Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions by Keith Rosen

Author:Keith Rosen
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Published: 2010-06-01T20:00:00+00:00

THE PASSIVE MANAGER

Also referred to as Parenting Managers or Pleasing Managers, Passive Managers take the concept of developing close relationships with their sales team and coworkers to a new level. These managers have one ultimate goal: to make people happy. While this is certainly an admirable trait, it can quickly become a barrier to leadership efforts if not managed effectively.

Because all Passive Managers want to do is please, they are more timid and passive in their approach. These managers will do anything to avoid confrontation, and collapse holding people accountable with confrontation and conflict. If Passive Managers hear a concern from a salesperson, rather than viewing this as someone reaching out for assistance or an opportunity to challenge a salesperson and help her grow, Passive Managers take the salesperson’s side without exploring her concerns at a deeper level. The Passive Manager will do anything to appease people.

Persistence is not one of this manager’s strong points. I’d go so far as to say this manager is the master procrastinator. Taking initiative? I don’t think so. The Passive Manager’s ideal strategy is, “Cross your fingers, avoid the problem, and hope it goes away.” These managers have an office right on the beach, just to make it easier for them to stick their heads in the sand.

The Passive Manager’s idea of making a strong suggestion may be sending an e-mail with a web link to an article for you to read, hoping that the support material does the managing. They are more inclined to watch over and protect their salespeople, rather than challenge and empower them.

Passive Managers have a very difficult time holding people accountable for doing their job and, more specifically, reaching their monthly sales quota. Because of their fear of doing so, Passive Managers are reluctant to ask salespeople the tough questions, hold them accountable for the things they said they would do or need to be doing, or attempt to talk to them about their damaging behavior for fear of losing them. Instead, Passive Managers keep it all inside and unexpressed, while watching the unacceptable behavior manifest and tolerating the mediocre performance that spreads like wildfire throughout the entire team. Then comes the greater cost: the decay of a once healthy culture due to the poisoning of the very foundation the company was built on.

Subsequently, these managers make excuses as to why their team isn’t reaching their goals. You’ll often hear them saying things like, “There’s not enough time.” “We don’t have the resources and support we need.” “This is the fault of (accounting, marketing, operations, etc.).”

Leadership isn’t a popularity contest. It’s about getting results. And in the spirit of continued improvement and achieving more with fewer resources, that means it’s not always about the manager looking good or avoiding confrontation. To reinforce this message, I tell every client who’s ever hired me that I am not being paid to be popular. Instead, they are paying me to coach them to do what they haven’t been able to do on their own.

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