper hand and “win” at the bargaining table. There are many problems with this approach to negotiating; chief among them is the fact that such a deal will never survive for the long term. The party that ends up on the bottom will not be happy and, eventually, will want out of the agreement. I hear companies say to each other that they want to be in a “partnership” and then promptly try to beat each other up in the negotiating phase of striking an agreement. That is certainly no way to begin a mutually beneficial partnership.
Here are a few key points to consider so that you don’t end up negotiating “win at any cost” agreements.
1) Understand the other persons true needs: If you can come to a mutual understanding as to what the true needs of both parties are early in the process it is much easier to end up with a “Quid Pro Quo” type of contract. Making sure that both parties are getting those needs met will ensure that you are striking a durable contract which both parties can live with long term. If your exchanges of concessions allow these true needs to remain intact, you will always achieve a better outcome.
2) Get something of value for each concession you make: This is the core principle of “Quid Pro Quo”. Too often, in “win/lose” type negotiations, one party ends up conceding and the other party ends up receiving the concession just to “get the deal done”. If you are prepared to offer a concession, get something of value in return. If you are lowering your price, get some sort of additional volume commitment, etc. If you concede without receiving value in return, the other party will assign the same value to your concession…none!
3) Don’t get wrapped up in tactics: Many people you will negotiate with have been trained to negotiate using specific tactical approaches. These tactics are all based upon manipulation and come in many varieties from the “oh, by the way” approach to the “nibbler” approach. The best way to deal with these types of tactics is to recognize them for what they are, nothing more than a tactic. Keep your focus on negotiating a “Quid Pro Quo” agreement and take a break from the negotiating if you feel yourself starting to get caught up in a tactic that is moving you away from negotiating a “win/win” agreement.
There you have a few key points for negotiating strong agreements just in case you end up in a negotiation with some of the hockey parents I described above. If you clearly understand your “walk away” point, you clearly understand both parties’ true needs, and you are sincerely committed to negotiating a fair agreement, things will usually work out for the mutual benefit of everyone involved. In hockey there is a winner and a loser but in business relationships both sides can, and should, end up as winners.
Chuck Terry is the Executive Vice President and CSO of Carew International and is regular contributor to Carew’s blog – Executive Insights
Carew International is a leader in sales training and leadership development; specializing in comprehensive, proven training programs for sales, sales management and customer service excellence. For over 30 years, Carew has earned its reputation of delivering increased productivity and profitability to our valued clients world wide.
Categories: Business · Business Presentations · Effective Presentations · Power Point · Sales · Sales Management · Sales Presentations · Sales and Leadership Insights · customers · dps sales training · positive energy · sales growth
Tagged: better sales, better selling, Business, Business Growth, Business skills, close more sales, Customer Loyalty, Customer Relationships, customer service training, developing negotiating skill, Effective Presentations, improved sales, Leadership, leadership ideas, negotiating better agreements, negotiation, negotiation training, Overcoming Objections, poor sales, Positional Selling, professional sales training, Sales, sales advice, sales development, sales effectiveness, Sales Management, sales mentor
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