The first benefit, obviously, is to the person being developed. When we help someone expand their skill set and knowledge base, we make them more valuable and more versatile, which in turn, instills a sense of pride. Instilling pride in work and workmanship is a cornerstone of the foundation for eliciting excellence. In addition, we demonstrate our belief in them, their abilities, and their potential. This in turn nurtures loyalty and responsiveness towards you.

The next way that developing people elicits excellence is the impact on our team. When individual members of a team grow their abilities and stretch themselves, they in turn inspire others to do the same. Even though you may not have personally worked with each member of your team (although hopefully you will at some point), the people you developed act as examples of what is possible, which if you have the right people on your team, will act to motivate others to take the initiative to improve themselves for the betterment of their future and the benefit of the organization.

The third manner in which developing others brings forth excellence lies within us. By mastering the art of developing people, we become more skilled in our communication abilities, more effective in our leadership, and more leveraged in our efforts. All of these benefits act to make us more productive, more creative and more confident, thereby eliciting excellence.

Given the impact and far-reaching implications of developing others, it is critical to master this important function. At the heart of this effort lies the leadership style of “coaching”. Adopting a “coach-like” attitude and manner is the fastest and most effective means of developing others.

What does a coaching style of leadership look like? Being “coach-like” embodies a number of competencies and strategies, all of which interlock and work in conjunction with one another. The first concept to acknowledge is the power of asking rather than telling. Many of us, in an effort to help someone “get it right” (and in the name of expediency), tell others what to do and how to do it. And while this does get the work done, it does little to develop the other person, their skill set, and their confidence.

The alternative, “coach-like” approach, is to ask. Instead of starting off by telling them what to do, ask them what they would do and how they would do it. This strategy serves a number of very important functions. Firstly, it demonstrates that you have an interest in what they have to say. When you listen to what someone is telling you, it acts as a sign of respect. It demonstrates that you value what they have to say. The next benefit of asking is that their answers will give you a sense of how they think. The answers will reveal their level of insight and judgment, and will illustrate their problem-solving abilities. And lastly, listening to the answers to your questions will provide clues as to how best to help them develop. It helps you understand which aspects of development they need help and guidance with.

When you choose to develop people this way, it creates the opportunity to mentor them, rather than to simply “train” them. Training is good for technical matters and knowledge acquisition, but if you also want to develop someone’s judgment, you need to share your insights, improve their thought processes, help them understand better ways to approach problem-solving, and basically give them the benefit of your experience.

In addition to adopting a coach-like approach with people, practicing effective delegation is essential. Effective delegation consists of choosing the right tasks to delegate, choosing the right people to delegate to, delegating in such a way that the person grows from the experience, and making sure the work gets done accurately and in a timely manner.

In a nutshell, here is what all of that means…
“Choosing the right task to delegate” – Generally, any task which doesn’t require judgment is a good task to delegate. Also, if one of your goals is to develop a person’s judgment, then choose a non-crucial task requiring some judgment.

“Choosing the right people” – The right person to delegate to is dependent upon their present skill set, their level of self-confidence, their openness to growth, and their level of ambition. Clearly, choosing the right people is an art rather than a science.

“Helping the person grow from the experience” – The success of this is contingent upon using a coach-like approach when delegating. Once you’ve clearly explained what needs to get done, ask questions to not only ascertain whether they understand what’s required, but also to see their thinking process as it pertains to the task at hand.

“Ensuring an accurate and timely completion” – It is essential to let someone know when a task is to be completed and to hold them accountable for its completion. The more important the task, the more critical it becomes to provide ongoing feedback with course corrections. This, of course, will ensure that the work is completed in a timely and accurate fashion, but also demonstrates your integrity by following through on the things you said were important to you.

By effectively developing others, you elevate everyone. As people grow and stretch, their value and their sense of pride expand, which in turn, elicits excellence from them and the entire organization.

There’s a significant difference between establishing an environment where excellence is expected and one where excellence is demanded.  In the first case, not only does the culture of the organization establish the expectations for excellence, but the actions of your entire team will essentially “put pressure” on everyone to perform up to the standards of excellence expected.

In the second case, where excellence is demanded, “pressure” from you is the only dynamic at play.  And you know how most people react to direct pressure – they push back.  And push-back usually comes in the form of either passive-aggressive behavior or by working just hard enough to keep from being fired.

So let’s discuss how to go about establishing an environment where excellence is expected.  There are two components to this equation.  The first is defining what excellence means to you and your organization, and the second is the design of that environment.

