Plant floor Leaders - giving praise

With the plant floor leaders we are coaching (a.k.a. supervisor) it is a real struggle to catch someone doing something right and giving them the appropriate feedback praise. I have told them to use the One Minute Manager five penny approach. The one floor leader reported that he was thinking of praising someone as he drove into work, he did praise them then the day's challenges surfaced and he forgot all about praising. Why is praising so difficult in US businesses? How else can we break this trend?

Plant Floor Leadership

It is always great to hear feedback that the coaching is working. A plant manager reported that during a discussion with a plant floor leader concerning re-assigning him from the day shift to the second shift (3:00pm to 1:30am) the plant floor leader asked, "what is your expectations of me on the second shift?" It seems my focus on coaching them to: set goals, responsibilities and performance expectations is getting through!

Emotions: being a sales team leader

One of the sales team leaders I am coaching remarked that she always tries to keep emotions out of the equation when working with her sales team: just focusing on data and facts. It is interesting that we have tons of books, webinars, programs, etc on emotional intelligence beginning with Goldman's book in 1995; yet the leaders and managers I am coaching are uncomfortable consciously integrating emotions into the workplace. Maybe that is why they need coaching!

revenue vs number of contacts - lots of discussion

I posted the question of revenue vs number of contacts (see blog of 5-3) on several linked in groups - over 40 responses. Other than the usual off-track comments by some that either didn't read my original post, didn't understand it, or just wanted to promote their programs, the comments seemed just about evenly divided between measuring number of contacts and revenue. The challenge is to link some type of measurable performance to the revenue expectations; my perception is the organization I am coaching doesn't know the "numbers" as potential clients move thru the sales funnel.

Measure value based selling behaviors, # of contacts of revenue?

A recent client established an arbitrary contact level for his value based sales representatives; 15 contacts on existing customers per week to retain business, 25 contacts with prospects to attract new business. First, I feel 40 contacts on a weekly basis is too much; especially if they are to be face-to-face and have some content. But this is a measurement of activity that many sales organizations focus on and I agree that all sales is a numbers game - the more you contact the more business you will get. There is also a monthly revenue objective that includes annualized revenue to retain a client and the dollar value of new business. In my opinion this is quantity vs quality of sales visits. There must be a critical mass of client and prospect contact but 40 seems arbitrary and would produce more of a "howdy call". How would your sales force react if you told them, "I don't care how many calls you make, as long as you make the revenue target."

Team Leader - formal and informal network

A Manufacturing shop leader, previously known as the manufacturing manager, was having a difficult time getting action from the set-up committee he chaired. Our review first revealed a committee of 15; too much political overtones in this size committee meeting. We then constructed the formal hierarchical structure of the committee (with him at the top) and the informal structure: where the influencing and deciding elements really are in the committee. We discovered that one of the engineers was the key in getting agreement from sub-groups like the set-up team, maintenance group and training coordinators. Now he is observing every committee to discover the informal structure.

Sales coaching - is it worth it?

I have been asked to coach a sales manager that is leading a team selling a commodity level service to commercial and industrial accounts. The skill assessment profile from three of her four sales reps. feel she either needs improvement or is weak in 14 out of 15 skills they deemed very important for a sales manager. She rated her performance in the same areas as competent to strong. My concern is that even if she morphed into a Tom Izzo level coach, they would not be open minded to accept her new behaviors. And my reputation as a coach that gets results could be diminished. A real challenge, will have a conversation with her regional VP about my concerns.