A sales manager’s role is to help strengthen the capabilities of his salespeople. Therefore, taking responsibility for solving their problems diminishes their growth possibilities. This is not to say that there are sometimes exceptions, but there are few.
A sales manager must also be a leader. Caring about your salespeople’s problems and demonstrating empathy is important, but different than becoming highly engaged in the specific issues and resolves. When a manager allows himself to become immersed in other’s problems, it sends a message to the rest of the sales team that if there is a problem, the manager will solve it. That takes away from the team’s leadership development. After all, salespeople should be being groomed to succeed as leaders themselves. Solving other’s problems also detracts from the manager’s priorities of overall managing. It diminishes the effectiveness of the entire team because it sets an example that says, “If you have problems, you can send them to me.”
There is a better way to help your salespeople grow and develop so they can handle their own challenges. To begin with, the manager must develop each member of the sales team to function both independently, yet as a team, enabling them to draw upon one-another’s strengths as well as their own. When a sales team functions at its highest level, the team helps solve the big problems, not one individual alone. Yet it other instances, the individual salesperson grows stronger by finding his own resolve. The manager must apply strong delegation skills, which means the manager must be highly aware of each team member’s capabilities and gradually delegate at levels that enable them to grow. It is also important for the manager to be a coach to each individual salesperson, personalizing their individual growth needs in a coaching versus mentoring manner. And, the manager must encourage his team to function as a team, helping one another when the situation calls for it.
Finally, managers must care enough to take the time to evaluate the realities of each individual on the sales team and to tell the truth to each individual about their capabilities so that they understand why they are not given respective accounts or responsibilities that are not best suited to their attributes and skills. The manager must also recognize that within the team there are differently skilled individuals and therefore it is the manager’s responsibility to manage each and delegate to them accordingly. From time to time there will be an exception; say in the case of a salesperson who incurs a unique family tragedy or illness or some type of personal issue that requires special consideration. Yet, even here, it is important for the manager to guide the help and not become the resolve.
When a sales manager is also a leader he recognizes when to manage and when to lead and when he takes control of any of his salespeople’s personal challenges, he fails to use that situation as a vehicle to develop that individual’s leadership skills. That then becomes a sales manager’s failure and he slips into the role of an enabler. Don’t let that happen to you  |