How we define excellence is governed by the standards and values we embrace.  Standards determine the level of quality we desire.  They govern quality of service and quality of product.  There are many levels of quality, and only you and your team can determine which level you want to be known for.  Excellent quality does not necessarily mean the very best that can be produced.  Let me offer a couple of real-world, practical examples.  The first comes from the restaurant business and the other from the automotive industry.

If you go to a fast food restaurant, excellent service means delivering the customer’s food within a very short time – typically 2-4 minutes.  Much longer than that, and most customers will feel that the service is less than excellent.  In contrast, if you dined in an expensive, gourmet restaurant and your food came out within 2-4 minutes, you’d no doubt feel rushed and consider the service to be poor.

The other example comes from the automobile industry.  (I’m not promoting or judging any make of car here  just offering an example that most everyone can relate to.)  If every automobile were made to the very highest of standards, then there would be only Rolls Royce, Audi and Mercedes Benz.  There would be no room for Chevrolet, Ford or Kia.

The appropriate level of quality that determines the standards by which you and your organization are governed is determined by the expectations of your market.  This doesn’t preclude setting a standard which exceeds the expectations of that market.  It just acts as a benchmark by which your performance is measured.

The values which create an environment of excellence govern how we do what we do and are – for the most part – concerned with how we relate to others.  Values that may immediately come to mind are integrity, honesty, respect, and fairness.  However, there are many other possible values that you and your team may want to include on your list in order to elicit excellence.  Here are some additional values to help you get started: Authenticity, Family, Kindness, Commitment, Loyalty, Compassion, Happiness, Empathy, Health, and Humor.

Once you have defined what excellence means to you and your organization by clearly setting an expected level of standards for performance along with the values which determine how you, your team and your organization carry out the work you do, you will be in a position to design an environment which elicits excellence.

Designing an environment which elicits excellence is about establishing an organizational “culture”.  A well-established culture will embody and reflect the standards and values you and your organization have agreed upon.

So… what constitutes “culture” and how do you establish it?  Culture is established by how well you and your team live by and communicate the values and standards you’ve identified.  It’s not so much “whether” you and your team agree to these things, as it is about how consistently and to what degree these values and standards are adhered to.  Doing this well will create the proper initial expectations with new team members, will install a sense of pride throughout the organizations, and will fill your organization with integrity – causing the majority of your team to act, think, and speak in a certain way.

Consistency in the effort is all important.  The consequences are unfortunate if you and your team profess to embrace and embody a certain culture, but live by it in an inconsistent manner, tolerate behaviors by others which are at odds with the culture, or worse, act in a manner at odds with the so-called “culture”.  There is nothing more demoralizing than someone hearing about and believing in a certain culture, only to see a leader speak and act in an inconsistent manner.  It absolutely undermines the integrity of the leader and the organization as a whole.

The bottom line is that demanding excellence of your team will only produce modest and inconsistent results.  Alternatively, putting in the effort up front to design, implement, and live by a culture of excellence will produce long-term, self-sustaining results.

Attendance to the Summit is FREE and you can listen to the programs online. By attending this virtual event, you’ll get loads of innovative ideas and strategies for becoming a more effective leader – all from the comfort of your home or office.

Take a minute, and visit this website to learn more.
www.ElicitingExcellence.com

Act now while it’s on your mind. It starts on October 11.
And this is one event, you don’t want to miss…

Let me illustrate this distinction. Leadership is more about WHO you are than about what you do or what you know. Two executives can do and say the same things but get very different results – even when they do and say those things to the very same person! Although what you say and what you do are important, effective leadership is even more dependent on HOW you do or say those things. This explains why the actions of those two executives can elicit such different responses.

You can train people about what to say. You can train people about what to do. You can even show someone how to do and say those things. But getting them to change how they go about doing things and getting them to change how they go about saying things is a whole other story.

Leadership is about who we are, and it’s this “how” of doing, saying, and being that defines who we are. I think a good deal of “who we are” is captured within the competencies of Emotional Intelligence, developed and made popular by Daniel Goleman. There are 12 EI competencies, with five of them being the one’s that ultimately affect our effectiveness as leader. These five competencies are:

1) Coaching and Mentoring – The ability to develop others
2) Inspirational Leadership – The ability to develop a compelling vision and to lead with it
3) Influence – The ability to utilize persuasion
4) Conflict Management – The ability to resolve disagreements
5) Teamwork and Collaboration – The ability to build and guide teams

Let’s briefly examine each one of these competencies with respect to training vs. development as it pertains to leadership.

