Having a great thought to add some personal leadership experience on a blog is fantastic if you actually take the time to share. I am not sure if the mood struck me this morning to get back to the blog or if it was the historic changes that occured yesterday, but anyway I decided to put some thoughts out.
We are living in amazing times and times that our grandchildren will read about in the history books. Times that we will one day look back on and say, " I remember when....". As many of you are leading your team into the final quarter of the year I know each of you are facing some daunting tasks. Finding ways to build or stay afloat is increasingly becoming more difficult. While my business remains upbeat and we are still producing great results I still fear that the bubble could burst at anytime.
I think that it is important to stick to the fundamentals of leadership. If you have already built a team then circle the wagons and pull the team closer. If you are attempting to build a team focus on the basics of communication and credibility. These will be critical in the foundation of your team and organization.
Make sure that you are putting the goals in front of your team each week. It doesn't matter what the goals are it only matters that people know what they are and where they stand. Next increase your accountability of the mechanisms your have put in place to drive these goals. If you are looking to increase membership then hold your people accountable for that goal. If you are looking to a specific sales hold them accountable to that number. Break these goals down into small daily goals when possible. Always communicate where they stand. I know that most of this sounds simple, but many times we needed to be reminded of the simple things.
Well as with most of you my day is starting and the phone is ringing and people are walking in. I need to remind myself to tell you about the joy of cards.
I hope each of you have a awesome day.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Stupid Leadership
I am guessing that in a first post I should be writing something that is catchy and amazing. However, my children are asking me all sorts of questions and I am not sure I have the answers to them.
I wanted to spread my thoughts and beliefs on leadership. I am currently the leader of an amazing sales team of over 40 plus agents. I am not sure that I think of myself as a leader because we are just a great team. I guess in the end though I am responsible for our sales. Those sales need to exceed 4 million dollars this year. No small number. I have been in this position for over a year now and I wish I had started this blog from the beginning. It seems that over the last year I could have shared some pretty informative stories. Let me give you some back ground. We have increased our sales by 95% to this point and had a 175% increase in new accounts. This sales organization did 2.6 million dollars last year and as of right now have done 2.2 million with the rest of the 3rd quarter and 4th quarter to go. What is the most amazing part of it all is that I have made no changes in the existing sales management. We have done it with the same team that was in place last year, minus the person I replaced.
I have been spending a lot of time reflecting on what we have done to accomplish these amazing results. Keeping in mind most of this has been done in a less than impressive economy. I refuse to be a part of the current recession talk. I am like most of you reading this and I have been to all the leadership meetings and read many books about leadership. In fact I have my advanced degree in leadership. I began to wonder what book, class, or conference had made the biggest impact? I am not so sure that there is just one silver bullet. I love to learn, but typically I come back refreshed with a million ideas and implement several and none ever last with any real impact. I bet none of you have ever done that, just look in your files that are full of five points to success and other great stuff.
What I would like to do in this blog is point out the few ideas that I think are key points to growing a great team. These points can be used in any team setting including and not limited to church, volunteer organizations, sales force, family, and office settings. Along the way I am going to want to share with you the day to day experiences that me and my team go through.
I hope that you enjoy and take time to read and provide input. I can assure all of you that read that it is important to learn from one another.
I wanted to spread my thoughts and beliefs on leadership. I am currently the leader of an amazing sales team of over 40 plus agents. I am not sure that I think of myself as a leader because we are just a great team. I guess in the end though I am responsible for our sales. Those sales need to exceed 4 million dollars this year. No small number. I have been in this position for over a year now and I wish I had started this blog from the beginning. It seems that over the last year I could have shared some pretty informative stories. Let me give you some back ground. We have increased our sales by 95% to this point and had a 175% increase in new accounts. This sales organization did 2.6 million dollars last year and as of right now have done 2.2 million with the rest of the 3rd quarter and 4th quarter to go. What is the most amazing part of it all is that I have made no changes in the existing sales management. We have done it with the same team that was in place last year, minus the person I replaced.
I have been spending a lot of time reflecting on what we have done to accomplish these amazing results. Keeping in mind most of this has been done in a less than impressive economy. I refuse to be a part of the current recession talk. I am like most of you reading this and I have been to all the leadership meetings and read many books about leadership. In fact I have my advanced degree in leadership. I began to wonder what book, class, or conference had made the biggest impact? I am not so sure that there is just one silver bullet. I love to learn, but typically I come back refreshed with a million ideas and implement several and none ever last with any real impact. I bet none of you have ever done that, just look in your files that are full of five points to success and other great stuff.
What I would like to do in this blog is point out the few ideas that I think are key points to growing a great team. These points can be used in any team setting including and not limited to church, volunteer organizations, sales force, family, and office settings. Along the way I am going to want to share with you the day to day experiences that me and my team go through.
I hope that you enjoy and take time to read and provide input. I can assure all of you that read that it is important to learn from one another.
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