Usually when I meet with GTM/Sales Leaders I’m teaching a masterclass. When I sat down with my friend Parm Uppal for a few hours (and a few pints:) I was the student. . .
At one point, Parm and I were talking about what it takes to build a high-performance culture and he shared with me a profound insight I thought I’d pass along to you.
He said, “Whenever I hire someone, one of the first things I says to them is, I’ll never ask you to do something I won’t show you how to do, first.”
We then proceeded to do a deep dive discussion into the The Development Cycle. Here’s the framework:
STAGE 1: TELL
– Tell your people what they need to do (or process they need to follow) to be successful
STAGE 2: SHOW
– Don’t assume they know HOW to do it, show what “good” looks like
STAGE 3: OBSERVE
– Close the loop to proactively observe them and/or assess the results via Leading Indicators (LIs) then probe deeper to get the facts
STAGE 4: FEEDBACK
– Give them the specific feedback they need to improve next time
STAGE 5: REINFORCE
– Stay engaged to assess the outcome and positively reinforces short-term victories and celebrate publicly / privately
Parm said, whenever I asks a rep to do something for the first time, I’ll immediately show them HOW to do it.
Then I’ll observe them and track the results via LIs and it always results in one of three outcomes: They’re either going to do it, not do it, or do it average.
The next time I’ll close the loop and say for example, “Hey mate, can you show me your Value Pyramid for XYZ company?”
“It’s either going to come back brilliantly or it’s going to come back shit. If it comes back shit, coach them by giving them the feedback they need to improve.”
A lot of managers TELL their people what to do and stop there because they assume their people know HOW to do it.
Good managers may TELL and SHOW them, but more times than not they’re like “I’ve told them what to do and even showed them how to do it—and they’re still not doing it!”
So Parm will say, “Mate, did you ever close the loop to observe them to assess the results and see how they did?”
9 times out of 10 the answer is no.
NET-NET:
Most managers TELL…
Good mangers SHOW…
Good coaches OBSERVE & PROVIDE FEEDBACK
World-class Coaches do everything else—AND POSITIVELY REINFORCE SHORT-TERM VICTORIES & DESIRED BEHAVIORAL CHANGE
As Parm said, “If someone has done a great job on PGing or something I’ll send that to the whole team and say look at what this person did… it’s f*ing brilliant. Well done!”
When you reinforce that publicly and privately, two things happen…
The rep starts to feel more comfortable in their skin and gain confidence…
More importantly, they start to trust that you’ve got their back because this development process validates the first sentence I told them when I hired them…
I’ll never ask you to do anything I won’t show you how to do.”
In a word, STRONG.