Coaching and Mentoring

As a professional coach, I know many professionally trained coaches. They’ve gone through a curriculum of coach training from an accredited coaching school. And yet, although they have the necessary skills and knowledge to be a good coach, a number of them are really rather poor at coaching. Conversely, I’ve come across associates who are reasonably good at coaching, yet have never had any formal coach training.

How is this possible? How is it that someone with great coaching skills is mediocre at coaching? And how is it that someone without any formal training is very effective at coaching?

The answer of course, is in HOW they apply their coaching knowledge and skills. In order to be effective as a coach, one must, at the very least, be aware of one’s own emotions, have control of one’s emotions, be empathetic, and have good judgment. The reality is that each of those traits must either be developed or be natural to a person. They just aren’t things that can be “trained”.

Inspirational Leadership

Leaders need to be inspiring. They need to instill pride, they need to hold and communicate a vision, and they need to inspire an organization and its people to aspire to excellence.

Here’s the challenge… People aren’t simply inspired by the right words. The right words spoken by the “wrong” person will have only a minimal effect. In order for a leader to move others to action, he or she needs to be someone who others admire and respect.

How does someone garner the respect of others? It’s obviously through our words and actions, but once again, “how” we say what we say and do what we do determine the impact those words and actions will have. “Who we are” is something that can be shifted and developed, but it cannot be “trained”.

Influence

Effective leaders are influential. We influence people by our words and actions, but of course, it comes back to how we’re viewed by others and how we do and say the things we do. Honing and improving those abilities comes down to development and not training.

Conflict Management

Conflict and challenges are inevitable in business, and a good leader has the ability to diffuse and resolve situations as they arise. In order to be effective in this effort, a leader needs to have the respect and trust of those involved. How we conduct ourselves during these times is important, but even more critical is how we’ve conducted ourselves in the past. Establishing “who we are” takes time and is not something that can be trained – only nurtured and refined.

Teamwork/Collaboration

In order for a leader to successfully foster an atmosphere of collaboration, he or she must be good at the previous competencies – coaching, inspiring, influencing, and resolving. Clearly this ability once more rests on things best developed and not trained.

Now that we’ve made a case for leadership development and one against “leadership training”, we need to address how this development occurs. Here’s what has to happen:

1. An objective assessment of one’s competencies needs to take place. Since “how” we do and say things is habitual, we’re generally blind to our shortcomings.

2. No one needs to be excellent in every competency in order to be an effective leader. Based on the objective assessment of our leadership skills, we need to focus on one or two areas to target for improvement.

3. Enlist the help of one or two trusted associates to help point out (in a loving fashion, of course!) when we fall back into old patterns.

By being mindful of your words and actions, and being persistent in your efforts to improve, you’ll find that over time – there is no “quick fix” for what we’re achieving – your effectiveness and impact as a leader will increase. Not only should we strive to develop ourselves as leaders, but need to work to develop those around us. Ultimately, a great leader is someone who develops other leaders.  That’s how great leadership is created.

Eliciting excellence in others is the essence of leadership, and one of the most effective means of eliciting excellence is to instill a sense of pride in those around us.

Instilling pride has a myriad of benefits – quality of work and workmanship improves, creativity and innovation increases, collaboration is facilitated more easily, and people are willing to “go the extra mile” to do their best. A team or department instilled with a sense of pride will excel simply to prove to others that things can be accomplished that are otherwise thought impossible.

Let me illustrate the power of professional pride with two remarkable leadership stories. The first story has to do with the achievement of casting the V-8 automobile engine as a single block. Everyone acknowledged that it couldn’t be done. But Henry Ford was determined, had assembled a great team of engineers, and had instilled a sense of pride in his team. They worked for six full months with no success. Then they continued to work for another six months with no success. But Ford’s determination and his team’s sense of pride prevailed. Over the next months they devised a means of casting a V-8 engine as one block, an innovation that revolutionized the auto industry.

The second leadership story was reported in the magazine Fast Company in August, 2003. Mortgage lender Fannie Mae asked more than 550 employees to bring down, move, and start up more than 300 business applications. They had to unplug, wrap, and box 577 computer servers, lay more than 1.8 million feet of copper cable and 35 miles of fiber. Department employees were asked to do their “day jobs” all week and then throw themselves into this new task over 13 consecutive weekends, pulling all-nighters on Friday evenings — without even the promise of extra pay.

