Sales leaders love new ideas.
New messaging.
New tools.
New sequences.
New strategies.
New “this is going to fix everything” initiatives.
Every week, there’s another lightbulb.
And every one of them feels urgent. Important. Necessary.
Sound familiar? You may be shouting SOS to your team.
Shiny Object Syndrome
and SOS is quietly killing your team’s performance.
What SOS Actually Looks Like on Your Team
- Reps constantly adjusting how they sell
- Messaging that changes every few weeks
- Priorities that shift mid-quarter
- Teams that are busy… but not moving forward
This may feels like progress.
From their perspective? It feels like tangled wires, just like in the image. They’re staring up at all the “great ideas” thinking:
Which one actually matters?
Which one will change the trajectory of my month… quarter… year?
How can it possibly make a difference, when next week there is ANOTHER new strategy or tactic to focus on?
Leadership requires you to decide AND stick to:
👉 Which idea matters
👉 What gets ignored
👉 And what the team commits to consistently
Important Safety Tip: If everything is important… nothing is.
The Puzzle You Forgot You’re Building
In Mastering Inside Sales Leadership, Lynn talks about the “picture on the puzzle box.”
That picture?
That’s your vision.
Without it, your team isn’t building anything.
They’re just grabbing random pieces and hoping they fit.
So what happens?
- Reps default to activity instead of intention
- Managers chase metrics instead of outcomes
- Teams grind… without traction
And eventually?
Your best people leave because of: whiplash.
If your team feels scattered…
If execution is inconsistent…
If results swing wildly month to month…
It’s because you haven’t picked a picture or shared it.
Strong Leaders Do Three Things
1. They choose one clear direction: Not five. Not “let’s try this and see.” ONE.
2. They repeat it until it sticks: Daily. Weekly. Relentlessly.
3. They filter everything through it: New idea? Cool. Does it fit the picture? If not it gets thrown out.
Before your next team meeting, ask yourself:
👉 What’s the ONE thing we’re building right now?
If you can’t answer that in one sentence… you’re managing a scattered collection of ideas and your team feels it.