What disappoints you most about your team?
Bobblehead Podcast - A podcast by Bobblehead Media
Categories:
As leaders, we can quickly point to our people if things don't go as planned. However, as leaders we need to examine how we could have instructed better, been more deliberate with mentoring and helped our team perform better. On today’s episode, Access EForms COO Davin Marceau sits down with VP of Sales Mike Kelley for a discussion on owning your mistakes and what disappoints you about your team. See more from Access EForms in the show notes below: (1:08) Having reflected on the past year, there have been many changes in your team, in your business and in the market. (1:22) COO Davin Marceau asks the question, what disappoints you most about your team, a rather deep topic. (2:02) VP of Sales Mike Kelley admits there may be things that he is disappointed about, however when we examine the things they really are things we'd like to change about ourselves. (3:12) VP of Sales Mike Kelley gives a real-life example of parking his car on one side of the street, then walking up one side and then go up the other side. The grind and discipline for sales folks reinforces how important the mechanics and work ethic associated with the numbers game that is sales. (5:15) COO Davin Marceau shares the reality that when you examine the workload, a high volume of calls doesn't always equate to a larger conversion or high revenue number. (6:41) VP of Sales Mike Kelley shares the frustration and disappointment when folks that blindly do the work, but rather leave the learning component to your work, you have wasted time. (7:49) He continues to share, a "tag" section within the CRM they leverage in order to share how to efficiently surface the detail within the account and train someone how to notice the details, if they take the time. (9:32) Marketing leads aren't free. So, understanding the value of each phone call and each email can help to bring into focus the importance of the details as a producer. (10:29) VP of Sales Mike Kelley shares a personal story of how taking a short cut worked against him and his son. (11:12) Mike continues to share how when you change your focus as a producer, the ability to pay attention to the details AND analyze the way to adequate run a territory. (12:25) "Don't rush to failure." - COO Davin Marceau summarizes what he's heard from Mike. (13:01) VP of Sales Mike Kelley admits that he's got plenty of room to improve when it comes to the standard he believes to be the most important for success on his team. (13:58) Being able to take critical feedback from your team, from your mentors, and deliver consistent results challenges each member of the producer side of the house to be better in their interactions. (14:58) VP of Sales Mike Kelley talks about the need to understand the difficult things to do, like inputing data into the CRM, still need to be done rather than only work in the areas of your strengths. (16:12) COO Davin Marceau shares that the need for training and effort before they're on the field, because we always default to our lowest level of preparation. (17:14) Industry materials for each of the stakeholders can help increase the quality of your performance, however, you'll still need to be in the field and in front of customers. That's where your willingness to do the hard work, when it's not convenient, will help you move forward. (18:16) There's no such thing as bad teams. Only bad leaders. COO Davin Marceau talks through a story that Jocko Willink (former Navy SEAL) talks about a training evolution on the value of leading by example. (19:44) If you're disappointed about the performance of your team, as a leader, you need to understand that is a reflection of you. (21:21) COO Davin Marceau admits he could have put his team in a much better position if he had empowered his team. It resulted in a change in how he positioned the team and his willingness to ask his team to "lead him" and being willing to share the hard things to say. (23:15) The services team example serves as an great lesson on the organizations opportunity for growth. The leaders's responsibility is to be more open and transparent, therefore making it less challenging to lead up the chain of command. (23:48) A diverse group of talent and people can produce a hard situation for people to navigate. However, that's where a group can have open and honest conversations with each other, that increases your chances of success. (25:04) When you as a junior leader don't share the information with your leader, you don't align them with the best strategic outcome or put them in the best position to win. (26:10) A real life example that VP of Sales Mike Kelley shares is when he approaches a customer incentive example to operator of the company. That scenario comes with it the financial projections, the impact on the bottom line, as well as the potential outcomes, so the operator can make the best strategic decision. (27:07) Mike and Davin share a laugh about how off-track they got as a result of examining what they were disappointed in their team about, and the conversation turned into how they were really disappointed in their performance as leaders and what they will change going forward. Subscribe and Follow to Maintain the “Leadership Mindset” Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AccessEFM/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/Access_eforms Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessefm/ On today's episode: Mike Kelley, VP of Sales, Access EForms Davin Marceau, COO, Access EForms - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davinmarceau/