They did it flawlessly, without a single interruption to the company’s business. The leader of the initiative inspired them, fed them, and instilled a great sense of pride in them. She served about 1,600 pounds of chicken wings to her crews for midnight snacking, Friday-night themed dinners, ranging from New England clambakes to down-home southern cooking, and full-blown Saturday morning breakfasts with pancakes, eggs, bacon, and sausage.

The leader who spearheaded this task is one of those relatively rare inspirational leaders who is able to get people to do extraordinary things. She is a pride builder: a leader who instills self-esteem in workers and builds unflagging support for remarkably tough assignments through her leadership. Drawing the very best out of people is accomplished by making the emotional bond every bit as important as the monetary one.

So just how do we go about instilling pride in people? As always, I suggest using our own experiences as our best example. In thinking back over the things you’ve done in your life, what kinds of accomplishments caused you to feel proud?

Here is a sampling of the kinds of situations and accomplishments that may have caused you to feel proud:

* Being part of a winning team
* Accomplishing the unlikely
* Being better than the competition
* Doing something successfully for the first time
* Accomplishing something difficult

Having reflected on the kinds of situations and achievements that create a sense of pride in people, let’s examine how our leadership can be used to create those opportunities within our organization. The two most impactful means lie with establishing an appropriate culture and effectively developing people.

Creating a strong, positive organizational culture will attract and retain the right people – people who will be loyal, who will take pride in their work, and who will put forth their best. This culture may be one of success, of excellence, of innovation, of service, or of achievement.

How does one go about establishing a culture? It starts with deciding which values you want the organization to be known for. Don’t think of this so much as some written “Mission Statement”, but rather a pervasive atmosphere that takes hold. It will define the organization. When someone is considered for employment, they “get” what the culture is. When decisions are made, the culture is used as a yardstick. When promotions are run, when work is evaluated, and when marketing collateral is created, they each reflect the culture. This culture will permeate the organization, and people will either identify with it or will move on to other opportunities. The consequence of identifying with this culture – this “thing” that sets them apart from everyone else – will instill a sense of pride and a sort of esprit de corps.

The result, of course, is that an organization filled with people proud of the work they do and the company they work for will put forth their best.

The other means of instilling pride and thereby eliciting excellence lies in how we go about developing people. By constructively helping people stretch beyond their current abilities, knowledge, and/or level of self-confidence, we help them become more valuable to the organization and to themselves. We create the opportunity to allow them to learn new skills they never had, to achieve things they never felt they could, and to feel a renewed sense of accomplishment. Not only does properly developing people achieve all that, but by our very belief and trust in them, it causes them to become more loyal, more responsive, and more willing to accept additional challenges. In short, our efforts cause a sense of pride to blossom in the individual, which in turn, translates into excellence of effort.

In conclusion, creating a sense of pride within the people in your organization and within the organization itself will ultimately elicit excellence. The ways in which this gets accomplished are through establishing a culture of excellence and through taking advantage of every opportunity to develop people. Incorporating these two strategies into your leadership style will yield excellent results and establish you as an effective leader.

The parallel exists within the concept of leading without leading.  It exists in the ebb and flow of leadership style.  And it’s reflected in the very duality of the role of a leader within an organization.  Let me share my perspectives on each of those concepts as an insight into effective leadership.

The first concept to expand upon is that of leading without leading.  Many people hold the notion that leadership is about leaders and followers.  They feel that an effective leader learns how to either “pull” their followers along, or they become adept at “pushing” followers to “follow”.  At first blush, this might sound a bit simplistic, unrealistic, or naïve, but the practice of pulling or pushing followers is much more prevalent than one might expect.

When we push or pull followers along, they’re simply acquiescing to our demands or desires.  In contrast, when a leader truly has people following him or her, people act not because they “have to” so much as because they “want to”.  How is this accomplished?  How do we shift our team from acquiescing because they feel they “have to” to a place where they excel because they “want to”?

That is captured within the concept of leading without leading.  An accomplished leader develops the ability to inspire those around him or her to be, do, and give their best.  The leader inspires them to be, do, and give willingly.  An effective leader elicits excellence from their team.  It’s not about “getting” people to do anything.  It’s not about being viewed as “the leader”.  It’s really about becoming the kind of person others admire, respect, rely on, and want to emulate.  People are attracted to and respond to someone because of who they are, and not because of what they do.

