Stop Laying Down the Law
If you want to see a classic example of ‘laying down the law,’ Google ‘Alec Baldwin Glengarry Glenross,’ and indulge in a bit of guilty pleasure.
We talked with Michael, a manager who reported that his salespeople were very motivated, and that he always paid lots of attention to them.
Later, we met with three of his salespeople who said they were close to quitting! “Michael ties us up every Friday for three hours. He micromanages us and we can’t stand it.” In fact, Michael would call his staff in the evening, waking them up and getting them out of bed! He thought he was doing a great job - they thought he was a jerk.
Sales managers get frustrated - some more quickly than others. Most will get there eventually, because they care about performance and doing well.
Sales managers around the world tell us they are frustrated by underperformance:
Promising hires that turn out to be duds
Pipelines that trickle instead of flow
People lying through their teeth
Poor attitude and laziness on the team
Politics driving policy
Procedures not being followed
Prima donnas and sandbaggers…anyone who embraces the art of mediocrity
You get tired of being disappointed, tired of losing, tired of feeling used, and so you toughen up and lay down the law. You can become dictatorial, authoritarian, directive, demanding, and unsympathetic – all in an effort to tighten up a loose ship.
You’ve kicked butt, taken names, and whittled people down to size. Let’s admit it, it feels pretty darn good to cut loose.
If and when you do this, you will see some short-term results. People do change behavior when they feel scared, threatened, or intimidated.
However, they also feel resentful – really resentful - at being treated that way. And when people resent the way you’re behaving, they will always get even. They may appear to accept your behavior, but inside they will be plotting revenge. People will start slow-walking you. They will lie to you by padding sales reports, giving margin away, and filling the pipeline with garbage so they can avoid your wrath.
Then, they’ll start dodging you, keeping as low a profile as possible. They stop coming to you with their problems. They won’t tell you the truth anymore because you can’t be trusted to hear bad news without being reactive. You’ll be feared, but not respected.
And, because you’re not hearing bad news anymore, you will think everything’s working!
Worse yet, you’ll start finding yourself surrounded by other people who think being tough is the way managers have to be. This just reinforces your bullying behavior. You’ll become a legend – they’ll be talking about you and your buddies for a long time to come.
But eventually, after you’ve kept this up for a while the cracks begin to show. You come to realize you have less reliable data to run your team. Certain deals begin to slip and never cross the line. You miss targets. You lose a key man because he’s had enough of your new style. Team spirit fades to a distant memory. You incur more staff turnover. Your employee satisfaction scores tank and, when you look over your shoulder, HR is on your tail.
We think you’re smarter than this. You know where this is going. Unless you’re sociopathic, you don’t really enjoy being a jerk. Most sales managers we know actually feel badly after giving into bullying behavior. It works on their conscience, which is probably a good thing.
Guilt can eat you alive and, eventually, you will come to your senses and conclude that being a bully is not the answer - it’s not how you want to be. You know innately that people will respond better to a human than a tyrant.
But don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. You’ve been willing to do the hard thing and stand up for a standard of work and an ethic of no compromise. That’s a very good thing.
It’s just that you will be that much more effective if you can uphold the standards without resorting to intimidation, posturing, and tough-ness.
So, how do you do this without flipping to the opposite side and ‘being understanding’ and living on hope that people will change.
First, stop laying down the law. Enough is enough. Then, start doing this:
Sit down with a person you’ve been particularly tough on (or whom you are about to be tough on).
Calmly, but directly and without apology, tell him exactly what he’s doing or not doing that frustrates you.
Then, discuss assumptions and conclusions: first yours, then his.
Tell him what you are assuming and concluding about his behavior – what you are thinking about him that is irritating and concerning you.
Then ask for his assumptions and conclusions – about his work and about you and your management.
Now you have some new information to work with. Use it to agree how both of you will behave in the future. Come up with a few concrete steps to put into action.
Set a date to review how well the agreement is working.
Get great at confronting ineffective and undesirable behavior before you reach the stage of exploding. This is a challenge worthy of your strength. Initially, you’ll likely feel more unsteady than comfortable. Without your tough posturing, you’re going to feel a bit unprotected. But you can handle it. If you stay the course, we think you will be pleased with your results.