Effective leadership is about leading without leading – a Zen-like philosophy.

The next concept to examine is the ebb and flow of leadership style.  Many leaders make their mark on an organization by staying true to a certain style of leadership.  And while consistency and acting in integrity are critical to strong leadership, one’s style of leadership needs to ebb and flow with changing situations and circumstances.  It’s analogous to the Eastern concept of Yin and Yang.  The very symbol for Yin/Yang illustrates the never-ending flow between hard and soft, strong and weak, expanding and contracting, masculine and feminine.  And even within those concepts, the seed of its opposite exists.

For leadership to be truly effective, there needs to be a flow of style.  Sometimes a strong, unyielding style is required, and other times, a determined, yet yielding style is called for.  The more adept at masterfully flowing among the various leadership styles that one becomes (yes, there are more than two styles), the more effective that leader can be at eliciting excellence.

Effective leadership is about ebbing and flowing – a Zen-like philosophy.

The final leadership concept to examine is that of the duality of the role of a leader.  This philosophy once again parallels some of the principles of Zen Buddhism.  The duality of leadership is reflected in the fact that sometimes a leader is the Master and at other times, a leader is the Servant.  In truth, Servant Leadership can be an extremely effective role which fosters respect, admiration, and trust – all of which are very powerful influences in eliciting excellence.

It is the very existence of the role of Master that allows the role of Servant to exist – and to exist with such impact.  Without having a role as Master, the impact and influence of the role of Servant is greatly diminished.  Conversely, without the role of Servant, the role of Master loses its effectiveness as well.

If a leader acts in self-interest without regard to the people they are leading, then their impact and effectiveness is soon diminished.  Over the years, we’ve seen the self-interest of many corporate leaders exposed, and their power and stature destroyed.

The other extreme can be just as ineffective.  If a leader abdicates his or her authority, is unable to make confident decisions, and does not command respect, an organization will soon lose its way and drift apart.

Effective leadership is about the duality of Master and Servant – a Zen-like philosophy.

The concepts of leading without leading, flowing among leadership styles, and understanding the role of leader as both Master and Servant are essential to effective leadership and to eliciting excellence.  If a person is to excel as a leader, they must abandon the concept of developing themselves as “leader” and must instead, embrace the concept of mastering the ability to elicit excellence in others.  This leadership concept is not simply a matter of semantics, but a fundamental shift in perspective.

When you get right down to it, the essence of leadership – the thing that best reflects good leadership – is when a leader is able to bring out the best in others. If a leader is able to elicit excellence from the people around him or her, then that person can truly be deemed great leader.

In order to be a great company, the culture of bringing out the best in others must permeate the entire organization. Let me offer some perspective on how to make that happen. In order to do that, three questions need to be asked and answered.

The first question that needs to be asked is, “Who is the most important person to your company?” (Notice I didn’t ask “in” your company, but rather “to” your company.) The answer, of course, is your customer. No Customers = No Company.

The next question is, “Who is the most important person in your company to your customers?” Clearly the answer is not “the CEO”. No… the most important person to a customer is the person they come in contact with – the “front line”.

And the final question is the one that really drives the leadership point home. Here it is: “What then is the job of the manager of those front line people?” The job of that manager is to bring out the best in the people he or she “manages”. (Read that as “leads”.) The manager must ensure that his team has the training and knowledge they need. She needs to provide the support and environment to allow them to be their best. The whole goal is to make their work as enjoyable, productive, and rewarding as possible.

If this philosophy is taken up one level and applied to the manager of the managers, and then to the leader of the managers, and ultimately to the leader of the leaders one ends up with a servant leader organization. It results in an organizational chart that looks like an inverted pyramid; an organization that acknowledges the importance of the front line and reflects a philosophy of service throughout.

This isn’t simply a theory or a type of feel-good culture that compromises profit and performance. Far from it. It is a practical, proven, and extremely effective approach to conducting business. I can point to three businesses that have embraced a servant leader philosophy and have not only done well, but are out-pacing their competitors by orders of magnitude.

The first example is a relatively small company in Denver. It’s in an industry where many of their competitors are struggling just to survive. However, this company is making a seven-figure profit! The owner has adopted a philosophy of helping those around him to become successful. He applies this philosophy to his employees, his customers and even his vendors. I’ve interviewed the owner and his employees, and found his team to be loyal, enthusiastic, professional, free from stress, and highly productive. The results speak for themselves.

The second example is Frontier Airlines. In an industry plagued by stagnant growth and evaporating profits, this company has adopted a servant leader approach to business and out-paced its competition by leaps and bounds – both in growth and profits. By way of example, when the office closes for a holiday, many of the office staff will go into the field to help the front line folks with the heavy holiday workload. Servant leaders abound within the organization.

The third example is Nucor Steel, which ended up dominating the U.S. steel industry by adopting a servant leader, almost egalitarian, business model. The leadership of the company minimized the perceived differences between the front line and the management/executive team. It became a company that recognized the important role each person plays in the success of the organization.

Adopting a servant leader philosophy can make a tremendous difference in the productivity, growth and profitability of an organization. Bringing out the best in people always yields excellent results. It advances the people doing their best, it advances you as a leader, and it advances the company. This is a smart and savvy approach to business that should be adopted and implemented in any company, no matter what industry or size.

You see… people can’t be “managed”. Things get managed. People get led. It’s not simply a matter of semantics. There’s a fundamental difference between trying to manage agents and effectively leading them. Let’s start by examining how managers attempt to “manage” their agents, and then explore what effective sales leadership looks like.

In a nutshell, we’re managing agents when we try to get them to do things or reach goals that are our own or those of the company. These generally take the form of production or activity goals. There’s nothing wrong with these goals, and your goals along with those of the company are important. But when we try to impose our goals on other people, “management” occurs. We generally sit down with each of our agents and tell them what we want them to achieve.

We might encourage them, offer to mentor them, or even threaten them. But I think you’ll agree that these “management” techniques generally are ineffective. It’s not that your agents turn you away. No… they’ll agree with you and offer to do something beyond what they’ve been doing, but at the end of the day, nothing changes.

This pattern seems to hold true even if you’re running a promotion or conducting year-end goal-setting meetings. Sure, you’ll have a few agents respond to a promotion, but generally the majority of agents don’t respond at all. There’s very little lift in production. The same holds true for year-end “business plans”. Often the plans are credible, do-able, and promise the results you want, but by the end of the year not much has changed. “Managing” agents just doesn’t work.

In the alternative, sales “leadership” is much more effective. There are a number of components to effective sales leadership, but before getting into the specifics, it pays to understand the whole idea of leadership and how it makes a difference. Pretty much everyone agrees that good leadership is important, but very few of the people I’ve asked about it can explain why leadership makes a difference. Over the years, I’ve distilled the purpose and effect of leadership down to one simple sentence.

Effective leadership inspires the best effort in others.

When effective leadership is present, people work to do the best they can, they take pride in being part of the team, and they take pride in advancing. Not only that, but in the presence of effective leadership, people become all those things because they want to, not because they’re being “managed”.

It’s within this concept of inspiring people that the dynamics and strategies of leadership become apparent. Effective sales leadership begins with the “culture” of your sales team. Culture determines how you recruit, who you recruit, and what your new agents’ expectations are. The culture of a team is created by the leader and goes beyond the simple mechanics of what gets done. It defines how things are done and it establishes the character and values of the team, its members, and its leader.

This concept of inspiring leadership is also embodied within the leader. After all, like it or not, we all lead by example – good or bad. An effective sales leader must strive to enhance personal leadership skills and then learn to communicate them effectively. Effectively communicating or projecting oneself as a leader is a study in public relations. Everything that a leader does or says makes an impression.

The final piece to creating inspiring leadership is that of working one-on-one with agents. Having the first two pieces in place (culture and personal presence) can especially leverage this effort. Leading your team to higher production starts by acknowledging an important truth. This truth is that regardless of what your team production goals are, each individual agent has his or her own personal goals. And these goals will determine how much more an agent will be willing to do, if anything. These goals can be spoken or unspoken, acknowledged or unacknowledged. But make no mistake, they exist. Our task, as inspiring leaders, is to bring these goals to the surface, bring them to life, and then help our agents overcome their personal “roadblocks” in order to achieve these goals.

Unfortunately, the reality is that for most agents, other situations also exist. The first situation is that an agent may have given up on their dream. They may have vocalized their dream at one time, but now feel that it’s unattainable. Our job as a leader is to re-kindle the fire of that dream and goal. An adept leader can inspire an agent to once again strive to reach their goal.

The second situation is that an agent may not truly believe they can succeed. Our role as leader is to develop each agent so they can realize their full potential. Leaders develop people.

And the third situation is that regardless of what we’d like for our agents, some agents are satisfied with their present level of accomplishment. No amount of poking, prodding, pleading, or threatening will cause them to change.

An effective leader will avoid attempting to reach their team goals by working with each and every agent. Instead, they’ll identify the agents who have higher aspirations and are open to improvement, and then focus on working with them.

By becoming an inspiring sales leader for your team and your agents, you can have greater impact, accomplish more with less effort, and produce better results – not to mention being looked up to and having a great time.

When a new agent begins working for you, they enter Stage One of their agent life cycle.  They’re brand new, fresh-faced, and eager to succeed.  They soak up all the information and guidance they can from you.  They look to you – Sales Manager, General Manager, District Manager – to help them succeed.  They look up to you as the expert who will steer them through the rough and challenging waters on their path to success in their new business.

During this initial stage – the “Honeymoon” stage – you can do no wrong.  They (hopefully) follow your advice and wisdom, and consequently start seeing their business and their income grow.  This is the period of time when an advisor is most excited, most fearful, and most hopeful.

As their book of business continues to grow (assuming they haven’t quit), they begin to enter Stage Two – the “Independent” stage.  As they enter this second stage of their life cycle, the advisor has been working hard to survive and then to thrive in their business.  They’ve been putting in long hours to meet the company’s production goals, to meet your expectations, and to succeed.

At some point in this second stage, an agent will get to a place where they feel very independent.  They start to feel like they’re the ones who’ve been out in the field, calling on prospects, knocking on doors, getting rejected, and making the sales.  And all the while, you’ve been sitting there, safe in your office, handing down commands and decrees.  And then to add insult to injury, you’re making money off their hard work!

And so, discontent sets in.  The agent or advisor becomes somewhat disgruntled.  They begin to find fault with you, with the company, with the products, and with the service.  They feel, at some level, that your advice is hollow because – after all – they are the ones living and dying in the field while you sit in your office, insulated from “reality”.  And furthermore, the only advice you give is just advice that lines your own pockets; the advice really isn’t for the good of the agents.

Some agents are more vocal than others during this stage, but nevertheless, it causes them to wonder whether they’d be better off striking out on their own.  And this brings them to a crossroads, which leads them into the third stage of an agent’s life cycle.

Stage Three is very interesting, because this is where the path splits, and the consequences vary widely depending on the path chosen.  The first path of this third stage – the path most advantageous to you and your business – is the one where the agent decides that his or her relationship with you is more a partnership than one of adversaries.  The relationship shifts to one of collaboration, cooperation, and sharing of ideas.  An advisor who chooses this path also is certain to treat his or her business as a business.  They will be focused on leveraging time, building systems, and growing income.

The second path taken by some agents is one of agreeability and satisfaction.  These agents will be supportive of you and will be happy to be a part of your team, but unlike those agents on the first path, these agents are pretty happy with the level of success they’ve already achieved and are fine with maintaining the status quo.  They’ll put in some extra effort if you ask them to… but not too much.

In contrast, some agents will take the third path.  This is a path where dissatisfaction and apathy settle in.  The advisor becomes increasingly dissatisfied with his or her situation, but not so unhappy as to leave.  So they settle into a life of negativity and mediocrity.  They live an existence of fault-finding, whining, and complacency.  Their business is more about not failing, rather than one of success and growth.

The fourth path in this third stage is one where the agent’s level of dissatisfaction and their desire for independence rise to a level where they simply leave.  They may jump to another company (“the grass is always greener” syndrome) or they may strike out on their own.  The bottom line is that they leave your team.  It’s especially disheartening if you’ve invested a lot of time, energy and emotion into their success.  This is, obviously, the least desirable outcome of Stage 3.

Clearly, the most desirable outcome is for an agent to pursue the first path – one of collaboration, cooperation, and growth, and the second most desirable outcome is an agent who goes down the second path – one of modest and contented success.  So the question then becomes, “How do you fill your sales team with agents and advisors who pursue the first path or at least the second one?”

The answer is two-fold.  It starts with recruiting the right agents.  One needs to recruit people who have the skills, attitude, and business-owner mindset necessary to succeed.  Finding attracting and selecting the right prospective candidates is an art that can be mastered by anyone… with some guidance, some practice, and some self-discipline.

The second aspect to building a team of advisors who pursue the first path has to do with how well we perform as leaders.  Exceptional leadership inspires the best effort in others.  Unfortunately, elevating one’s leadership competencies is more difficult than it sounds.  It is difficult because we most often act and react unconsciously.  And because we are unconscious of our habits, we are usually “blind” to them.  We’re not consciously aware of our actions and words.  It often takes an outside set of eyes and ears to help us change the habits which affect our leadership effectiveness.  As we refine our leadership competencies, we elevate our ability to inspire our agents, to instill pride and loyalty, to create a vision for our business and our team, and ultimately to improve production.

The bottom line is that by recruiting effectively and honing your leadership skills, you can dramatically improve your agent retention and production.

If you’re frustrated by trying to motivate people, work instead to develop a company where people are self-motivated – where they do things because they want to. When we’re inspired, we enjoy our work, we’re productive, and we’re proud of our efforts. We remain focused and committed to the task at hand. In short, we put forth out best effort.

An organization will attract and retain a team of people dedicated to the success of the organization and its goals when it has a Purpose, a Mission, and a set of Values that it lives by, effectively communicates them throughout the organization, and measures its actions and decisions against them. Let’s define what Purpose, Mission and Values are and talk about the implications of having them clearly defined and embodied in the organization.

Purpose:

Purpose is the “WHY” of the equation. Purpose defines why we do what we do. It defines why we go to work each day. Without purpose, people just go through the motions and as most of us know, there’s a great difference between activity and achievement. Having a purpose creates a yardstick, so to speak, to measure our decisions against. It helps us become passionate, helps us to select among the many options presented to us, helps us make better hiring decisions, and keeps us on track. It’s possible to succeed without a clear purpose, but having one speeds and magnifies the results.

When a company has a clearly defined purpose it begins to act as a magnet, attracting the kind of people who will further the purpose; people who are like-minded. Not only will having a purpose retain the right people, but it will also act to attract them. This is the power behind the success of many not-for-profit organizations. Although they often are unable to pay their staff great sums of money, they continue to attract and retain people who are dedicated and who work hard to achieve the purpose of the organization. While your organization’s purpose may not be as altruistic as a not-for-profit’s purpose, it definitely plays an important, almost critical, role.

How you develop a meaningful purpose? Involve people throughout the organization in order to develop and distill the essence of why your organization exists. Don’t simply rely on the executive team to develop and then dictate the purpose to the group. And certainly don’t rely on an outside company to create your purpose for you! It has been my experience that a well-defined statement of purpose is a single sentence, crafted to capture the essence of “why” the organization exists using as few words as possible and resonating when read or spoken. This brings clarity and energy to it, and makes it much easier to keep in mind when making decisions and policies.

Mission:

Mission is the “WHAT” of the equation. Mission defines what the company does to achieve its Purpose. The better defined a company’s mission is, the easier it is to choose among the many opportunities that will present themselves. A mission – the means to achieve the Purpose – can be fairly narrow or be somewhat broad. However, one that is too narrow can unduly restrict an organization from considering opportunities that would otherwise be an excellent fit, and one that is too broad offers no guidance at all and may cause an organization to spread itself too thin, do a poor job at everything, and essentially dilute its effectiveness.

How do you determine an appropriate mission? Again, remember to involve people throughout the organization to develop and distill the essence of what your organization is about. Don’t simply rely on the executive level to develop and then dictate the mission to the group. Work to strike that balance between clarity and confinement – not too broad, yet not overly restrictive.

Values:

Values are the “HOW” of the equation. Values define how the Mission will be carried out in an effort to achieve the Purpose. They define the “rules of the game”. Some of these values will come to mind quite easily, things like honesty, courtesy, kindness, and ethics. But some other important values will only surface when brainstorming takes place – when different perspectives and voices are heard. Values like authenticity and vulnerability may be placed on the table for consideration. (Which, by the way, are two essential qualities of an exceptional leader.) It doesn’t matter which values are decided upon as being important to the company. What is important however, is that whatever they are, everyone in the company lives by and supports them. It’s important that the policies and decisions of the company are in alignment with them. If the company has an acknowledged list of values it purports to live by and then chooses to ignore them, the list becomes a sore point and acts as a negative reflection of what kind of organization you really lead.

When a company has clearly defined its Purpose, Mission, and Values, then all decisions, policies, and actions will have a measuring stick to keep them on course and you will have an organization which attracts and keeps the best! You’ll create an organizational culture which naturally acts as a magnet to attract and retain like-minded people. And you’ll also have the framework to interview about the things that matter most to you and your organization. No longer will people be hired based solely on technical abilities or simply to fill seats.

Exceptional leadership inspires the best effort in others!